Yesterday, my Girl Scout troop wrapped up their food drive at school. It was part of a earning a badge I wanted them to work on, called Food Power. As most of our activities at take place at school, I asked the principal of our school if we could do this food drive there. She answered with the request that we do it for the upcoming holidays and make the recipients families in our school community that needed a little help getting through the season. Which was perfect, because while I knew I wanted the girls to have some connection with the recipients, ideally other kids, I had no other ideas in mind.
We teamed up with the Daisy troop at school. (My girls are Juniors. Girl Scouts are broken up by age into different groups, with Brownies being the age group inbetween. I get asked about this alot.). We also had some big help from the Student Government Association, teachers and administrators at school. This was, in every way, a group effort.
Yesterday was the big day of sorting and packing the donations that had been collected over the last month.
We were told there were 55 families that had signed up to be part of this effort. We started with a bag for each and when we filled them, we started a second bag for families with 5 members or more. In just over an hour and a half, we sorted & packed what amounted to about 80 bags.
As we wrapped up, we got all the girls and leaders to pose for a group shot.
(Most of the Daisies had their uniforms on, my girls, not so much.)
I’ve received several thank yous on behalf of the girls for this. All our girls did was make a few posters and then sort and pack donations. The school community donated the items. There were a few very generous donors who stepped up and made sure we had enough for every family to receive a bag of food as well as gift cards to area grocery stores. Credit also goes to the incredibly supportive parents (and grandparents) of the girls in both troops, many of whom came to help out yesterday. Most of all, credit must go to the school administrators, who gave us the idea, encouragement and support to make this happen.
The girls worked beautifully together. They all jumped in so enthusiastically and with very little direction, knocked it out. I loved seeing the big ones working with the little ones in such a seamless way. I don’t know if the girls truly understand the impact they had on their world yesterday. I know mine doesn’t. What I think matters most though, is that they made a difference in their community. Because when it comes down to it, we’re all in this together.
Chicken Wire & Paper Flowers 