Street Fair Year 2! Operation: Face Painting!

Last weekend I was asked to volunteer and face paint at my local street fair! Despite the rainy weather, I grabbed my standard-issue GSA vest and set off for my next Girl Scout adventure!

If you've been following my Blog, you may recall that I presented my project and GSA info at the street fair last year! Community functions are great places to display GSA projects, hand out fliers, and spread the word about an issue you are trying to address.

At the fair, another Scout and I set up a small table and some neon signs advertising our face-painting booth.

For those of you working on your Gold Award or any other project, here's anothser useful tip-people love free stuff! (and food, but we'll talk about that bit later). 

Whenever we drew a heart on a kid's hand or a spiderman mask on a face, the parents would offer to pay us-they were all impressed when we told them that we were painting for fun! After word spread of our free face-painting, more and more kids came to us for our painting services! :)

Everyone was interested to hear about how we were Girl Scouts. The face-painting was a great way to promote Scouting and show how cool we are!

Next time you go to a community event to show off a project or set up a booth or something, consider bringing along a set of face-paint or a small craft. Kids love to get involved-especially if you find a way to make an educational experience fun! For example, if you are trying to teach people about the dangers of pollution in the ocean, enlist an artistic friend's help and have her paint sea creatures on people's hands while you explain how plastic bags destroy the ecosystem of Fiji or something of the like!
There are tons of ways to get people interested in your cause, you just have to remember to think outside of the box!

All in all, it was a truly successful (and fun-filled!) day. :)

Before I sign off, I'd like to give all of you a quote to think about from one of my favorite authors:


“Not knowing you can't do something, is sometimes all it takes to do it.” ~Ally Carter

An example of my painting expertise haha. From top to bottom-sunshine, heart, peace sign, and butterfly. :) 

~ Gold Girl Allie

Fourth Of July Parade 2013!

It has been over a year that I have been helping with parades and other events with Girl Scouts! Last month, I helped coordinate/marched in my local Fourth of July Parade! It was the last parade that I will help to put together as the official local Girl Scout Parade Chair-and it was awesome!

Necklaces with GSA info attached that the Girls and I handed out-they were a big hit!

Last year, when I began my campaign to increase the amount of Girls attending local parades in order to promote Girl Scouting and show off our organization to the community, we only had 3 or 4 Girl Scouts marching in our 4th of July Parade. Since Girl Scout troops do not generally do many activities in the summer, we don't usually have a large turn-out for this particular parade. However, this year we had almost 30 Girl Scouts marching!

It took lots of fliers, e-mails, meetings, blog posts, texts, and phone calls to get this far, but I have successfully achieved one of my many Gold Award Goals-to increase GSA parade attendance in my community! If you are reading this right now, I want to encourage you to march in your own parades! Everyone loves to see the Girl Scouts out and about, and there's a certain sense of pride that comes with donning your uniform and walking with your GSA sisters!

The parade, as always, was so much fun! There were tons of American flags, smiling faces, and laughter! I will definitely be marching with the Girl Scouts again after I come home from my freshman year of college next year!

On a different note, I want to encourage all of you readers out there to set plenty of goals in life. Remember:

“Shoot for the moon. Even if you miss, you'll land among the stars.”-Les Brown

 

Oh, and here's a picture of the car that was in front of us at the parade-that guy on top of the pick-up truck cab played "Star Wars" and "The Star-Spangled Banner" on the bagpipes for the entirety of the parade. He rocked, and we all enjoyed the interesting music! :)

 ~Gold Girl Allie :) 

Gold Award Ceremony! :D

Tonight I will finally receive my Gold Award!!!!! I can't believe it! It's taken several years, a lot of energy, time and hard work for me to earn the highest honor in Girl Scouting!

I would like to congratulate the 9 other seniors in my school that have earned their Gold Awards as well! It's been a long and rewarding journey for all of us and I cannot believe that it is coming to an end!

Tonight we will all go up on stage to show off all of our projects and to receive our official Gold Award patches. I can't wait!

Thank you all for following my journey to Gold for the past year, and I encourage all of you Girl Scouts out there to go for Gold and to never give up! This has been such an amazing and rewarding experience and I'm sure that you will all enjoy earning your Gold as much as I have!

Yesterday, all of the Gold Girls in my school were awarded with "Certificates of Achievement" from our Principal. It feels great to be recognized by the high school for all of the hard work that we have done over the years! I'd like to say thank you to out principal Dr. Williams for being so awesome these past four years!

I'll keep you all updated on my project and Girl Scouting and I'll let you know how the award ceremony went!

I am truly blessed to have such awesome family and friends who have helped me to achieve so much and to receive this award! Special thanks to my Gold mentor Beth! She is an amazing woman and has helped so many people to achieve their dreams and to help others!

Congrats to all of the Spring 2013 Gold Award Recipients-I wish you all the best!
~Gold Girl Allie

Pictures of the Principal's Certificate of Achievement all of the Gold Girls at our high school received!

Girl Scouts Coin! :)

It's Cookie Delivery Season once again! Sadly, this will be my last year of cookie-selling as an Ambassador Girl Scout. I will, however, continue to purchase and enjoy the awesomeness of GSA cookies next year in college! (And FYI, contrary to popular belief, Thin Mints do not make you any thinner!)


Picture from:
http://www.thegloss.com/2010/04/01/odds-and-ends/10-reasons-thin-mint-cookies-are-clearly-the-best-girl-scout-cookies/

I was just perusing the Girl Scouts of America Website (you should, too! There's a lot of interesting GS info on there!), when I came across something that I found particularly awesome!

According to girlscouts.org, the United States Mint will be creating up to 350,000 silver dollar coins to commemorate the 100th year anniversary of Girl Scouting!

Picture from: http://www.girlscouts.org/something_big.asp
 

On the heads side, the words "courage, confidence, and character" adorn the top of the coin, inspired by the GSA mission statement: "Girl Scouting builds girls of courage, confidence, and character, who make the world a better place." Beneath these words, three Girl Scouts of different ages are depicted smiling. The 100th anniversary Trefoil symbol underneath the girls signifies the centennial anniversary of our organization!! :D

Minted on the reverse side is "the iconic Profiles of Girl Scouts of the USA with the inscriptions UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, E PLURIBUS UNUM, $1 and GIRL SCOUTS."

You can purchase the collectible coin either from the GSA Website or from the US Mint Website.

Info From:

GSA Website: http://www.girlscouts.org/something_big.asp
United States Mint Website: http://catalog.usmint.gov/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?storeId=10001&mpe_id=12101&productId=16830&intv_id=15552&evtype=CpgnClick&langId=-1&catalogId=10001&ddkey=ClickInfo

Stay Beautiful Everyone! <3
~Gold Girl Allie

Girl Scouts During WW2 Facts

Hello everybody!  :)

As you know, I am very interested in Girl Scout History! This week, I decided to gather some information about the Girl Scouts of America and the role that they played in World War Two. All the websites that I found this info on are listed at the bottom of this post-so click any one of them for more information if you're interested! The Girl Scout Website has tons more facts from GSA history @ http://www.girlscouts.org/who_we_are/history/ ! Check it out! Have a great week!

• Girl Scout Cookies were sold annually by local councils around the country until World War II, when sugar, flour, and butter shortages led Girl Scouts to begin selling Girl Scout calendars to raise money for their activities.

• During World War II, 1943–1945, many young Japanese-American girls were confined in internment camps with their families. Girl Scout troops were organized, even in these camps. 

• When World War II began the Girl Scouts aided their communities and war-torn Europe. The group began a new publication-Senior Girl Scouting in Wartime. This program educated older girls on projects like Hospital, Child Care and Emergency Outdoor Aide. The Girl Scouts also collected clothes to send to victims of war.

Girl Scouts Collecting Scrap Metal for the War Effort
Picture From:
http://www.girlscouts.org/who_we_are/history/timeline/1940s.asp
 

• During the war, Girl Scouts operated bicycle courier services, invested more than 48,000 hours in Farm Aide projects, collected fat and scrap metal, and grew Victory Gardens.
  
• Girl Scouts sponsored Defense Institutes, which taught 10,000 women survival skills and techniques for comforting children during blackouts and air raids.
  
• Girls collected 1.5 million articles of clothing that were then shipped overseas to children and adult victims of war.

This Intermediate Girl Scout uniform (ages 10-14) is the style worn from 1939-1948. Due to wartime shortages, a button down front replaced the metal zipper of previous years. The many badges earned by this scout include First Aid, Hostess, Handywoman and Child Care.
Picture and info from: http://www.nww2m.com/2012/03/girls-scouts-and-wwii/

• The Liberty ship USS Juliette Low, named after the founder of the Girl Scouts, was launched on May 12, 1944.

Information from/For More Information:

• http://www.girlscouts.org/program/gs_cookies/cookie_history/1940s.asp
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Girl_Scouts_of_the_USA
• http://www.nwhm.org/education-resources/biography/biographies/girl-scouts/
• http://www.girlscouts.org/who_we_are/history/timeline/1940s.asp
• http://sarahsundin.blogspot.com/2012/03/girl-scouts-in-world-war-ii.html

Radio Show :)

Hey All!

Last year I was given an amazing opportunity-I was asked to speak on the radio about Girl Scouting and my experiences with the organization!

Along with several other Girl Scouts, I was featured on WRHU's award winning women's issues program A League Of Our Own, hosted by Fran Spencer.
The executive producer has never had Girl Scouts on the show before.

You can listen to the show @:
http://franspencer.com

Click radio show and it is the second show "the 100th Anniversary of the Girl Scouts."

It was an awesome experience! The radio studio was really cool and we got to use the special microphones and equipment when recording the show. We spoke all about the benefits of Girl Scouting and all of the great experiences that the Scouts and I had had over the years.
Please take a listen!

This just goes to show you...Girl Scouts holds so many opportunities and opens so many doors!
As my Gold Award counselor says..."You never know where the Gold Award Journey will take you!"

To all of you Gold Girls-I know that the deadline is soon! (I myself in in the midst of filling out my final paperwork)
Good luck ladies! Stick with it-we're almost there!

~Gold Girl Allie :D

I had an awesome time Tuesday at a Daisy Event that my new friend and fellow Gold Girl Kristen threw on Tuesday! She's been working hard to help out those girls who are currently Independent Girl Scouts.

She decided to hold a meeting for these girls to hang out, make Holiday crafts, and learn the importance of Fairness.

It was a lot of fun and the crafts were adorable! Thank you so much for the fun party Kristen!

Independent Girl Scouts. I remember briefly writing about the issue a few months ago. In my area, there are about 80 girls who are not a part of troops due to the huge shortage of Girl Scout Leaders. All of these girls are in first grade and younger.

It is relatively simple to become a leader, and the GSA national website lists the steps and makes it an easy process. Many areas need leaders desperately, and Girl Scouts of America is such a great organization to join!

By becoming a Girl Scout Leader, you would teach girls the importance of character traits like honesty and tolerance, setting a basis for future learning. You would help to spread the Girl Scouting Mission to build girls of courage, confidence, and character, who make the world a better place. You would be teaching girls that every person has the power to change the world.

For more info about becoming a Leader click the Link below:
http://www.gscnc.org/be_troop_leader.html

Fun Holiday Crafts I made with the Daisys :)