The Golden Link

The term “Green Apple” is familiar to volunteers who attend service unit meetings. Green Apples are short informational trainings. Currently, there are nearly 30 topics from which to choose.
Green Apple Training kits are available for service units to include as part of the monthly meeting. The “training” takes less than an hour and does not require a trained trainer. All of the materials needed are in the check-out kits. There is an outline and explanation of the information to be presented with copies of any handouts used plus any other materials needed. The kits are available for check out at the Girl Scout Center and from the service centers in Lufkin and Beaumont.
The 2003-04 administrative planning guide for service unit administrators suggests a Green Apple Training at every service unit meeting. A number of these training outlines are already available on the Web through the Council’s CIN site.

The Green Apple Committee is part of the Adult Development Department. The committee is hard at work preparing current kits to be available on the Web. They are also revising some of the kits and creating new ones. Current volunteer committee members are: Anne Ackel, Sandra Cutler, Sandra Kropf, Linda Loop, Ron Horton, and Sheree Horton. The chair is volunteer Diana Artale, and her staff partner is Linda Pau.
The Green Apple Training kits will be easily available to all 118 service units through the CIN. No one will have to go to a service center to pick up materials and then return them. The prepared kits will still be available, but they are also being revised to be consistent with the kits on the Web. Thus the information will be the same whether a service unit opts for the Web version or to use the check-out version from a service center.
According to Betty Morgan, training registrar at the Girl Scout Center, the most popular Green Apple trainings continue to be First Aid Comes First, Foolproof

Finances, Program for Pennies, and Think about Thinking Day.
The new trainings being developed will include a kit for each camp. The existing training, Fun at Camp Agnes Arnold, will soon be on the Web. Additional topics include: It’s a Team Effort about leader/co-leader partnerships, Beyond the Handbook about additional program options for troops and groups, and Lend a Helping Hand about service project ideas. The committee’s goal is to add 10 additional Green Apple Trainings during this membership year.
Do you wonder how these trainings came to be called “green apples?” When apples became the symbol for GSSJC leader trainings, red was the color selected to represent a standard training of 3 hours or more. As these shorter trainings were developed, green was the color chosen for the symbol. From that they began to be called “Green Apple Trainings” and the name stuck.

Thanks to Diana Artale and Linda Pau for information about Green Apple Trainings.

The story of a special friendship
Gift of framed sketches tells story of friendship
by Marlene Edwards

Almost every writer in literature has written about friends. Some say old friends are a gift, are the very best, and are like a sheltering tree. This is certainly true of one pair of longtime friends: Van Campbell and Jeanne Lee. Their friendship recently brought a special and unique gift to GSSJC.
They met over 30 years ago when Campbell was renewing her camping certification for the third Junior Girl Scout in the family. Lee was her outdoor trainer. They prepared crafts for hundreds of girls at many Cadette events, and in 1972, they co-chaired the Na-Ski-La event at the Alabama Coushatta Indian Reservation.
When Lee coordinated the Bi-Centennial Choir in 1976, Campbell was in the wings helping. When Campbell chaired the Transportation Committee for the National Convention in 1981 in Houston, Lee was there beside her. Campbell chaired

the Council Cookie committee for four years in the ‘80s with Lee as her co-chair and designer of all the artwork used for promotions. During these years, both led their daughters’ troops and this included many camping trips together. Lee always took her sketchpad and pencil to camp and found peaceful moments to record happy memories on paper.
This friendship endured throughout the years and recently Campbell wished to honor her friend’s service to Girl Scouts in a very special way. She copied three pen and ink sketches of camp drawings that Lee put in a scrapbook for Campbell many years ago. One is of a tent in the woods at Camp Agnes Arnold titled “Here, There, and Everywhere,” another is of the bridge at Peach Creek Ranch, property once owned by Council, and the third is of the Big House at Casa Mare.

Good friends Van Campbell and Jeanne Lee share camp sketches with Council History Committee.

These sketches may be viewed on the second floor of the Girl Scout Center. All of the drawings will bring back memories of camping to those who once experienced the joy of camping at those camps. They also speak volumes about a special friendship.

GSSJC was saddened to learn Van Campbell passed away December 28, 2003.