Service Project - help Girl Scouts

If anyone would like to donate one of your pieces, my Girl Scout council could certainly use them for our silent auction. Our annual fundraiser is "Dazzling Desserts". Local chefs use Girl Scout cookies to make desserts. People who attend vote on their favorite dessert. We also have a silent auction. Last year people told us they want more jewelry. It's a really, really fun event. Your donation would be helping 5,000 girls. We spend thousands of dollars every year giving money to girls to go to camp, go on field trips and buy their sashes. Our address is Girl Scouts - Heart of Ohio, PO Box 370, Zanesville, Ohio 43702-0370.

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Thanks so much! (We need the items by Feb 1)

Reply to
Lovensheimer
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On Mon, 31 Dec 2007 6:10:52 -0500, Lovensheimer wrote (in message ):

The Girl Scouts are a group which is so very close to my heart. I went almost all the way through as a girl, with the exception of Senior Scouts. As surprises no one, there was no one willing to be a leader for a group of high school girls. Before I was married, I had a troop of my own, about 25 girls who were very close to my heart.

The town where I volunteered had a unique way of assigning leaders: you got a group of girls as Brownies, and stayed their leader for as long as the troop wished to stay together. I was lucky enough to get some girls whose Brownie leader had bailed, and the kids stayed with me for five more years, giving them an eight year scouting experience.

Those kids went everywhere with me, from camping on the floor of a luxury hotel's ballroom to snowshoeing along a frozen pond. By the end, the girls were mostly taller than I was, which led to me being mistaken for one of them many times. They loved it when the clerk at Burger King (for cold drinks after a car wash) called me a "little fresh mouth" and told me that she was going to call my mother. They got a real benefit from having a leader who wasn't a reluctant mother dragged into the troop so her child would have a place, instead having a career person who sent postcards from business trips and had a boyfriend who gave her a kiss (oooh) when he picked her up after a meeting. More than a few of them were standing in the church when I was married.

Once in a while, I run into grown women with babies who stare at me then yell, "It's Kathy! My girl scout leader!" and they give me a hug. I love hearing how they are passing along the tradition by volunteering with children, either as Scout Leaders or some of the many opportunities that are screaming for adult volunteers. My own little peanut, who isn't all that little any longer, plans to have a troop of her own while in college and afterward, because she wants to continue the tradition.

My last stint as a leader was for only two years, while my peanut was a Brownie. Times have changed, and a leader isn't as free to roam wild with a group of kids, teaching them that being a secure, mature woman still can have a lot of fun while acting goofy with a group of girls. The troop I had the last time was more like the troops of my girlhood, heavy on the crafts, light on the adventure. (that might have been the age of the girls as well) Sadly, my career demanded that I travel several days each week, and I was unable to continue.

As you guys might have guessed, I would be delighted to send a piece of jewelry to your auction. I hope that it allows a girl to go to camp, even though her family can't afford it. (our troop all sold cookies so the one girl who desperately wanted to go was able to do so, even though her Mom was on welfare, and the cost for two weeks was more than her month's check. She went for four weeks and still remembers how special she felt, having all the kids pulling for her) Or maybe it will enable a troop to have affordable dues, so every girl who wants to can attend. Perhaps it will pay for one of the endless training classes that are now required by the Girl Scouts, which make being a leader an expensive adventure. At any rate, I am sure that my little contribution will make a small difference in the life of a girl.

Best of luck with your auction and with your council!

Kathy N-V, as wordy as ever

Reply to
Kathy N-V

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