Cadettes, Seniors and Ambassadors from Troops 9065, 9261 and 9305 travelled to Atlanta, GA on March 16th to enjoy Medieval Times Scout Day. But that wasn't the only reason they travelled to Atlanta. After Medieval Times the group had planned a visit to one of the local Ronald McDonald Houses. The three troops collected pop can tabs and items from the RMHC wishlist and created several baskets to donate to the organization. As part of their Care to Share donation, the troops also donated 2 cases of cookies.

Upon arrival at the house, the group was greeted by Ms. Mary Beth.  Ms. Mary Beth provided information and a tour of the facility. She also provided the group a special meeting with a very special person, an 8-year-old girl named LaMiya. LaMiya, her mother and baby sister were residents. Ms. Mary Beth said she told LaMiya of our visit and that she couldn't wait to meet us, but we were not aware of meeting LaMiya.  After hearing her story, there was not one dry eye in the group. We were moved by LaMiya's big smile and the brightness of her big brown eyes. Tracey Brown, Co-leader of Troop 9065 said this was her 3rd trip she had arranged to a RMHC and had never met a resident before, so this was quite a nice surprise to everyone.

The troop was not aware of LaMiya's birthday was the next day, March 17th and wanted to give her a special birthday gift. After quick thinking, the troop came up with a solution, Jennifer Asiatico, Co-leader of Troop 9065 had purchased a crown from Medieval Times and that would be her special birthday gift. The group sang Happy Birthday to LaMiya and presented her with her special crown to make her princess for her special day. LaMiya was so very happy and she shared a story about her boyfriend and she even danced for us to a Justin Bieber song. When she finished her dance, it was time for us to leave. LaMiya made sure she hugged everyone in the group as we said our good-byes. Before we loaded into our vehicles, we gathered together and Tracey Brown, stated this is what Girl Scouts is all about and makes it so worthwhile. As the group drove away,  LaMiya came outside to wave a last good-bye.

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What a great idea to combine a fun event with community service!  Your quick thinking gave LaMiya a birthday she will always remember!

Allyson, Annabelle, Angelina, Brennan, Claire, Erica, Hope, Josie, Kate, Katy, Madison, and Tyler, all of Troop 9327, love animals!  Under the guidance of their Troop Leader, Lisa Harden, the Junior Scouts chose this project as their Bronze Award project. The Brownie Scouts completed some parts of it as the Take Action Project for their Journey and to earn their Brownie Pets badge.   But mostly, they did this project to help the animals.

In a joint interview, the girls shared all the details.  Read on for their great ideas and activities.

What did you do? We went to orientation and were trained as Montgomery Humane Shelter Junior Volunteers club members. The first time we all volunteered at the Shelter we walked dogs, washed puppies, cleaned pet cages and litter boxes, and rolled newspaper. The second time we all volunteered we made vaccination kits for cats and rolled newspaper. We also volunteered in small groups and walked dogs. In meetings, we sewed cat toys in the shape of mice, baked dog treats, made fleece tied beds, made dog chew toys out of strips from old t-shirts, and make disposable litter boxes. We also made a poster explaining volunteering and what the shelter needs for donations. Some of our troop presented the poster at our school's honor society meeting. We paid for our supplies from our cookie sale proceeds. We also donated shredded paper, dog food, and other supplies.

When did this take place? We started this project in October of 2012 and finished in March of 2013.

Where did this happen? We volunteered at the Montgomery Humane Shelter, we made things at our regular Girl Scout meeting place, we baked dog treats in a kitchen, and we raised cookie proceeds at a booth sale.

Your Favorite Part of this Project?

We really liked making things for the animals, walking and bathing dogs, playing with cats, and making vaccination kits.

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Congratulations to the girls of Troop 9327 -- you are truly Girl Scouts who make the world a better place! 

Lisa and Sophie, of Troop 7098, earned their Silver Awards. Their project was making and installing 40 plant posts that will be used to identify plants at the Louise Kreher Forest Ecology Preserve in Auburn. We are extremely proud of these two girls who designed, got the material donations, built and installed the posts, which are a wonderful addition to the facility.

We interviewed Lisa and Sophie about their project:

How did you come up with your idea?  

Sophie: I told Lisa about working at the summer camp they do there every year and we both thought it would be fun to do a project there, so we contacted Mrs. Jen Lolly and started our project.

Lisa:I started eliminating things I didn't want to do and I came across the Forest Ecology Preserve.

Were you intimidated by the scale of the project? 

Sophie:  A little bit. At first you do not think that 50 hours of work is that much, but after working for what seems like a very long time and you relieze that you have only added up to 10 hours it starts to get intimidating.

Lisa:A little bit. I knew I had the rest of the year. We broke it up into different steps and just went through them one at a time.

 How did you keep up the momentum for the project? 

Sophie: Just the thought of what it would be when we are done :)

Were you ever discouraged? 

Sophie:  Just a tiny bit towards the end. When we still had a lot of hours to fill in and not much time to do so.

Lisa:A little bit at the end because we had to start thinking of deadlines.

What did you do to overcome that?

Sophie: We started working longer and harder

Lisa:I just remembered that it was almost over.

How will people benefit from this?  

Sophie: People will be able to identify plants easier, maybe to the point to where they are as familiar with the plants as with the McDonalds sign!

Lisa:  People will benefit from these because they will have the information right then and there without having to do much more then look at the sign.

How did you feel after you finished?

Sophie: It felt great that we had done such a huge project that the community would benefit from.

Lisa:  It felt like a job well done and I could take a break.

Thanks, Lisa and Sophie, for sharing your process with us!

Do you have a Bronze, Silver, or Gold Award story that you would like to share?  We especially want to hear what girls have to say about their award process.  Please contact communications@girlscoutssa.org.  We would love to feature it on our Girl Blog!

Want to learn more about girls' award experience, or meet potential community partners?  Attend the  Leadership Celebration event on April 13, 2013.

Simone is a Girl Scout Junior in Troop 9151 and is excited about earning money to go on a troop trip with her friends by selling cookies. She feels that going on trips with a group of her friends would not be possible if she did not sell cookies. Simone says, "When you sell cookies, you get to tell people what you think. It gives you courage to ask questions and be out with other people."

Simone has set a cookie goal of 2,000 boxes which will earn her the pearl pendant necklace that she admires. She didn't meet her 2,000 boxes goal last year. But says she wants to challenge herself again this year because "you never know what you can do until you do it."

Program credits can be used within GSSA for Summer Resident Camp, event fees, and shop purchases.  It can also be used for approved Destinations and Girl Scout National Membership Dues.

Congratulations to Hannah J. of Troop 7220, Silver W. of Troop 9418, BriAnna B. of Troop 9210, Janna D. of Troop 8015, and Sydney G. of Troop 9395.

You're AWESOME!

The name of our Girl Scout Junior Bronze Award Project is "YES PAL!"  That stands for "Your Emergency Supplies for People and Animals Locally." The project fits the name. 

The Juniors of troop 7098 in Auburn, Al, made 100 shoeboxes with emergency supplies. Some of the supplies included were water bottles, toothbrushes, a list of local vets, canned pet food, emergency contact numbers, brochures on what to do in case of an emergency, stuffed animals, a water-proof bag for important documents and a mini first-aid kit. We wanted to make our community aware of what to do in case of an emergency for themselves and for their pets. We knew this need was important after our area had a tornado come through in Auburn. We had the opportunity to meet with people at the EMA, the Red Cross and our local Lee County Humane Society. We had great fun helping our community, working together as team and earning our Bronze Award.

The Junior girls that made this effort happen are 7 sweet girls and 2 amazing leaders. They are Analia, Eden, Sadie Lynne, Sydney, Naomi, Caroline and Jessica. Our extremely helpful leaders are Betsy Stallworth and Melinda Stewart.

We learned that with a team you have to work together and if you do anything is possible!! Once we made our 100 boxes we distributed them around our community. We gave them to each family in our troop, to the East Alabama Community Market, The Humane Society, and other local neighborhoods and organizations.

Our Bronze Award was overall a great success and helped our community. It was an amazing experience for our whole group!

My week at Kamp Kiwanis was great! My friends and I enjoyed so many fun activities like arts and crafts, boating, nature, archery, swimming, singing camp songs, and banana boating. My favorite activities were probably boating, archery, and banana boating.  It's hard to choose which activities were my favorites because I enjoyed them all.

The session I signed up for at camp was called Night Owls. We got to stay up later than all of the other campers doing fun night activities.  We went night swimming, hiking in the dark, and stargazing. I really liked going night swimming. It was great!

While at camp, my group completed some badge work. We worked on the Cadette Girl Scout Way badge. One of the requirements was to throw a party for an adult Girl Scout volunteer. We worked hard to throw a surprise party for Bossy, the camp director. It was really fun! We planned activities for all of the other girls to do and even baked cookies. The party was awesome!

Overall, my stay at Kamp Kiwanis was great! I made new friends while doing some of my favorite outdoor activities. We all had so much fun and I can't wait to go back next year!