Girl Scouts Recipe for Success: Raze One Eye-Sore Diner; Raise Regional Leadership Resource Center

Editors Note: All media are invited to attend the Diner Demolition and Groundbreaking from 7:30 to 8:30 am. Brownies to Senior Girl Scouts will be participating in demolition. Girl Scouts CEO Debbie Rich is available on site for interviews.

WHAT:              5 & Diner Restaurant demolition to clear space for regional leadership resource center for Girl Scouts

WHEN:             Tuesday, June 18, 2013
7:30 – 8:30 am

WHERE:           4330 E. Broadway Blvd. Tucson, AZ

DETAILS:

TUCSON, AZ (June 14, 2013) –­ Girl power will blast a graffiti-covered eye-sore this week to make room for the future site of a regional leadership resource center for the Girl Scouts of Southern Arizona Council. A formal ceremony at 7:30 a.m., Tuesday, June 18, for Girl Scout troop members and adults will mark the demolition of the old and the construction of the new at the site of the run-down restaurant, once known as the 5 & Diner and Broadway Café at 4330 E. Broadway Blvd.

The Girls Scouts purchased the land adjacent to their current offices earlier this month with a vision of expanding and creating a resource center for girls and adults across Southern Arizona. The proposed 20,000 square foot regional leadership resource center will expand the Girl Scouts’ training, troop meeting rooms, STEM program area, outdoor green space and Girl Scout supplies shop.

“Our vision is to develop a resource campus for Southern Arizona that reinforces to our troops that girls can do anything,” said Debbie Rich, Chief Executive Officer, Girl Scouts of Southern Arizona. “Our mission is to build girls of courage, confidence and character who make the world a better place and this will be a beautiful place for our girls to learn, it will be a way to give back to our neighborhood and help improve it.”

In addition to the offices in Tucson, the Girl Scouts of Southern Arizona have a residence camp, a day camp and offices in Yuma and Sierra Vista. While demolition is currently underway, there is no confirmed end-date for the addition at the Tucson office.

The Girl Scouts of Southern Arizona is one of 100 local councils in the United States and is comprised of Girl Scouts from Pima, Cochise, Santa Cruz and Yuma counties. The Southern Arizona Council joins 3.2 million Girl Scouts – 2.3 million girl members and 880,000 adult members working primarily as volunteers — in celebrating the 100^th anniversary of the movement’s founding. In Girl Scouts, girls discover the fun, friendship, and power of girls together. Through a myriad of enriching experiences, such as extraordinary field trips, sports skill-building clinics, community service projects, cultural exchanges, and environmental stewardships, girls grow courageous and strong. Girl Scouting helps girls develop their full individual potential; relate to others with increasing understanding, skill, and respect; develop values to guide their actions and provide the foundation for sound decision-making; and contribute to the improvement of society through their abilities, leadership skills, and cooperation with others. For more information about Girl Scouts, contact the Council at 520-327-2288, visit www.girlscoutssoaz.org/ or like them on Facebook.Cached or like them on Facebook.

In the past two months, there have been six publicly reported cases of child commercial sexual exploitation or attempted exploitation in Tucson — also known as sex trafficking. In multiple cases, the traffickers used social media, like Facebook, in order to target these young girls and communicate with them. Luckily, parents played a key role in five of these situations and were able to intervene to best protect their children. One of the men arrested in these cases, a twenty-four year old, said that young girls in Tucson are “like a buffet, I just have to decide which I want to have first.” The girls in each of these cases came from different areas and communities in Tucson and therefore, we at Sold No More, a non-profit ministry combating minor sex trafficking in Tucson,  believe all parents and community members would benefit from the following trainings:

We have scheduled two free community awareness training events, “Cyber Predators: Protecting Our Children & Youth”:

• 6:30pm on Tuesday, June 11 at St. Andrews Church (7650 North Paseo Del Norte – near Ina & Oracle)
• 6:30pm on Tuesday, June 25 at Christ Community Church (7801 E Kenyon Dr – near Broadway & Pantano)

We are partnering with the Tucson Police Department to host these two events, which will be led by Internet Crimes Against Children officers to help educate parents and others on how to protect children and youth from those who are seeking to use and exploit them via the internet.

To find out more information about Sold No More and these events visit www.SoldNoMore.org please contact Morgan with any questions info@soldnomore.org

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