Service Projects and Meetings Underway

We have already had 3 meetings and been involved in 4 service projects in less than 2 months.

Shoes
The church where I have been visiting with one of my best friends (and co-leader) supported a shoe drive for the Shoe Bank.  We decided to get our girls involved, and with little notice, our girls donated between 25 and 30 pairs of shoes.  The adult shoes will be shared in our Metroplex, and the children's shoes will be sent to Haiti.

Household Items
We are participating in the Goodwill Good Turn service opportunity. Each girl has been asked to bring 2 trash bags full of household items to donate.  This can be clothes, towels, bed linens, dishes, pots/pans, and so much more. About half of our girls have participated, so I have bags and bags of items that I will be donating next weekend.

Exercise, Phantom Energy, and Food Items
Last year we participated in 9-10-11, so this year, we chose to participate in the 10-11-12 initiative.  10--We discussed exercise and being healthy as they got involved in 30 minutes of exercise for 10 days.  This also tied into the Juniors' Get Moving! Journey.
11--To go along with Girl Scouts Going Green, we discussed saving energy.  The girls had to find 11 items in their homes that are plugged in but are not turned on and then unplug them.  These items are using phantom energy. There is a light on, a clock showing, or something else showing they are plugged in but not on.  They are still using electricity even though they are not being used for their actual function.
12--Each girl was asked to donate 12 non-perishable food items that we will then donate to the local Food Pantry. 48 items are ready to go.  We are hoping for a few more items before I donate them next week.

Grocery Shopping
The church where I have been visiting has "adopted" 3 needy families.  Each month, someone at the church goes shopping for each family to purchase $100 worth of food and household necessities. Our girls met us at our local store to do the shopping last weekend. We discussed cost per unit/item, best price, store brands, and so much more.  They had to keep up with what each item cost and get a total of what we were spending.  They also subtracted to see how much we had left when making or decisions.

Meetings
Our 2nd meeting of the year was spent on Journey work and voting on whether or not to spend the night at the zoo or aquarium.  We were very democratic in our voting system. While we wanted to spend the night at the zoo, the girls voted to spend the night at the aquarium, so we will be doing that in the spring.  We are trying to set-up a workshop at the zoo.

Our 3rd meeting was spent with more fun/fellowship than before, so we did not get to our Journey work.  However, we are going camping in about 3 weeks, so we spent a lot of time discussing our camping list and what we will be doing that weekend.


What is your troop doing this fall?

Kicking Off a New Year

We held our first meeting of the 2012-2013 year this past Friday night.  We met with Brownie parents as the girls brainstormed what they want to do this year.  The girls enjoyed a dinner of soft tacos, chips/dip, and fruit while chatting about their first week in school and what they did this summer.  After dinner, we discussed their ideas. Camping, archery, and skating (roller and ice) were at the top of their list.  We already have a camping trip planned that includes archery, so two down and two to go. :-)  While we met with Junior parents, the girls created foam picture frames as their craft.  All in all, it was a good meeting to get us started.

What did you do during your first meeting?
What do you have on your schedule for the year?

We are about to launch a troop website.  Any pointers?
It will be private and only viewable to those we invite.  Privacy is huge with me.  I've been uploading pictures from last year before sending it to everyone. We hope that it will help with reminders and other valuable information. We'll see how it goes.