Silver Award Spotlight: "Free Little Library at Local Park."

Girl Scout Cadette Madison of Troop 661 recently earned her Silver Award by completing a project she titled, "Free Little Library at Local Park." Madison knows the benefits of reading for people of all ages and wanted to ensure kids in her community had the resources they needed to grow their love of reading just like she has. To do so, the Girl Scout identified a neighborhood without a library within walking distance and decided to build the little library within that neighborhood's community park. 

"I know that reading is beneficial to people at all stages of life. Reading books can provide many benefits to children. It can increase cognitive development, creativity, imagination, increased success in school, and help foster a lifelong love of reading. Some children do not have the opportunity to read or explore books because they do not have easy access to them," Madison said. "Free Little Libraries can be a gateway for people in the community to receive and share books with others. It is my hope that people in the community will enjoy taking and reading books from my library as well as sharing books when they have finished reading so others can enjoy them too."

Thanks for sharing your love of literacy, Madison! Congratulations to this Girl Scout Cadette. 

Enter Our 2022 TikTok Video Contest!

Here's a chance to Show Off Your TikTok video making skills! Enter our 2022 TikTok Video Contest to help us share ways Girl Scouting ROCKS with our supporters! Girls 14 and up and all adult members can enter this video contest. (Adults may video with younger troop members with parent permission.) Please upload your video to TikTok and alert us that you submitted a TikTok via the form here.

Rules: 

• Must include in the TikTok video an individual or group involved in a Girl Scout activity. 

• Must include individual or group thanking supporters of Girl Scouts. For example, "thank you for your support"

• Must tag us @gscolonialcoast on TikTok

•Must send the link to the TikTok and contact information via form that can be found on GSCCC's website.

Winner will receive: 

• If submitted by a troop, the troop will win a free overnight at a camp property. 

• If submitted by an individual, a $50 gift certificate to the GSCCC shop will be presented. 

• Submissions must be made by October 31, 2022.

Troop 1018 Makes Improvements to Camp Burkes Mill Pond

Camp Burkes Mill Pond had an anniversary gift from Gloucester Girl Scout Troop 1018 led by Jennifer Glaspell. The camp that turned 50 this year received some sprucing up! Members of the troop, Girl Scout Juniors and Cadettes, worked on camp projects to improve Treakle Cabin, the camp's accommodations for indoor program and overnights. They made new curtains, installed a new air conditioning window unit, placed a baker’s rack in the kitchen area along with other enhancements. They plan to replace the sink and cabinets in the kitchen as well as flooring throughout the cabin in the coming future.

“The girls in the troop have chosen specific things they want to work on and will earn either their Bronze or Silver Award depending on their grade level and the project involved,” Jennifer said. “We are having a great time doing this for fellow Girl Scouts. It’s also a chance for the girls to work with the dads in the troop and learn new skills like carpentry.

 

Camp Burkes Mill Pond offers girls opportunities to explore the outdoors, including waterfront activities such as canoeing and kayaking. The camp is open year round and open for rental by Girl Scouts and friends in the community. 

Thanks for making our camp an even better place for so many Girl Scouts, Troop 1018!

Volunteer Spotlight: Kevin Wilkinson

Thank goodness for volunteers! A talented journalist and funny lady Erma Bombeck once said, “Volunteers are the only human beings on the face of the earth who reflect this nation's compassion, unselfish caring, patience, and just plain love for one another.” They come from all walks of life and backgrounds. Kevin Wilkinson, retired from the military, has been a Girl Scout volunteer since his first daughter, Olivia, joined in 2010. The family decided it would be a family affair and everyone got a role and turn to have fun.

“Being in the military, my wife and I had the expectation that this would be a great opportunity to get her involved in something that she could do wherever we were assigned,” he said. “I’m not much of a watcher. After our first troop dissolved shortly after joining, we were fortunately quickly assigned to another troop that was multi-level. The leader was managing a troop with everything from Daisy to Ambassador. She had very little parent support. When I asked how I could help, she quickly put me to work helping the Daisy’s earn their petals. Other parents followed when they noticed how much fun I was having teaching the girls to read, understand and start living the Girl Scout Promise and Law. Soon we had a full cadre of parents and the leader was able to float between the “troops” to keep everyone on track.”  

 

After having a great experience as a troop volunteer, Kevin went on to become a service unit treasurer for Service Unit 340 in Chesapeake, helping other troop volunteers, and he also helped start the annual Cookie Classic Run that will be in its 10th year in 2023. We know there are Girl Scout dads who want the best for their daughters, just like Kevin, but wanting something and taking action to make it a reality are two very different things. As Kevin said, it may require you to get involved and step away from the sidelines.

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Research shows that a girl’s relationship with her father lays the foundation for her confidence and her future relationships and expectations of men. A world in which we all contribute to helping girls reach their bright, bold potential is a better world for everyone. Girls need (and want!) their dads and father figures in their lives just as much as they need their mothers and female mentors..

 

“The Girl Scout journey has been very good to me,” Kevin said. “I have watched my girls Olivia and Kaitlyn grow, develop and begin to shoulder responsibility. They have also learned so very much about teamwork, levels of effort, and planning. It has been super gratifying to see all of the girls change from giggly little girls into very productive and smart young women. The benefits lie in the relationships that are formed. I am incredibly proud of each of the girls as if they were my own. Watching them develop their interpersonal and outdoor skills has been a gift that I will forever be grateful for. Girl Scouts has helped prepare Olivia for college. What a fantastic benefit!”

 

Kevin, thanks for doing your part, and for helping your daughters and so many other girls be the best they can be!

Kevin demonstrating knot tying at an Outdoor Skills Day event

Kevin at the 2016 Annual Council Meeting with Mary Kate Andris

Kevin is "man enough to be a Girl Scout!"

Girl Scouts Visit Norfolk Botanical Garden

Life is full of adventure for Girl Scout Daisy Ellie Boyd.  Whether she’s dreaming up a new toy to earn her Engineering badge, learning about bravery as she climbs a rock wall, or helping to plant a garden, she is on the go and having fun with her sister Girl Scouts. Ellie is homeschooled, and this summer she met up with a few other Girl Scouts who are also homeschoolers—Junior Julianne Snow and Brownie Hannah Snow—to explore the Norfolk Botanical Garden. Their goal was to complete activities to help each other earn the Girl Scout Climate Challenge patch. Made possible by Johnson & Johnson Foundation, the Climate Challenge invites both Girl Scouts and non-Girl Scouts to learn about climate science, connect with their communities, and share hope to create change. The special patch program runs through November 30, 2022. Girls must complete ten activities from an activity guide that can be downloaded from the Girl Scouts of the USA website. Additional activities can also be found at SciStarter.com, a citizen science website.  

 During Ellie’s visit, she explored the biodiversity at the Botanical Garden, learned how trees and climate are connected, and got a better understanding about the impact of climate change on bees and other pollinators such as butterflies; the tour through the Butterfly Pavilion was one of her favorite stops. There, a summer intern, Callie Kipper, explained the life cycle of butterflies and some of the issues they face today.

 

“Like most butterflies, monarchs are highly sensitive to weather and climate,” Callie said. “They depend on environmental cues like temperature to trigger reproduction, migration, and hibernation. Scientists think climate change may impact them and they also are concerned about the growth of their milkweed habitat.”

 

Kelly Welsh, Director of Marketing and Communications who helped host the tour, offered further explanation on the subject. “Habitat restoration can be key to halting the monarch population’s decline so we need to encourage more people to plant milkweed and to use less pesticides that can damage butterflies and plants. One of our goals here is to give you an opportunity to interact with nature while learning what you can do to make our environments great places to live.”    

 

Then it was off to tour the Education Building where they learned about Earth’s atmosphere and the greenhouse effect from Addie Roark, a member from the Botanical Garden’s marketing team. “When it gets very hot, water evaporates into the air and it creates a kind of greenhouse. A greenhouse keeps the plants inside warm even when it’s cold outside because it traps heat from the sun. The Earth’s atmosphere acts like a greenhouse. When light from the sun passes through the atmosphere, some of it is absorbed by the Earth’s surface to heat it, but some heat is also trapped in our atmosphere by certain gases, like CO2.. Some plants absorb this gas but they can’t absorb it all, so our goal is to find ways to stop producing this gas and slow down climate change.”

 

After more discussion, a few games and examining some exhibits, the group continued their tour of the Botanical Garden and strolled through paths that led to magical places like the friendship bridge. There was also a stop to look at animal sculptures where each girl picked her favorite—a required activity to earn GSCCC’s Explore Norfolk Botanical Garden patch! The Botanical Garden is a fun visit for anyone but especially for Girl Scouts who want to learn more about nature. (Be sure to do some homework ahead of time, so you know which activities to do to meet badge or patch requirements.)

 

During your visit, check out “WOW”—World of Wonders: A Children’s Adventure Garden. This three-acre garden is filled with magical things for kids to do: child-sized buildings and activities, climbing, splash fountains, thematic gardens and biomes related to different parts of the world including the Australian Outback, a Rainforest, and an African Savanna. Daily activities include guided and self-guided discovery stations, scavenger hunts, crafts, and walking tours.

 

Learn about the Girl Scout Climate Challenge and begin to take action. Activity guides are available for each grade level online.

"What Would You Like S'More of?" Contest

 "What Would You Like S'More of?" 2022 Contest

Did you know the first official recipe for a s'more came out in the 1927 Girl Scout guidebook "Tramping and Trailing with the Girl Scouts?" National S'mores Day- one of our favorite holidays of the year- is approaching on August 10 and we have a very special video contest just for our fans to help celebrate the occasion! Get creative and tell us "What Would You Like S'More of?" this coming Girl Scout year!

Here's how to enter: Create a video that is 60 seconds or less and share it on your Facebook or Instagram. Be sure to use #GSCCC and #GSCCCnationalsmoresday to make your post discoverable by us. Your video must feature a s'more (replicate our experiment, make s'mores your own way, or share your artistic rendition of a s'more and tell us what you would like "s'more" of this coming Girl Scout year in the video!

Winner will receive s'mores themed patches and a charm from the GSCCC shop!

Rules: Entries must be posted  by 11:59 pm on Monday, August 8, 2022 [UPDATED DEADLINE]. Please be sure your post is set to "public" so we can see it. Must use use hashtags  #GSCCC and #GSCCCnationalsmoresday. Must have parent permission to enter the contest and use the social media sites aforementioned if you are 13 years or younger.