Thompson Students Earn Bronze for Homebound Smiles Project

Paola and Tifany, fifth graders at Thompson 

Intermediate School and members of Girl Scout Troop 761, recently earned the Girl Scout Bronze Award for their project Homebound Smiles. The girls made and delivered gift baskets with the Joybelle’s of Alabaster Church of God to homebound seniors. This project was special to the girls because they visited with seniors and designed the gift baskets.

The Girl Scout Bronze Award is the highest award a Girl Scout Junior (fourth and fifth grades) can earn. This award recognizes that a Girl Scout Junior has gained the leadership and planning skills required to follow through with a project that makes a positive difference in her community.

Chelsea Park Elementary Student Earns Bronze Award with Scrapbook Project

Jordan, a student at Chelsea Park Elementary School and member of Girl Scout Troop 178, recently earned the Girl Scout Bronze Award for her project It’s Your Story, Scrapbook It. Jordan helped kids learn how to scrapbook to tell their own stories. She led the sessions for YMCA summer camps and for other Girl Scouts. Jordan and the children she taught learned about the importance of saving memories and to have confidence in their work.

The Girl Scout Bronze Award is the highest award a Girl Scout Junior (fourth and fifth grades) can earn. This award recognizes that a Girl Scout Junior has gained the leadership and planning skills required to follow through with a project that makes a positive difference in her community.

Erin Grace Earns Bronze Award for Clothing Drive Project

Erin Grace, fifth grader at Southside Elementary School and a member of Girl Scout Troop 663, recently earned the Girl Scout Bronze Award for her clothing drive project. Erin collected clothes for First United Methodist Church of Attalla for her sister’s clothes closet. She learned how to get more organized and that there are many people who need clothes for their new families.

The Girl Scout Bronze Award is the highest award a Girl Scout Junior (fourth and fifth grades) can earn. This award recognizes that a Girl Scout Junior has gained the leadership and planning skills required to follow through with a project that makes a positive difference in her community.

Workers Join Together to Brighten Up Camp Trico

Nearly sixty girls, adults and family members came out on Saturday, October 26, to help clean up Camp Trico in Guntersville. Attendees raked leaves, swept out cabins, prepared mattresses for winter storage, cleaned the kitchen area and windows, helped clear the trails and more! Girls enjoyed working alongside each other outdoors as they shared in the stewardship of our camp.

Troop 1105 Earns Bronze Award with Helping Hands Project

Girl Scout Troop 1105 members Michelle and Lily, 

students at West Point Intermediate, Maggie, student at Cullman Christian School and Dominique, a home school student, recently earned the Girl Scout Bronze Award for their project Helping Hands. The girls knew two couples trying to adopt two children from Haiti. As they waited throughout the long process, the girls wanted to do something to help them, so they made picture frames and cards for them. As they worked on the project, the girls also learned about international adoptions.

The Girl Scout Bronze Award is the highest award a Girl Scout Junior (fourth and fifth grades) can earn. This award recognizes that a Girl Scout Junior has gained the leadership and planning skills required to follow through with a project that makes a positive difference in her community.

Volunteer Spotlight: Meet Joan Page

Joan Page has been a Girl Scout for 43 years. Her journey began at the age of seven. Now an adult, she is service unit manager for Shades Mountain Service Unit, and she has previously served as service unit fall product manager, day camp director and assistant director, delegate and she has served on three council committees.

Joan is also a member of the local Girl Scout alumni service organization called Wayfarers, which has been in existence since the 1940s. She served on the committee that gathered, researched and helped to create GSNCA’s uniform archives.

Joan is currently a troop leader for Troop 20. The troop was begun in 1975 by her mother. After her retirement, Joan began training as a co-leader for her mother’s troop. When her mother passed away unexpectedly, Joan took over the troop.

Troop 20 is a little different from other troops: it consists of 24 Girl Scouts ages 11 to 52 who have autism. Though they have special needs, Joan stresses that they can still do things other troops can do. They participate in the fall product sale, and last year they sold cookies for the first time. Joan believes it is important for her troop to learn the life skills and money management skills the Girl Scout Cookie Program teaches.

Joan says she likes pushing her troop, and she doesn’t think they cannot do things just because of their special needs. They do badge work. They talk about things and figure them out. They want to go to the zoo this fall, so they are raising money through the fall product sale.

Joan gets the most satisfaction out of working with the girls. Being a service unit manager allows her to work with all types of girls, not just the ones in her troop.

“It’s fun to be able to go out and meet the girls and share in their development as a woman and a leader,” she says. Joan says it’s exciting to see girls grow, and she loves sharing her experiences with other girls. Joan earned her Girl Scout Silver and Gold Awards as a Girl Scout, and she remembers a conversation with a younger Girl Scout where Joan shared that was a Gold Awardee. The girl lit up when she realized that she had something in common with Joan.

Joan’s favorite memories from volunteering are moments of when her troop gets excited, and when they light up because they learn something new. She also cherishes having worked her mother before her death. Another fond memory Joan has is the meeting at the time of the Council merger. The way the flag was retired was moving and respectful.

Joan points to Juliette Low as the model for keeping Girl Scouts a strong and relevant organization for the next century. She says that Low was a visionary. She empowered women when we didn’t even have the right to vote. Joan says that world changes and we have to realize that, but we also have to remember tradition, and that Low’s vision is still valid.

“Women should be recognized as strong individuals, no matter their chosen career,” she says. “Girls need to be encouraged by strong role models to do whatever they want to do, a house wife or a scientist.”

She says Girl Scouting does that. She sees girl blossom through their experiences.

Girl Scouting has taught Joan to be a more flexible person. “I don’t ever want to turn away a girl because she wants to try something,” she says. She also learned that she has a voice and that she can express her opinions respectfully.

“Change is a part of life and you have to adapt to it and move forward,” she says. “Nothing ventured, nothing gained.”

Volunteer Spotlight: Meet Valerie Jones

Valerie Jones has been a Girl Scout troop leader for about eight years. She has been a troop leader for Daisies, Juniors and Cadettes, and she has served on the 100th Anniversary Taskforce and as a national council delegate and adult trainer. Through her experiences, she has seen the positive impact the Girl Scout Movement has had on the girls she has led.

“I believe Girl Scout is for all girls and women, young and old. We foster self-worth and leadership skills, while giving the support needed to be successful,” she says. “We teach our smallest Daisies to make friends, be helpful and explore the world around them. We teach our oldest Ambassadors to stand for what is right, to make good decisions and become the leaders that will forever change the world. It is very fulfilling to be a part of an organization that has such a positive impact on girls and women.”

Valerie says that being a Girl Scout volunteer is one of the most rewarding and best decisions anyone can make. As an adult volunteer, she has had the opportunity to experience things that would not have been possible otherwise.

Because of her involvement with Girl Scouting, she has slept in total darkness deep inside a cave, worked in a soup kitchen, camped with Native Americans and dances in their pow wow, seen the White House’s Oval Office, survived in the wilderness, cried with girls at the Vietnam Wall, cooked biscuits in a cardboard box, flown down a zip line, learned to ice skate, rafted whitewater, made friends from around the world and more. 

Valerie’s own daughter became old enough to join Girl Scouts about three years ago, something her daughter had been waiting on for quite some time. Since then, she has been able to share in Valerie’s excitement and adventures, and Girl Scouting has become a special bond Valerie shares with her daughter.

“Though uniforms and handbooks have changed a bit since Juliette’s time, our guiding principles have remained the same,” she says. “We will continue to push forward by developing new programs, remaining current on the issues and keeping up with technological advances. All the while, we will raise our Girl Scout Sign, say our Promise and live by the Girl Scout Law.”   

Troop 10060 Earns Bronze Award for Sparkman Park Project

Girl Scout Troop 10060 members Becca, Amber, Hannah, Piper, Jordan, Katlyn and Gabrielle, sixth graders at Hartselle Intermediate School, and Andraya, Sarah, Allison and Te’a, fifth graders at Hartselle Intermediate School, recently earned the Girl Scout Bronze Award for their project Flower Garden at Sparkman Park. The girls contributed a flowerbed to brighten up Sparkman Park. They built the bed and planted to flowers, and the city furnished the soil. The girls enjoyed working together outside and creating a more beautiful place for their community.

The Girl Scout Bronze Award is the highest award a Girl Scout Junior (fourth and fifth grades) can earn. This award recognizes that a Girl Scout Junior has gained the leadership and planning skills required to follow through with a project that makes a positive difference in her community.

Volunteer Spotlight: Meet Laura Green

Laura Green has led Troop 40002 in Tuscaloosa for 11 years with either Paige Mize or DeAnna Harriss as co-leader. During those 11 years, she was able mentor 43 girls. She is also involved with Troop 2, which consists of girls that have been involved since they were four years old.

During the day Laura works in an office managing accounts and details for a construction company. At night and on the weekend, she transforms into the “fearless friend of teenage girls.”

Laura’s Girl Scouts experience began as a Girl Scout in Hamilton, Ala., with her mother as her troop leader. Her mother introduced Laura to troop meetings, day camp, camping and, of course, Girl Scout cookies. She started volunteering when her oldest daughter was eight and her youngest was four years old.

Laura says she used to be a shy person, preferring instead to blend into the background. Her girls wouldn’t have it. They wanted to go to Europe, volunteer for numerous organizations around town, go camping, be leaders and do ordinary girl things like shopping and staying up all night watching movies and eating chocolate. She says, “Here I am a changed woman because I wanted to help girls reach their dreams.”

Community service gets girls involved in the betterment of their communities. Laura’s troop has been involved with Pine Valley Retirement Home, D.H.R., Foster Family Association, the Salvation Army, Samaritan’s Purse and more. They also volunteered after the tornado hit Tuscaloosa in April 2011.

Twelve of the girls in Laura’s troop are now in college. They all received scholarships for leadership, public speaking and self confidence—skills they learned through Girl Scouting. Most of the girls finished in the top 10 of their graduating classes. She feels that even in high school, girls need new experiences so they can feel ready for the wider world.She and Troop 40002 have attended the Girl Scouts National Convention in Atlanta; visited Atlanta and Savannah, Ga., including the Juliette Gordon Low house; camped at several places including DeSoto Caverns, Camp Coleman and even the back yard. The girls also love swimming, whitewater rafting, snow skiing, zip lining and more.

Three of Laura’s Girl Scouts are Gold Awardees, and one of her girls, Martha Grace, was recognized as the top Scout in the state this year. 

“Girl Scouting has taught me that I can be an effective and assertive leader,” Laura says. “I am a better person because of what the girls expect from me.”

Troop 350 Earns Bronze Award with Reading Project

Girl Scout Troop 350 members Maya, sixth grader at the Altamont School, Lydia and Zoe, sixth graders at Homewood Middle School, recently earned the Girl Scout Bronze Award for their project Read All About It! The girls threw a party for second grade children in the STAIR (Start the Adventure in Reading) program. At the party, the girls gave the children book bags they had decorated, as well as new books to read. Birmingham’s STAIR program tutors second graders who need extra help in reading. 

The Girl Scout Bronze Award is the highest award a Girl Scout Junior (fourth and fifth grades) can earn. This award recognizes that a Girl Scout Junior has gained the leadership and planning skills required to follow through with a project that makes a positive difference in her community.

Volunteer Spotlight: Meet Terri Denson

Terri Denson has been a Girl Scout volunteer for more than 20 years. Along with two other advisors, she serves Girl Scout Senior/Ambassador Troop 10765 at First Missionary Baptist Church in Huntsville.

Terri began her volunteering with a Cadette troop, then moved up with the girls when they bridged to the Senior level. She serves as Service Unit 31’s fall product manager and she is rotating off the Gold Award committee for the Huntsville area. In addition to these positions, Terri is also the Girl Scout coordinator for her church, which is the sponsor for her troop, and she plans her troop’s yearly trip.

In the past, Terri has served as service unit cookie chair and in several other volunteer positions in the North Alabama legacy council.

Girls in her troop range from grades nine through twelve, and most have been involved with Girl Scouts since they were in Daisies or Brownies. Her troop loves doing community projects, earning the Gold Award and taking on leadership roles in various activities. The girls do service projects with Kids to Love, an adopt-a-prison fellowship angel every Christmas, and they do other projects with their service unit (31) and other troops at their church. Terri also says that when they have graduating high school seniors, one of more of her girls earns the Girl Scout Gold Award.

Terri’s troop donated cookies to the military during the Girl Scout Cookie Program, and they use some of their profits for service projects and their yearly educational trip, which they have done for the past 20 years. Past trips include Ripley’s educational program in Gatlinburg, Tennessee, and the Disney youth program at Disney World.

“My greatest reward from Girl Scouting is seeing the girls become successful women in life, seeing some becoming Girl Scout leaders here in Alabama and other states, and seeing their daughters becoming Girl Scout Daisies and Brownies, carrying on the tradition,” she says.