Food Donations off to a Good Start!

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Georgia or Bust 2012

Beginning in their "Junior" Girl Scout year, girls can travel as troops or groups, planning trips with their adult volunteer, travel in a council-sponsored trip or event with other girls from their council, or travel with girls across the country (and around the world) through a destinations event facilitated by Girl Scouts of the USA.

Our girls voted today to set a goal of raising funds to attend the 100 year celebration in Georgia  in 2012.

I know you are probably thinking that this is a long way off, but in order to reserve our time  at the Juliette Lowe house we have to start booking now.

We are currently looking into possible means of transportation as well as pricing out a Tour group to facilitate the trip. Many more details to come but the first step was seeing if the girls wanted to do something like this, as we needed to make a reservation and a deposit of $75. 

Girls will raise funds through cookie sales and other means.  Matching donations are another option for parents to look into. 

Many more posts and more parents meetings will be needed to see this through but as  Chinese philosopher , Lao-tzu Said,

"A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step."

Our girls took that step today by voting to set this goal.

Brownie Journey Necklaces

The girls were given their Journey Necklaces today.Originally our plan was to give them each an individual key once they earned each section.  Unfortunately the necklaces weren’t designed that way. We are asking the girls to wear the necklaces throughout the year just as they would their uniform. Whenever they are in uniform, they should also wear their necklace reminding them that they are part of a growing connection to family friend community and world.

October 26th Meeting

Have  I told everyone what a great group of girls we have…..

What? Not in the last week?

Hmmm… I must be slacking~

WE HAVE THE BEST GROUP OF GIRLS!!!!!

They received so much information at our meeting and took it all in.

We started them on their new tasks of taking over the running of the troop and all I have to say is that we have a great group of future leaders here.

Not only did they do their jobs, but were receptive and offered additional suggestions to make the troop run smoother. Two major decisions were made based on the girls suggestions.

1.     Jobs will be posted on a large poster board JOB BOARD, so that the girls can see their jobs each meeting.

2.     In addition to the sea turtle, the girls have decided to add another animal to our adoption list.  The Penguin.  (Think the movie HAPPY FEET ) They will now be collecting the plastic six pack rings that come with drinks to prevent them from entering landfills and getting animals caught in them.

3.     Have I mentioned we have a great group of girls~

  

·         We will continue on our Journeys Patch program discussing the sisterhood of brownies.

·         Girl should bring a water bottle for snack, large pair of scissors, 2  or 3 aluminum empty soda cans  and a non-perishable for the food pantry.

·         Plastic bag recycle continues…..Bring in your plastic grocery bags for our troop recycler Quincy to take to Riverside foods for recycling

·         Clean up Girls Mia and Mollie will stay 5 min after the meeting for clean up.

·         Please bring dues $60 made out to GS troop 41588 our secretary Tess  will collect and record

·         Permission slips for Dan Patch stables can be downloaded here. If a parent wished to horseback ride please also enclose a check for $22. Tess will record this for us as well

·         Parents who need help deciding where ALL their patched and badges go please don’t hesitate to call.  Boy did we do a lot last year!  

Snack: Quincy

Secretary : Tess

Re-cycler: Quincy
Clean Up: Mollie & Mia
Am. Flag: Briyana
Am. Flag CG:Claire
GS Flag: Cami
GS Flag CG: Emily
Caller: Lulu

Focus: Journeys Friends Working together          

3:20- 3:30 Snack

3:30-3:45  Brownie Circle/ Ring

·                Secretary Minute: Gather any materials not already given to her.

·                Troop Business

1.     Donation made to the World Wildlife Fund-Sea turtle fund?

2.     Vote on this years donation? Penguin?

3.   Collections for the Riverside Township food panty

4.   Ornaments for Zoo and Riverside Tree walk

3:45- 4:00 Activity: Working together w/communication towards a common goal.

4:00- 4:25 Craft: recycled Christmas ornaments/Riverside Tree & Brookfield zoo

4:25- 4:30 Clean up

4:30          Brownie Bridge/Closing

Riverside Food Pantry is empty~ Please help.

I have just received the following email   

asking for our assistance in helping fill

the Riverside Food Pantry.

At each of our meetings I would be

happy to bring a box and bring any

non perishables to the Village offices

afterwards.

-----Original Message-----
From: C. Spale
Sent: Friday, October 22, 2010 8:59 PM
To: Wendy Winkler
Subject: HELP, PLEASE

Dear Friends,

We have just found out that the food pantry at Riverside Township is

empty. Our village and a friend   both gave cash donations to help start

it again., but we decided with Sue and Guy that we would start collecting now , 

nonperishable food, not expired Please bring next week to the village or

to the library where Bob Lifka okayed it too.  

We send many people there and we have to have a lot to keep it going

esp. over winter months.

My Brownies made these Holiday pumpkins in no time at all.

My Brownies made these Holiday pumpkins in no time at all.

Supplies: 

·      

            10: 1 in strips of scrapbook paper. 

      ( I used 10 different papers)

·         rafia

·         toilet roll tube

·         1 solid color scrapbook paper

·         hot glue gun

·         2 paper brads

Directions: 

1.      Cut 10 different papers into 1 x 12 in strips

2.      Trace and cut solid paper to wrap around toilet tube and secure with glue

3.      Gently poke brad through paper strips 1 in from top ( may use hole punch)

4.      Continue doing this to all 10 papers strips

5.      Turn strips to the other end and continue poking second brad in.

6.      Secure brads

7.      Spread papers to form a sphere.

8.      Glue toilet tube to inside of sphere securing it under the brad

9.      Glue other side of tube to brad as well

     10. Make a bow out of the raffia and   secure to top sphere.

Ornament Making Party 11/6 for Zoo Tree Trimming

We will be making recycled ornaments in our troop separably at a meeting. If you wish to make an additional one for the zoo please feel free. Parents will still need to order the patch from the zoo and or make reservations if they plan on attending either the open house or the actual Zoo tree trimming.

This is not a troop sponsored event and a parent must attend with a Brownie

Our Service Unit has purchased a tree to decorate for Brookfield
Zoo's Holiday Magic. The theme of our tree will be to make ornaments
from recycled items. If you cannot attend either event as a troop,
please let your girls and their families know that they can participate
as individuals. All troops in Service Unit 411 are invited to the
following:

Ornament Making Party
Saturday, November 6th

Noon to 5:00pm
Mater Christi School
2400 S. 10th Ave. (corner of 10th & 24th)
North Riverside

Please note: 10th Ave. is one-way going north on the 2200block and
one-way going south on the 2400 block. Best way to get there is to take 1st avenue to 24th street until you get to 10th.

This is an Open House Party, meaning, you can come for an hour or stay
the whole time. If you cannot attend the tree trim but want to make
ornaments, please join us. We'll make sure that they get on the
tree. You are also eligible to purchase a patch because you are
participating by making the ornaments.

Please bring:

· adequate chaperones, especially for the younger girls as
they might not be able to do all the work on their own

· ornament ideas, materials, and tools (for example,
scissors, glue, paint and brushes, anything needed to make your
project), plus extra materials to share with others

· newspaper or plastic so we can cover the tables

· snacks and drinks to share (we will provide cups, and
napkins)

Anyone who has ideas for recyclable ornaments can post the ideas on the
Yahoo Group site. Let us know if you have materials but don't know
what to make with them. For example, I personally have many CDs, lids
from laundry detergent and corks. What can I do with them? Brookfield
Zoo lists the following as NOT allowed on the trees:

Materials NOT Allowed on Trees

• strung Styrofoam "peanuts"
• ornaments made of dough (even if varnished or shellacked)
• glass items or objects with jagged edges
• unlaminated paper
• tinsel (or icicles)
• straw
• food items: food on strings (popcorn, cereal, cranberries, pasta,
etc.), dog biscuits or other dry pet food, items containing bird seed
(such as pine cones or ice cream cones dipped in peanut butter or suet),
candy canes, anything valuable (Brookfield Zoo is not responsible for
ornaments/decoratio ns that are missing or stolen)

Completed ornaments will be used to decorate our tree at Brookfield Zoo:
Community Tree Trim

Brookfield Zoo

Saturday and Sunday, November 20th & 21st
10:00am to 5:00pm


Patches: $4.00

You can get a patch even if you just make ornaments and cannot attend
this event. It is recommended that you order your patches as soon as you
know how many you will need. For tickets, if you use a credit card, the
deadline is November 19 in order to get a printable ticket. If you use a
check, you need to print off a form and allow yourself enough time for
your order to be processed and sent to you before the event. You will
pay quite a bit more if you wait to purchase admission at the gate.

Recycled Christmas Ornaments

1. 
   

• One of the most precious resources we have is aluminum, it is versatile in its uses and fully recyclable. According to The Aluminum Association, “Of the 100.6 billion aluminum cans shipped in the U.S. in 2006, 51.6 percent (52 billion) were recycled. Almost 90 percent of automotive aluminum is reclaimed and recycled. Recycling of aluminum saves energy and avoids some 95 percent of the emissions associated with making new aluminum from ore.”
• For the every day person, the easiest way to help reclaim aluminum is to do it via soda can recycling. We can recycle the aluminum directly (local metal recyclers will pay for aluminum), or reuse the aluminum ourselves in creative ways. One of these ways is to make an aluminum can into a holiday ornament. 

• 1 empty aluminum soda can
• 1 large pair of scissors
• 1 pencil

How To:

1. Cut the top off of an aluminum soda can.
2. Using the scissors, cut slices down the walls of the can so that, when spread out, the can walls resemble a sun burst. (see photo).
3. With the tip of your scissors, pliers, or with a pencil, twirl the aluminum into fantastical snowflake shapes.
4. Be careful as the edge of the aluminum can be  sharp and might cut your hands and fingers. I was very surprised at how easy the cans were to work with though.
5. decorate : go here to download the circular inset

Craft courtesy of The Green Blog - http://www.gardeningnude.typepad.com/

Badges we have earned

Plants

Safety Sense

Cookies Count

Earth and Sky

Earth is our Home

Save room for the Journeys patch~

Before you add all the patches we just earned  make sure you leave space for these patches in a line on the front , that the girls are going to earn.  ( sorry Becky must have been thinking about something different~)

Also  the Letter B and I are part of a square set that looks like this so make sure you leave room for us to finish!~ These letters go on the back of the vest~

October 19th Meeting

*Meeting October 19^th: 3:15 -4:30

• 2 new girls from Blythe  , Alessia and Mazzy!
• This meeting will center around troop business and what to expect for the year
• Girl should bring a water bottle for snack
• Plastic bag recycle begins tomorrow…..Bring in your plastic grocery bags for         our troop recyclerMOLLIE to take to Riverside foods for recycling     
• Clean up Girls Mia and Lulu will stay 5 min after the meeting for clean up.
• Please bring dues $60 made out to GS troop 41588 our secretary Quincy will collect    and record.

Next meeting October 26^th

October 19^th Meeting

Snack: Emily

Focus: Journeys Family and Friends

           What it means to be a Brownie

3:15- 3:25 Snack

3:25- 3:30 Flag Ceremony

3:30-4:10 Brownie Ring

·                     Read discuss page 12/13 of BHB

·                     Uniform

·                     Teach Brownie Smile Song

·                     Teach Friendship Squeeze –Significance

·                     Teach Girl Scout Hand Shake- when where to use it.

·                     Hand out awards

4:10- 4:25 Craft

4:25     Clean up

4:30     Brownie Bridge/Closing

We have been invited... Friday November 12, 3:15- 4:00 p.m

Horseback Riding and Water park November 13th

Click here to download a permission slip

A whole bunch of information for you!~

Dear Parents,

We are very excited to begin our 2^nd and last year as  Brownie Troop 41588 here at Ames. Those girls who wish to continue on as Girl Scouts, will have the opportunity to do Bridging activities that will help them next year as Junior Girl Scouts.

We have 11 girls who will be joining us this year.

Cameron, Mia, Claire, Zosia, Quincy, Emily, Amber, Briyana, Tess , Lulu and Mollie

We have a wonderful group of Moms and friends who will take various roles in the troop, all with the goal of making this a memorable year for our Brownies.

Please read over following packet with our Brownie Troop information and feel
free to contact any of the leaders below with any questions you may have.

We have so many exciting things planned…..we hope you can join us as we and our last year of Brownies and prepare our girls to move on to the next step in the Great World of Scouting.

Sincerely,

Brownie Troop Leaders
Wendy Winkler
Joan Kanatas

Information:

In keeping with our paperless pledge, when possible we will Contact parents via email of troop happenings.  A blog has been set up at blogger and parents are encouraged to become followers of the blog.

http://amesbrownies.blogspot.com/

Meeting & Snack Schedule:

2^nd and  4^th  Tuesdays a month……unless otherwise noted below due to school holidays , 3:15 pm – 4:30pm

• Snacks may include finger foods:cheese, crackers, grapes, apples, bananas, granola, yogurt?
• Girls will be required to bring a reusable water bottle to fill with water for snack.
• *Snack girl will also be responsible for starting the Friendship squeeze in the Friendship Circle "see explanation at the end of this letter"

While parents are not required to attend monthly meetings, on occasion they will be asked to participate in various events or outing and are strongly encouraged to volunteer time to at least one meeting. If you can help in any capacity, please contact any one of the Leaders listed above.

Badges:

• Badges will be earned over a period of several meeting.  Badges will be handed out at meetings and the final ceremony at the end of the year.
• Please see below diagram for placement on the vest or contact Wendy

Camp Schedule:

• November 13^th: Day trip TBA
• June 3^rd – 5^th: Weekend trip TBA

Ceremonies

Brownies Bridge to Juniors: TBA

No January Investiture will be done this year as we have no new scouts to our troop.

Membership Dues:
     *   $12 = Girl Scouts of America Membership Fee

*   $12= Adult membership fee: dues will cover the membership into the  GSUSA and will include an automatic insurance coverage from the   GSUSA for all outing, trips and overnighters that the parent goes on.

·         $60= Chapter Dues.   includes all Badges, Patches and pins earned, Crafts, Activity supplies.     

• 2 checks please: *$24  Payable to :      Girl Scouts of America

                                        * $60 Payable to :      Troop 41588.

• No girl should be turned away due to financial reasons. The Girl Scouts have a confidential financial assistance to those who are unable to cover fees.         

Field Trips:

Field trips will be arranged in the community. Transportation is to be arranged by parents. Field trip may require a small fee.

Meetings:

• Start-Up: A simple activity to be done as girls arrive/ allowing the leaders to get set up.
• Opening: Girl Scout Promise, flag ceremony/ Color Guard, and a simple song.
• Brownie Ring: Troop information to be shared with the girls and possible decision making
• Activities: One or more program activities or craft
• Snack: Each meeting a different girls will be asked to bring a healthy snack to share with the troop.   Girls will receive notice prior to their snack date.
• Clean Up: A Girl Scout leaves a place cleaner than she found it.
• Closing a meeting : Closing Song, Good Bye until next time.
  
  

Patrols:
Due to the small group we have, Patrols will be done at camp. Girls will Have individual assignments at meetings. Click on picture below to enlarge.

Job Descriptions:

• American/GS Flags : Take out and set up stands, Participate in Flag Ceremony, Take down and put away stands at the end of the meeting.
• Color Guard: Assist in Set up and take down of Flags, Participate in Flag Ceremony
• Caller: Participate in Flag Ceremony
• Troop Recycler: In charge of collecting all plastic grocery bags at the end of the meeting ,  count and being to Riverside Foods for recycling
• Troop Secretary: take attendance, remind people of their jobs, gather supplies for activities of missing girls and bag them with their name as well as pass out materials as needed.
• Clean Up: Will be required to stay an additional 5 min following the meeting for final clean up, scraps off floor, chairs pushed in, supplies where they belong and lights out.
• Alternate: To take the place of any girl who is absent from doing her job and help out if more materials need to be distributed.

Uniform:
white,  cream or blue shirt and Brown vest. Because our uniform helps the girls identify themselves with the Girl Scouts , please have your Brownie in Uniform on Meeting Days and outside field trips.  

                    

Girl Scout Glossary:
· Girl Scout sign: Hold the middle three fingers up by putting your pinky
and your thumb together.
· Girl Scout handshake: Shake hands with your left hand while making the Girl Scout sign with your right hand.
·Friendship circle: This stands for an unbroken chain of friendship with Girl Scouts and Girl Guides all around the world. Everyone stands in a circle and places their right arm over her left and holds hands. Everyone makes a silent wish as a friendship squeeze is passed from hand to hand.
· Friendship squeeze: After someone shares something in the circle, she squeezes the hand of the person standing next to her, who shares something and then squeeze passes on around the circle.
· Quiet sign: Hold up your right hand. As people in the group see the quiet sign, they stop talking and also raise their hands. Once everyone is silent, the meeting continues.
· Girl Scout motto: “Be prepared!”
· Girl Scout slogan: “Do a good turn daily!”
· Brownie Ring: A circle that the girls can sit in to share ideas.
· Earned recognition: brownie try its

The Girl Scout Promise:

On my honor, I will try:

To serve God and my country,

To help people at all times,

And to live by the Girl Scout Law