Troop 2139 is working in their WOW books and are going to start their Journey in their own homes! They created an awesome experiment for measuring how much water is used while brushing their teeth. They are going to take their results and teach their families and friends how to save water while brushing their teeth too! Imagine how much water they will be saving if they tell 5 people and then those people tell 5 people and then those people tell 5 people and so on and so forth… that’s a lot of people and a lot of saved water!

Did you know: You can survive about a month without food but only 5-7 days without water!

One of the troops from the meeting on Tuesday suggested doing something with electronics recycling. Tucson Clean and Beautiful were featured on Tucson NOW today talking about just that! Here is a great resource for you:

http://www.tucsoncleanandbeautiful.org/docs/tcb-electronicsrecycling.pdf

The majority of our troops are on a school break October 17th so they are thinking a lot of girls will probably be out of town. I had passed out my Water in the Desert flyer though, and they all said- Hey, this ties in really nicely, why don’t we all go to this and then celebrate afterward?! So, I will check it out in the morning and see if that could work. That would be neat- service project in the morning and then party in the afternoon! Wahoo! I will have to check with Sabino Canyon and see if we can do that… there will be a whole lot of girls there!

Another topic that came up was the project timeline. It is a pretty short period of time to get a really great sustainable project up and running. I told them that as long as they come up with an idea and start on it before the end, that is ok. This seemed to ease some minds.

Want to know the GREATEST part of the meeting? A lot of the troops have teamed up and are going to WORK TOGETHER!! And not just to get the Cadette Leadership award either. I think its great they are collaborating and they were already coming up with really great projects!

Have met with 2 leaders so far today to go over the Journey Pilot! Our big meeting is tomorrow night at the Resource center from 6-7pm. Everyone is so psyched about this new Journey and I can’t even describe how happy that makes me!

GOOD NEWS!! All 25 troops who wanted to participate in the pilot program get to participate in the program! This is all thanks to our fearless leader, Debbie, who found a way to purchase more Journey books!! I am so happy that I don’t have to turn anyone away! I sent out the acceptance letters today and will be scheduling the Journey orientation meeting sometime during the first week of August. It is nice to have so many great women to take this Journey with!

Not only are we going to have a wonderful time taking the leadership journey together, but we are also embarking on this great council wide journey to make ourselves and our community a happier, healthier and greener place to live and play! And I couldn’t ask for better people to share the trip with.

Check back here throughout our Journey for project ideas, program tips and updates!

Met with Kristen Culliney today to go over project ideas and Forever Green. We are thinking that if everyone is not able to do the Journey itself due to grant restrictions, the remainder of the interested troops can get working on our Forever Green project! They will still be focused on environmental learning and service. However it works out, I’m still thrilled that so many leaders and girls are as focused on the planet as we are! Wahoo!

We also discussed the Take Action project ideas I posted earlier in the week and decided that I should come up with some more.

Thought of some really great recruitment ideas too! We are going to stop handing out flyers because they kill a lot of trees and are relatively ineffective, so I am thinking that to go along with our Journeys and Forever Green themes we can print our information on little seed packets and hand out seeds! Don’t know what kind of seeds yet. Hoping someone will donate a bunch of seeds. Wildflowers, veggies, whatever… as long as they are native to this area! I was also thinking about printing our info on those smelly car freshener things that people hang on their mirrors and have an eco tip on the other side relating to their car. Something like “don’t idle near schools” or “make sure your tires are properly inflated”… stuff like that. Then they’d be looking at it all the time and hopefully following the tip!

Side note: I was totally day dreaming today and researching how to install a wind turbine at the Hacienda! It’s only $35k… …sigh…

Trying to brainstorm some Take Action ideas for the community troop program. Here’s what I’ve thought of so far:

Daisies: Wildflower Wise – identify plants that shouldn’t be here and promote awareness to remove them. Protect our Critters- spread the word about protecting our native creatures that are in harm’s way and work on safety and awareness for scorpions and snakes that are dangerous but part of our natural, healthy ecosystem

Brownies: Promote awareness to save water by having a campaign at the school, make signs, etc. No plastic bottles campaign- complete with plastic boat race! Neighborhood awareness of native plants that don’t need a lot of water- compare to amount of water grass uses and discuss how mulching can reduce water usage. Storm drain marking and water pollution awareness. Rain water harvesting

Juniors: Teach grown-ups how to recycle. School waste reduction program. Save energy- promote clothes lines. Alternative energy awareness- wind and solar power. Plant trees near buildings that will shade and cut down on electric costs in the future. Inflate your tires campaign- properly inflated tires use less gas.

That’s what I’ve got so far. Please send me your ideas too and I will keep thinking ‘em up. If you have a great idea for Girl Scouts, send it to me at kpallack@sahuarogsc.org

Kristen was doing some blogging yesterday about the Vamos a Nicaragua virtual pathway. Check out her blog and leave her comments about all the great things she is doing!
http://sgscnicaragua.wordpress.com/

Sent out an email this morning to all our troop leaders asking if anyone was interested in participating in the pilot. I wasn’t expecting the e-mail to be very successful. YOU GUYS PROVED ME WRONG! I’ve had over 25 troops respond so far and it’s not even the end of the business day yet. I am blown away! I’m so excited that so many of our girls want to Take Action to save the planet. Unfortunately, the pilot is only for 100 girls in traditional troops, which means I’m going to have to tell people no! I don’t know if I can do that! I’ll have to find a way to work with ALL OF THEM!

Sahuaro Girl Scouts: YOU ROCK!