Gold Award Project: Dance, Dance Round the World 

Ellie Tsuchiya, a Senior at Pine View, recently completed her Gold Award Project, “Dance, Dance Round the World” to address cultural apathy in younger generations. The program was created for the Dance-The Next Generation (DNG) students. DNG is a free Sarasota Ballet program for low income students at Title 1 schools. Ellie volunteered with the program and through interacting with the students realized, “they didn’t know about the diversity in our world and I thought it was something I could teach them.”

With her program, she expanded student’s knowledge of different dances and created a global link to cultures around the world. She believes, “cultural apathy causes many young people to partake in stereotyping or racism simply because they are not knowledgeable. My program helps these students become more culturally aware and more respectful.”

Lisa Townsend with the Sarasota Ballet and Ellie’s Gold Award advisor said, “Since our program utilizes dance to teach self-discipline, this tied in perfectly with what we do. It was a great way to help broaden their horizons, not just with dance, but with global cultures.”

This summer, Ellie visited the Girl Scout Headquarters in Japan, where she shared her project with members from across the world. 

“Earning the Girl Scout Gold Award designation is truly a remarkable achievement, and Ellie exemplifies leadership in all its forms,” said Sue Stewart, Chief Executive Officer of Girl Scouts of Gulfcoast Florida, Inc. “Her dedication, perseverance, and leadership, is making the world a better place.”

Ellie’s Gold Award Pose

Ellie learned presentation skills, confidence, audience adaptation, and time management through this project, but expressed the biggest thing she learned, “was that I could put my ideas into action for a cause I care about.”

The Girl Scout Gold Award is so prestigious that some universities and colleges offer scholarships unique to Gold Award recipients, and girls who enlist in the U.S. Armed Forces may receive advanced rank in recognition of their achievements. Ellie will be recognized for this achievement in May 2015, at Girl Scouts Young Women of Distinction ceremony.

Fantastic job Ellie!

Ellie in the news: Herald Tribune * The Observer

Learn more about the Girl Scout Gold Award: http://www.gsgcf.org/girls/gold-award

~Guest Blogger is Emily Prettyman, Girl Scouts of Gulfcoast Florida, Inc. alumna and volunteer. Emily C. of Troop 121 with the Media Team helped interview Ellie and is featured in the video.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

What could make volunteering with Girl Scouts even more fun? Volunteering with a friend and getting rewarded for inviting them! We are so excited to announce that during the month of November, our Council is participating in the GSUSA promotion, “I Can’t Wait To… Invite-a-Friend”.

All current volunteers who Invite-a-Friend to start a new K-5th grade troop will receive a $50 gift code for the GSUSA online store, AND the new Troop Leader will receive free program materials! But besides the $50 discount code and free program materials, the GREATEST BENEFIT  is the additional girls who will become part of Girl Scouting! In order for us to continue to reach every girl we need to reach more volunteers, like you, who can help!

Picture your favorite Girl Scout memory…maybe when one of your Girl Scout Daisies realized that swimming wasn’t so scary…or the moment that your Girl Scout Cadette found her voice and stood up to bullying…or maybe when you realized that without YOU, those moments may not have happened. Don’t you want to invite a friend so that more girls can have wonderful memories?

So take some time to think of someone who would be an EXCELLENT Girl Scout Leader/role model and invite them to join you and be a part of the Girl Scout Community – church members, school volunteers, family, and friends. Tell them about the huge impact they could have on girls in the community and the wonderful experiences they’ll enjoy as Girl Scout Troop Leaders.

So, share your experience, recruit a friend, and get rewards!

Promotion runs November 1 – December 1, 2014. After you have referred a friend, fill out this form girlscouts.org/inviteafriend. Questions? Contact Yvonne Bras (800) 232-4475 or yvonneb@gsgcf.org.

RULES AND GUIDELINES

PROMOTION PERIOD – The Invite-A-Friend promotion is valid between November 1, 2014 and December 1, 2014. Girl Scouts of Gulfcoast Florida, Inc. will confirm that a new troop has been started by the recruited volunteer.

ONLINE SHOP COUPON CODES – Each unique coupon code has a value of $50.00 and is a onetime use only code. Once the purchase is in your shopping cart, you can apply the code at checkout to deduct $50.00 from the product purchase prior to shipping and applicable taxes. Coupon codes expire February 28, 2015. Only one coupon code can be used per order and cannot be combined with any other coupon offers that may be running on the Girl Scouts’ Official Online Store at that time.

Contributing bloggers are Cadettes, Karna, Hannah and Maylene of Troop 643 in Venice. Girls were awarded their Silver Award in 2014 for their project “Bully Busters.” October is National Bullying Prevention Month.  

“If every Girl Scout in the world lived by the Girl Scout Law, kindness would spread, and bullying would not stand a chance!”

We are Cadette Girl Scouts from Troop 643 in Venice. Last year, for our Bronze award project, we created a workshop called Bully Busters. We went to younger Girl Scout troops and taught them about the importance of being kind to others. We read a book called Have You Filled a Bucket Today?, by Cheryl McCloud. This book helped us teach the younger girls about being a kind, “bucket filler”, instead of a bully or “bucket dipper”. We also played games with the girls. The games demonstrated how we feel when someone says mean things to us and how we feel when someone is nice.

Many parts of the Girl Scout Law are values that help us to stop bullying. All Girl Scouts can take a stand against bullying if they try their hardest to be Friendly and Helpful, Considerate and Caring, and Responsible for What we Say Do! There are also many Journey books that teach the values needed to combat bullying. For example, as Cadettes, we are now working on our Amaze Journey. We are learning about stereotypes, cliques, and friendships.

Other Girl Scouts and their troops can help combat bullying by always remembering the Girl Scout Law. If every Girl Scout in the world lived by the Girl Scout Law, kindness would spread, and bullying would not stand a chance!

We hope that our Bully Busters workshop helped the younger Girl Scouts with the skills needed to understand bullying and to take a stand against it! If we all work together we CAN make the World a better place! Here are a few links that we used to prepare our Bully Busters workshop: www.bucketfillers101.com and www.stopbullying.gov

~The Bully Busters, Karina, Hannah and Maylene

Girl Scouts of United States of America also offers the BFF: Be A Friend First program.

Check out these amazing videos of Girl Scouts talking about bullying>>

Take the Be a Friend First pledge! By sharing this photo, you’re pledging to do your part to end bullying everywhere. #StopBullying #BFF#NationalBullyingPreventionMonth

New to being a troop leader or co leader? First and foremost, a GREAT BIG THANK YOU from all of Girl Scouts of Gulfcoast Florida, Inc. staff, the GSGCF board, donors, supporters, alumni Girl Scouts, volunteers and parents, and most importantly, GIRLS who are in the Girl Scout program or are soon going to start! Your commitment will show girls they’re capable of more than they ever imagined.

Please note, website links and third party sites are recommendations to make information available but does not constitute and endorsement of these sites. Please research information appropriately.  

Here are some basics, tools, and technology to get you going!

√ FIRST FOUR steps: Leaders, co-leaders, cookie moms, and any other active helping parents volunteering with a troop need to complete these steps found here>>>

√ Make sure you have completed an orientation with your membership specialist and also a Troop Pathway Training… these will ensure you get off to the best start. Who is your membership specialist? Click on this map to show you>>

√ The Volunteer Resources page includes lots of tools. Best tools for new volunteers include :(1) volunteer essentials – anything and everything you need to know about Girl Scouts and getting started; (2) quick start for troop volunteers; (3) family guide – a great resource for your families; (4) troop weekly girl meeting plan – will help you plan your troop meetings accordingly

√ The most important thing to know is that this a GIRL program! Don’t underestimate girls… they can do it if you let them! Check out this video to learn about the 3 processes and how to incorporate them. Three Processes of Girl Scouts  include learning by doing, cooperative learning, and girl led!

95% of Girl Scout volunteers agree that they make a difference in the lives of girls because they volunteer with Girl Scouts.

√ Stay Connected with Parents! Here are a few ways to keep connected (remember, first and foremost safety of the girls! Checkout the Girl Scout Internet Safety pledge). Assign a parent in your troop to manage the communication for your troop!

• Troop e-newsletters
• Facebook Groups (recommended to keep them private)
• Potential websites for your group: Shutterfly, Qlubb, Rallyhood
• Embrace Technology – it makes it easier on you to communicate!

√ Here are some websites that we heard are also useful:

• For Girls – GSUSA site with relevant activities to your troops age
• Making Friends – Great craft & activity ideas
• Scouting Web – Indexed resources from all sorts of volunteers and parents in Girl Scouts
• Scout Songs – MP3’s has many songs to make it easy to learn.

√ What about community service and field trips?

• Talk to the girls about community service. What do they want to do? Believe us, they have ideas and it CAN be put into action! Talk to your parents, service unit, and community members. There are SO many opportunities from traditional food and clothing drives, to girls actually building an electric car to educate the community (yep, two middle school girls did it last year in Fort Myers!)
• For trip ideas, take a look at triptionary of local program ideas, activity finder of council and service unit events, Pinterest Troop Travel board of local and distant opportunities, and GSUSA travel destinations. Talk to other leaders too! Don’t reinvent the wheel! Remember to refer to safety activity check points when traveling with girls.

√ Noticing Girl Scouts have a special lingo? Check out the GSUSA (that is Girl Scouts of United States of America) glossary!

√ What about Journey’s, badges, outdoors, awards, cookies and more? Don’t feel like you have to do everything out the gate! Map out your Girl Scout year with the GSUSA interactive map found here>>

√ Staying connected will give you ideas and help you engage with local Girl Scouts volunteers.

• The GSGCF website offers so much! Look around for what you need.
• Like us on Facebook (some service units have their own Facebook group – ask your Service Unit Manager or Membership Specialist if there is one to connect with other leaders and volunteers directly in your area)
• Follow us on Twitter
• Pinterest has lots useful pins for new leaders
• We also have Instagram, Google+, a YouTube Channel with great videos. Subscribe to this blog to keep you up to date on cool tools like this!

Remember, you have volunteers, Service Unit Members and Council Staff who want to help. We can’t help you if you don’t ask. Take a look at our staff contact lists for the appropriate staff member.

It might seem like a lot at first, but working with girls can be such a rewarding experience for both you and them.

Above all, remember to HAVE FUN! You are doing it RIGHT if girls CAN’T WAIT until the next meeting!

Girl Scouts really is great for everyone! While there are possibly too many positive outcomes associated with being a member of Girl Scouts to list, there is some compelling research which illustrates just how good Girl Scouts is.

Results of a summer 2014 pulse poll conducted with more than 3,500 volunteers and parents of Girl Scouts in the K−5 age range show positive effects on members of all ages. Ninety-seven percent of parents agree that Girl Scouts has been a positive activity for their daughter, that she has had fun and exciting new experiences (95 percent), and that she has learned or tried something new (96 percent). In addition, 94 percent of parents say that because of Girl Scouts, their daughter feels special, has more friends (95 percent), is more confident (90 percent), and is happier (89 percent).
While GSUSA boasts more than two million members nationwide, there are more than 30,000 girls on waiting lists who want to join Girl Scouts but can’t because there are not enough volunteers in local communities to help deliver the Girl Scout experience. Data shows it is not just girls who benefit from participating in the organization: 94 percent of volunteers have made new friends, 88 percent believe their life is better because they volunteer with Girl Scouts, and two-thirds believe their volunteer experience has helped them professionally. Ninety-five percent of Girl Scout volunteers are happy knowing they are making girls’ lives better.

“Girl Scouts has provided a safe, fun, and engaging place for girls and adult volunteers to lead and thrive for over 100 years,” said Anna Maria Chávez, CEO of Girl Scouts of the USA. “We know the majority of volunteers feel their Girl Scout experience has helped them both personally and professionally, but in many places throughout the country, the lack of volunteers is what keeps girls on waiting lists. Every adult who volunteers for Girl Scouts can help us bring fun, new experiences to at least five girls. Imagine what that can do to shape the next generation of female leaders.”

Girl Scouts gives girls a place to explore topics of interest in a judgment-free space outside of classroom confinements, and it cultivates cooperative and self-directed learning, as well as the growth mindset (the understanding that intelligence and talent can be developed)—all of which help foster a lifetime passion for learning. The variety of experiences and the value for the money the Girl Scout program provides are also popular selling points. Eighty-nine percent of parents say their daughter gets a greater variety of experiences from Girl Scouts than she does from other extracurricular activities, and the majority of parents feel Girl Scouts is a great value for the money compared to other extracurricular activities. Overall, parents consider Girl Scouts one of the most beneficial extracurricular activities for their daughter.

“The value of the all-girl, girl-led environment offered by Girl Scouts cannot be overstated, and is so important to the social-emotional and personal development of girls,” said Dr. Andrea Bastiani-Archibald, Chief Girl Expert at Girl Scouts of the USA. “Girl Scouts is a place where girls are free to be girls; to try new things, experiment, and have fun learning from and leading one another. There is no other leadership development program in the world that offers girls this inclusive, safe space, without the distractions and pressures of school and other social settings.”

Girl Scouts is open to all girls from kindergarten through grade 12. The more adults step forward to volunteer, the more girls will get the chance to be a Girl Scout. Adults over age 18 may become volunteers, and both girls and adult volunteers can join at any time of the year. Girl Scout volunteers come from all walks of life; they are men, women, young professionals, retirees, college students, and more. To join or volunteer, please visit: http://www.girlscouts.org/join.

Author: GSUSA