Girl Scouts: Awesome job!

Great job scouts!

From brainstorming on Zoom until the event today, you girls did a great job. Everyone--even the girls that couldn't be here today--participated, whether it was coming up with ideas, asking questions, or just being a positive source of support.

About 300 people did art projects today, with more parents and families involved, to promote justice, fairness, and equality in our community.  You wanted to help spread a positive message in our community through art, and you definitely succeeded!  And you brought a lot of fun and joy into a lot of kids hearts while you did it.

I'll send you some pictures I took from today later.  

I'd also like to send a brag story out to your teachers sharing the whole story of the event and that you were willing to sacrifice your time and be brave and go right out in public in order to help spread positivity and work for positive change in your community.  If you let me know who your teachers are, I'll write something nice and feature you prominently--that's the stuff that absolutely makes teachers love you.  Even if they can't say it outright, I guarantee it gives you the benefit of the doubt if you're on the edge between two grades--it's the subjective part of grading that turns B+'s into A-'s and A-'s into A's!  (It doesn't have to be just Social Studies and English--those are just usually the teachers most into what you did.  Any teacher that's into empowering girls and women, and promoting social awareness and activism will love love love hearing this story.) 

Once again:  great job girls!

Aleks

Notes for Saturday "Fall Art for Fairness"

Hi everyone!

Just a couple notes:

#1)  Please wear your uniform!

#2)  If anyone can arrive a hair early (11:45-ish) that would be great.  Everything should be set up by then, but that way we can go through all our procedures to make sure we're keeping it safe and fun for everyone.  (If you're REALLY ambitious, Evie and I'll be getting there around 10:00 to start setting up, and we could use help then too.)

#3)  Speaking of setting up, I've worked with the Hay Daze organizer to get enough space to make sure we're doing this as COVID safely as possible.  Here's the plan:

• We'll have 4 10x10 canopies arranged in a square and roped off with only one entrance point into the square.
• Participants will have to be masked and hand sanitized before coming in, and will be limited to 6-8 participants in the square at a time (we'll decide if we stick with six or expand to 8 based on how the space looks that day.)
• Participants will check in at the entrance, and will pick what project they want to do.  Quinn (Thanks!!) has made a sign with a list and another with suggestions, and we'll have the examples the girls made at camp there to show off too.
• Participants will be given the supplies for their particular project and will spread out to a specific table.
• When they're done, they'll give their supplies to a girl scout for sanitizing and another participant can come in.

We should be able to keep people spread out, masked up, and keep surfaces and equipment clean this way.  We'll be outside which helps too. If anyone gets belligerent, Kathleen and I will be there the whole time to shut them down.  If they don't want to wear a mask, they don't have to do our free project!  :)

Thanks to all the girls for a GREAT idea and a great opportunity to help spread a message of fairness, tolerance, respect, justice, and equality.

Aleks

Girl Scouts: Getting a confirmation on numbers for Saturday

Hi everyone!

Just want to get a confirmation on numbers for Saturday.

Who will be at the Gazebo 12:00-4:00 on Saturday to do the scouts "Art for Fairness and Equality" community art project?

Thanks!

Aleks

Girl Scouts: Reminder Girl Scout Art Event 9/26

Hi everyone!

Now that we're all recovered from camp, I just wanted to send a quick reminder that our scouts' community art for fairness event is scheduled as part of Hay Daze on Saturday 9/26 from 12:00-4:00 by the gazebo.

The campout girls did a great job making some examples of decorated masks and yard signs, but we could still use some posters to spice up our area.

If any girls could make posters that say things like:

"Make Art for Equality" or similar sentiments, that would be awesome!  Please let me know if you're making a poster for the event, so I can have an idea of how decorated (or undecorated) it will be.

This will be a great opportunity to get out in front of the community and help people express themselves, while expressing yourselves about the importance of fairness and equality for everyone.

Aleks

Girls Scouts: it'll be a very boring and hungry campout--still waiting for ideas! (And art info)

Hi everyone!

Just a reminder that camping girls' homework was to come up with meal and activity ideas for camp.  There's not much time left, and we'll need time to prep ideas and get supplies, so I hope someone comes up with something tomorrow!!!!

Also, our time slot at Hay Day for "Art for Fairness and Equity" is 12:00-4:00PM Saturday 9/26.  It'll be all-hands on deck, so lock that time in!  Lunch is on me for the girls who come to help the community do some art celebrating diversity and promoting fairness and equality.  

See you this weekend (campers) and on the 26th (everyone!)

Aleks

Campout info and docs (permission slips, etc.)

Hi everyone!

Just some campout followup since it's almost here.

(Attendance, Schedule, Homework, and Docs to fill out.)

#1)  Attendance

So, here's what I have for attendance:  Colette, Evie, Katie, Ellen, and Erin.  Anyone else?

What I'll need from the scouts attending are your planned arrival and departure times, so I know when to expect you.  I've included a SIlverbrook map in the email so we can coordinate drop off/pick up locations based on where we are at those times.

#2)  Schedule

The plan is that Kathleen, Evie and I will arrive in the evening (4-5:00) on Friday night, and girls attending can arrive anytime after that (Friday or Saturday) and, we'll be leaving between 11:00-11:30 AM Sunday and attending girls can be picked up any time before that.   

Slightly more detailed schedule breakdown:

Friday evening:  Archery and Axe Throwing until dark or bored.  Then campfire dinner (looking for ideas from girls--see attached "Food, Meals, and Outdoor Cooking" doc for inspiration or come up with your own!)  Wrap up the evening with a movie in the big cabin.  

We have a group of small cabins (the girls know the ones) to sleep in that will keep the kids separated.  With parent permission girls can bunk with partners if necessary (beds are spaced to the far opposite sides of each cabin, so there is distance there, and the windows can be kept open to keep good airflow through the cabins).  We do have enough mini-cabins to solo a cabin if that's what you prefer.

Saturday:  Campfire breakfast ~9:00 AM.  Throughout the day we have three "official" activities, and can fill in with whatever the girls can dream up.  Official activities:  magical beasts scavenger hunt around the lake, fishing, and night hike.  Otherwise, I'm looking for ideas from the girls to fill in the time!  (We can do more axes and archery during the day Saturday too.)

Sunday:  Campfire breakfast ~9:00 AM.  Clean up, and head out 11:00-11:30AM.

#3)  Homework

Parents:  Fill in the COVID-19 Member Participation Waiver and send it to camp with your scout.  Also send me an emergency contact full name and phone number, and approximate drop off and pick up times for your scout.

Scouts:  No later than Wednesday send me at least one idea for an activity to do at camp, or a meal/snack to make at camp.

That's all for the moment!  See you at camp!

Aleks

Girl Scouts: Art Party and Campout AGAIN :)

Hi everyone!

I have some pretty great updates for the art party, and some questions for Girl Scout campers.

#1)  Art Party Updates (important stuff in bold) 

    

    A)  Supplies are on their way!  We have 30 blank signs to decorate, 30' of blank magnet strip to decorate (if we do 6" strips, that's 60 car magnets people can make!), tons of permanent markers and puffy paint, masks from the Health Department, and lots of paint and brushes. 

    We still need rocks to decorate, so could some scout or scouts stop by a beach and get a couple buckets of paintable rocks?

    

    B)  After a lot of back and forth and runarounds, and hunting and chasing, we have an official date!  We'll be at Hay Day!  The village has given us space for an "Art for Equality" activity area at Hay Day on September 26th.  This should be a great opportunity to share the message and activity with a good number of families.  The only drawback is that we might run out of some supplies, before the event is over, but that's OK.  If we run out of some things, we'll just focus on what's left.  They suggested we could also have baby pumpkins to paint, which I thought was a neat idea.  How does that sound to you all?  

    

    C)  Decorations?  Are any of you scouts able to make some posters for our area?  We'll print up some copies of the poster Katie made (which looks awesome!) to spruce up our area, but if any of you can make some larger posters that say "Art for Equality" or something like that, emphasizing the themes of equity, equality, and fairness, that would be awesome!  Can anyone help with that?

    

    D)  Timeline.  I'm not sure what the timeline is for setup and teardown for Hay Day, but asked the Village rep. and she'll get back to me so I can pass that info on to you.

#2)  Campout!  

    Is anyone else planning to join us for a laid back weekend of outdoor fun at Silverbrook on September 11-13 (or anywhere inbetween those dates?)

    And for those of you going:  do you have ideas of things for us to do there?  We'll be fishing, and hiking, and throwing axes, and shooting bows and arrows, cooking over a fire, cooking more over a fire, playing some camp games, but do you have any ideas?  Camp this year isn't as structured in the past, so we really get to do what we want.  The ball's in your court girls!  Ideas?

Happy scouting!

Aleks