For the past four years we’ve done an
annual toy drive in December to benefit the Star of Hope Family
Shelter. After the toys are collected, the girls deliver the
donations and then spend 2-3 hours volunteering at the shelter.
In 2001, we adopted Heartland Assisted Living Center in the
Willowbrook area where we make quarterly visits. Some of the
activities we do are “spa day” where the girls
give manicures to the residents, gardening both on the grounds
and in containers for confined residents, and story telling.
This has been an awesome experience for both the girls and
the residents. They look forward to seeing each other. Last
year we had an Easter Basket drive. We collected all the baskets
and donated them to Cypress Assisted Ministries. This year
we will be earning the Bronze awards and we have decided to
have a book drive benefiting the Hermann Children’s
Hospital. The girls have been volunteering long enough to
plan it for themselves.
Denise Gill
Troop #5209
We visited the Houston
Food Bank, had a wonderful tour of the facility, and
then the girls and moms worked for two hours
re-packaging rice from 50 lb bags into 2 lb bags. The
girls then decided to donate $200 of their cookie money
to the Houston Food Bank. The girls really learned a
lot on this field trip/community service outing. They
were amazed at how much food was distributed and that
there were that many needy people right in our own city.
This was especially eye opening as our troop comes from
an affluent area.
Mary Pickhaver
Troop #3352 |
Tis better to give than to receive...Rather than exchange
Christmas presents the 14 girls in our troop each donated
$10 to purchase fleece material to make large blankets.
The girls began “fringing and knotting” each
blanket at their November camp out and completed the project
at their Christmas party. The blankets were donated to Project
Linus, who in turn donated them to the Jameson Center located
in Galveston. Jameson Center is a group home for neglected
and abused teens and the teens received the blankets as
Christmas gifts.
Jean L. Peltier
Troop #1805
|
Our troop,
now Senior Girl Scouts, have done many, many service
projects over the years. Here are several annual service
projects we’ve done for years:
l At Christmas, we go caroling at HealthSouth and give
the residents white tube socks, handmade cards, and
ornaments.
l For Nourishment for the Needy, we fill Christmas stockings
for the kids. For a few years we even made the stockings,
learning to crochet and to sew along the way!
l While camping on the beach at the Padre Island National
Seashore, we asked the rangers for a project and they
outfitted us with gloves and bags to do a beach cleanup.
l At a family-run campground that we stayed in at Durango,
CO, we started a “camp equipment loaner library”
for groups who needed equipment just for the short time
they were camping there. We donated our camping equipment
that the airlines would not allow on the plane and items
that were not reasonable to carry back to Texas, including
our used propane stove and leftover propane bottles
and non-perishable food items. The girls have learned
that even when you go somewhere you’ve never been,
there is always a way that you can help others through
simple but meaningful gestures that we call service
projects.
Bobbie Tompkins
Troop #8138 |
As part of our Cadette Creative Cooking project, we collected
canned goods for Child Protective Services. Each girl distributed
10 bags to neighbors and retrieved the bags the following
Saturday. To the meeting they brought enough canned goods
to fill a shopping cart.
As part of our Cadette Pet Care project, we baked dog biscuits,
using Christmas cookie cutters for the shapes. We took the
biscuits to a neighborhood poodle shelter and got to feed
them to the poodles ourselves. Six poodles were currently
at the shelter. They enjoyed the five dozen biscuits we served.
For part of our Cadette Home Improvement project, we sewed
heart pillows for breast cancer patients. Five pillows were
sewn. Thank you for the opportunity to share. I was immensely
proud of their efforts. They were a small troop, but they
had big hearts.
Karen Karner
Troop #10727 |
I have a daughter who is in Girl Scouts and just bridged
to Cadettes. We have done a lot of service projects, but I
think the one that really got her attention was the one that
our troop did for The Ronald McDonald House. Two years
ago, the girls decided that they wanted to use some of their
cookie bonus money and go to Build-a-Bear and make bears and
take them to the Ronald McDonald House. I cannot express the
warm fuzzy feeling that came over me to know that the girls
wanted to this. So, we went to Build-A-Bear and each girl
made one bear and named the bear. On my way home my daughter,
Ashley, and I delivered the bears. You should have seen
everyone’s face when we walked in with four bags of
bears. They of course asked if they could help us, and I had
Ashley say that we were donating these bears to the house
for them to give out as Christmas presents. You see we did
this in November and it was perfect to give to the house
to spread a little bit of joy. I swear the front desk called
everyone, and they all came down and asked if we were
really giving them these bears. They asked Ashley how
they were made and Ashley explained how the troop used
their cookie bonus money to do this project. Some of the people
working there of course were aware of GSSJC, but they were
shocked that a troop would really do this! Some even had tears
in their eyes as they took the bears out
one by one. They laughed and cried more when they saw the
birth certificates that went with the bears. Every girl was
able to name a bear and we had the girls give them encouragement
names. Needless to say we were a hit, and the director on
duty said that it could not have come at a better time. They
were setting up their “Christmas Shop” for
the parents of the children and these were going to go into it!
She said that she was going to get with the other directors
and see how they can make sure they get to children that really
needed them. In addition to the Build-A-Bear donation, the girls
also made Girl Scout games from the handbook. This made a
difference in Ashley as she was able to see people that are
really less fortunate than her. These are families that have
sick children who are spending the holidays in a hospital
ward. Ashley was always so proud when we could take things
to them. It has made such an impact on her that she is looking
for a way to serve them with her Silver and Gold award.
Kathie Burkhardt
Troop #3641 |