As I've said before, leaders aren't in this for the glory or to be showy, that's how we (leaders) are. We have many reasons for volunteering for Girl Scouts.

But since you've been a leader, have you ever asked yourself, "Why..."

• did I take on this volunteer position?
• don't their parents pick them up on time?
• haven't I gotten her permission slip?
• didn't I get this meeting planned sooner?
• did I decide to have the girls paint at this meeting?
• did I bring popcorn as this week's snack?
• did I let them use GLITTER?

If you've asked yourself these questions and plenty of others, you're definitely not alone. Try this, instead of asking yourself "why," ask "Who..."

• would help these girls understand the importance of community service?
• would become a positive local role model in their lives?
• would influence these Scouts?
• would give these girls a sense of purpose and pride in themselves?
• would give these girls the chance to see new things?
• would spark their interests in new adventures?

Ya, who? You! Some of you do it "Because...

• the smiles on their faces after riding a horse for the first time, cause you to grin from ear-to-ear, that you made it happen for them.
• of the feeling you get when you've helped a Scout discover "she can" when she knew all along, "she couldn't."
• you're renewed after each meeting, knowing you made a difference in a young person's life.
• you were there when no one else was.

I've been in Girl Scouts nearly 25 years, as a girl and adult. I even have an awesome camp name from volunteering at Girl Scout camp, which in itself makes me proud, Momma Scout! I've done all the above and can count on one hand how many times I was thanked for being a leader.

But I really don't care about that pat on the back. The feeling and memories I have of all the girls who passed through my troops, make me proud I could be there for them!

One year on our cookie trip to Great Wolf Lodge, the girls really surprised me. They stopped a room service attendant and asked them if they could give the girls a dessert for their leader...when they let me go in my room, they had the dessert in the middle of a heart they made with game pieces I had for them to play. Talk about bringing Momma Scout to tears! What an awesome gesture! That meant more than you can imagine. Still makes me tear up to think about it.

Just this month, a girl I had in a troop who moved away when she was in third grade, made my day. She was one of the best Scouts I'd ever had. Always eager to try whatever was planned, used her manners, she wanted to make the world a better place. I was so sad when she moved. But guess what! She looked me up on FaceBook! I couldn't believe it! I haven't seen her in about five years. She remembered me. A mere mom who ran her Brownie Girl Scout troop. Talk about feeling like the Cats Meow! What a smile she continued to bring to my face! She remembered me. Can you tell I'm still on Cloud 9?

Apparently, we get a lot from the girls we don't even realize and may not until they are grown up!

So, while your Scouts or parents may not thank you, just remember that you never know how you are affecting someone! A simple "how was school today?" or hug may mean more than you'll ever know!

I suggest you do as I did one year, buy that "Awesome Girl Scout leader on board" window cling and display it proudly!

And let me be the first to say...

Whew! What a cookie sale! I’m sure most of us have a collection of empty Girl Scout cookie case boxes, which are quite handy for LOTS of things! As you’re cleaning out your car, you can put everything in them, store papers to be filed later, use them for newspaper recycling, lugging Girl Scout supplies to meetings etc. Ya, ya, I know the cookie season is over and it’s time to focus on something else…how about Earth Day!

Earth Day is celebrated on April 22 each year. The first Earth Day was held in 1970 and was celebrated by schools and communities. Special programs informed people of the environmental problems our planet was facing.

Folks use Earth Day as a time to clean up their community. We need to remember the kinds of things we can do to help keep our planet healthy are things we need to do all year, we need to make every day Earth Day.

We need to recycle so we stop creating so much trash. We need to stop wasting our natural resources and we need to protect the living space of our vanishing wild animals.

I bet you’re already doing your part. Do you find yourself saving empty pill bottles because you “may be able to make a craft out of it” at a meeting?

Is your basement and garage full of recyclables because it’s better for the environment than trashing all this great stuff we can use during a Girl Scout meeting?

One day I found, under my youngest daughter’s bed, a collection of perforated tabs from the tops of Kleenex boxes and other random recyclables. I asked her why she had all this stuff, “because I’m going to make a craft.” That’s when I realized, “Oh my gosh, she’s going to be a great Girl Scout leader someday!”

At home, we started using a local curb-side recycling service. Since recycling my paper and plastics, I’m down to throwing away one bag of trash a week for a family of three. Talk about making you feel good! Take a look at your trash, do you realize how much of it can be recycled?

The Emporia Region’s Girl Scout office recycles cans and paper. I donate my cans there. Why? Because the money goes toward purchasing a HUGE United States flag for the front of the building. I can’t think of a better mission for used cans.

We need to stop polluting our air, land and water and work harder to clean up those places already polluted. Earth Day is a good time to learn about the things we can do to help Earth be a healthy place for all living things.

Have you seen my favorite Girl Scout T-shirt which states, “Save the World, its The Only Planet with Girl Scout Cookies!” What an awesome Earth Day shirt to bring a smile to everyone’s face! I LOVE IT!

Here’s a little advice, the next time your cronies harass you about the bulging doors on your garage, remind them that you’re a Girl Scout and recycling is what we do to help save our planet for future generations.

To help you reuse those big tissue boxes and plastic bags, here’s a recycling bag saver project.

What you need:

• Large tissue box

• Brown paint/paintbrush

• Newspaper to work on

• Five green pom-poms

• Hole punch

• Scrap of yellow paper

• White glue

• Two small wiggle eyes.

What you do:

• Stand the box on one end. Paint the sides and top brown, like the trunk of a tree. It will most likely need two coats.

• Glue five small pom-poms in a row on the top of your box, to look like a caterpillar. Glue two small wiggle eyes to the first pom-pom.

• Punch four holes out of yellow paper and glue them on the back of the caterpillar.

• Stuff the plastic bags in the box.

Watch my next blog for more recycling and conservation ideas.

Click here to learn how you can be involved in Earth Day activities. 

Peace out Girl Scout!

 It's hard to imagine that one woman founded Girl Scouts. She just had a passion for girls to grow strong, feel successful, support each other and become accomplished at doing things girls just ordinarily didn‘t do. What insight and ability to see the big picture!

Juliette Gordon Low, or Daisy, started her idea of a program for girls when she made a call to a distant relative stating, "I've got something for the girls of Savannah and all of America, and all the world, and we're going to start it tonight!" On March 12, 1912, Daisy gathered 18 girls to register the first troop of American Girl Guides. Margaret "Daisy Doots" Gordon, her niece and namesake, was the first registered member. The name of the organization was changed to Girl Scouts of the USA in 1915.

It's hard to believe, but from the original 18 girls, Girl Scouting has grown to 3.7 million members in more than 100 countries around the world. Girl Scouts is the largest educational organization for girls in the world and has influenced more than 50 million girls, women and men who have belonged to it.

Our Girl Scout Birthday is around the corner, how will you show your Girl Scout pride? March 11 and 12 has been designated as "Wear Your Uniform to School or Work." Girl and adult Girl Scouts are encouraged to wear their uniforms those days to let your peers see how proud you are to be a Girl Scout. And of course, "Proud Girl Scout 2010" patches are available; contact your local regional office for information.

I say let's have a Girl Scout Spirit Week. Here are some ways you can be Girl Scout proud every day the week of March 7:

• Wear your Girl Scout uniform.
• Wear your Girl Scout pin.
• Wear a Girl Scout shirt.
• Wear green.
• Paint or dye your hair green (thought that'd get you fired up!)
• Wear your jacket or vest with participation badges and fun patches
• Wear a bandana (in honor of camping).
• Decorate your office, cube or school with green streamers and balloons.
• Make a Girl Scout good deed catcher and encourage co-workers to play a quick game.
• Ask former Girl Scouts to recite the Girl Scout Promise or Law.
• Gather former members and sing Girl Scout songs.
• Create a Friendship Circle and do the Girl Scout squeeze
• Give the Girl Scout handshake when passing each other in the hall
• Post your favorite Girl Scout memory on the Girl Scouts of Kansas Heartland Facebook page (we'd love to read them)
• Wear your Special Whatchamacallits Affectionately Pinned Somewhere (SWAPS) a keepsake craft Girl Scouts give as gifts or trade with other Scouts.
• Bring SWAPS for the people in your office.
• Make s'mores for your friends.
• Take GORP to work. You know "good old raisins and peanuts," "granola, oats, raisins and peanuts" or "gobs of raw protein." (Be sure you check to see if your co-workers are allergic to any of these items first.)
• Do a good turn daily, it is our slogan you know.
• Do a service project.
• Click here to learn more about the history of Girl Scout, the life of founder Juliette "Daisy" Gordon Low. 

Share with your co-workers and friends, how much you enjoy being a Girl Scout. I'm sure they have no idea how much fun they are missing!!

Peace out Girl Scout!

Wouldn't it be great if all companies presented awards for outstanding achievement, dedication and teamwork? How about a nice pat on the back for being the parent that never misses PTO or a parent-teacher conference? What about all the other thankless jobs we perform daily, just because? Now of course, the majority of us don't offer to help others, do our job well or volunteer just to be recognized. We do it because it makes us feel good. And that my friends, does the body and mind good!

Girl Scout volunteers help mold girls to do their best to be honest and fair, friendly and helpful, considerate and strong and responsibility for what they say and do and to respect myself and others, respect authority, use resources wisely, and just make the world a better place. And to be a sister to every Girl Scout. Sound familiar? It should, it's the Girl Scout Law.

Our volunteers devote hours, effort, energy and sometimes expense to provide Girl Scout programs of substance. Let's face it, adults who participate, encourage and support Girl Scouts are the foundation of our organization!

Did you know the Girl Scouts of Kansas Heartland have 3,149 adult registered members and 982 lifetime members backing our organization? By golly, I say let's recognize some of these dedicated folks!

Send in the names of your leaders, arts and crafts specialists, parent helpers, summer camp directors, Service Unit managers/team and product sales chairpersons, any volunteer you believe should be recognized for their Girl Scout involvement. Anyone can submit a nomination!

For a synopsis of our awards click here "Volunteer Award Recognition Plan."

Click here for the "Nomination Form for Council Recogntion."  

Nominations for Council Awards must be submitted to your regional office by Feb. 26.

Initial cookie orders are placed and the numbers look great! (1,185,189 boxes sold as of Feb. 5 from Scouts in the Girl Scouts of Kansas Heartland’s entire 80 counties! AWESOME!)

Has your Scout reached her cookie goal? If not, have no fear the cookie sale isn’t over yet, it runs through March 7. Yes, March 7! AND in our experience, the people who missed pre-ordering come out of the woodwork! You can still call on customers you couldn’t catch during pre-order collecting. You know what this means? Yes, girls can still reach their goals…or go over them.

Don’t forget your troop also can hold a cookie booth! Interested? Your Troop Cookie Manager can set it up, refer to the “Cookie Booth Guide.”

Soon it’s on to the delivery stage of the cookie season. Taking pre-orders is a blast for the girls, but delivery is not quite as exciting, well, for anyone but the customer. Let’s face it, it’s a lot of hard work! For everyone!

Here are a few delivery tips:

• Do you keep missing that customer? Give them a call, hopefully they wrote their phone number on the order form. Or call first!
• On weekdays, we like to deliver between 5:30 and 8:30 p.m., yes, I know it’s dark, it’s easier to tell if the customer is home, they usually have lights on. Then we go back and deliver/call those we couldn’t tell were home.
• Be prepared with notes stating, “We stopped by to deliver your cookies, we’re sorry we missed you. Here’s our phone number to call us with convenient time to stop by. Thank you, {Scout’s first name}.”
• Don’t carry ALL the checks and money collected. Leave enough in the envelope to make change for a $20, that should do ya. Put additional collected money a safe place.
• Take a note pad to tally additional boxes sold while delivering. If Aunt Madge has a friend at her house when you’re delivering, the new potential customer may want to purchase a couple boxes. Go ahead and sell to her, then tally the boxes you sold. This really helps your record keeping, especially when you need to replenish those boxes.
• Did your Scout have a lot of pre-orders? Create a spreadsheet and place (or sort) customers in the same neighborhood together so you’re not driving all over town.
• If parents took the form to work, it would be a great gesture for the Scout to write a personal thank you on an address label to stick on the cookies when delivered. Actually, it would be great for everyone customer to get a thank you note.
• Some folks package their customer’s cookies in plastic sacks and write their names on the outside of the bag. This can be very helpful. We prefer to have the cases in the van and pull the boxes as they are delivered.

Most importantly, encourage Scouts to verbally thank their customers for spending their hard–earned cash on Girl Scout cookies from them! We can’t say thank you enough, after all, our customers are helping our Scouts learn about goal setting and achievement, responsibility, business, math, attend camps/activities and learn some great life-long lessons.

Peace out, Girl Scout!

World Thinking Day, Feb. 22, is the birthday of both Robert Baden-Powell and his sister Agnes. They lived in England and started the first troop of Boy Scouts and Girl Guides. This is a special day for Girl Scouts and Girl Guides everywhere to think about each other. This special Girl Scout holiday provides an opportunity to learn about different cultures and maybe even try something new.

Great resources to assist you in learning about other cultures are high school foreign exchange students and international students from colleges. Maybe you can invite someone to your meeting who grew up or often visits other countries. Even Scout Troops who have visited our World Centers would be a great resource. (Contact your regional Girl Scout office for a list of troop contacts.)

One year my Brownies were introduced to some international students from Emporia State University. The students told us the history of their country, taught us games and brought us some popular dishes from their home land. All Scouts took at least one bite of each dish. The noodles from South Korea seemed to be the favorite. While other foods brought expressions that were priceless.

Another year my friend Rosa, who had just moved to the United States from Peru, attended our World Thinking meeting. She told us about her culture, climate, family etc. She kept telling the Troop that they have man “yamas.” She was very proud of these “yamas,” however with her dialect, we just couldn’t understand what she was saying. We kept asking her to repeat the word. Finally she pulled out a prop. She was saying “llama.” She was thrilled when the young American Girl Scout Troop finally figured it out.

It may take a little more of your time and few more phone calls to find a presenter to come to your meeting, but it’s worth it. To hear first hand about other countries cultures is well worth it!

Don’t let World Thinking Day pass you and your troop by! Pick up that phone or shoot some e-mails to make one of your most memorable meetings!