This fundraiser is taking over my life!

There are 17 people registered to our Girl Scout troop, and after deposits, it will cost $5,355 to take them all the Washington, D. C. for the 100th Anniversary Sing a Long on the mall.  So, right now, my life is this fundraiser, where we're hoping to make half of that or more.

So much work!  Hoping it will be a huge success.  But, I would soooo rather have one big event than many little ones, sort of like death-by-1,000-cuts.  As of right now there are a lot of moving parts, with stores, vendors, workshops, activities, refreshments, etc.  My partner for this event is a true dynamo though, so I know we can get through together!

Focusing - Work and Girl Scouts

I am loving my new job.  For my first month, I am mostly training, so I have been spending most weekday mornings learning about school programs at the museum.  I'm learning about everything from Native American games to static electricity.  This week I learned to operate TAM, the Transparent Anatomical Manikin.  You might recognize her from the cover of Nirvana's last album - of course sans wings .

I have also been devoting lots of hours to Girl Scouts in the past few weeks.  The new Girl's Guides to Girl Scouting have been released and I have my copy of the Brownie level book.  It has many positive changes, including updated badges that are a little more challenging than the old Try-Its.  I've been thinking a lot about fundraising.  We're going to need quite a bit of money to get our troop to Washington DC this year, so we are planning a big fashion-related fundraiser for January.  Right now I'm trying to secure a location, but since I need such a big space on such a low budget, I'm struggling a bit to find exactly the right place.  Hopefully these hours on the phone, emailing, and visiting locations will pay off!

Our Daisies' First Big Event: Fashion Show and Court of Awards

Last year by End-of-Year time, our Daisies were five years old. I suggested a few different themes for the evening, and we ended up deciding on a princess fashion show. Several were obsessed with all things princess, and the rest were at least very interested. We normally use a room at a public library for our meetings, and because we go into mid-June, it changes to summer hours, and starts closing early. We knew we wouldn't be able to use this space for the event if we wanted people who worked to be able to attend. We rented the dining hall at a Girl Scout camp one town away and made it a casual evening. For dinner, we did potluck, any kind of dish acceptable. We did have people sign up in advance, and we ended up with a nice variety.

One of the most important things we did was rent a simple PA system. We got it free from a local college library. The girls were very serious about speaking into the microphone! It made the whole thing more solemn and made them feel more grown-up. I assigned jobs to each girl so they would each have the opportunity to use it. We had girls say welcome, say the pledge, recognize current and former Girl Scouts, say the Girl Scout promise, and sing Make New Friends. I had one especially outgoing girl MC the fashion show. I traced their route on the floor with painters tape and marked the spot where they should twirl. Our MC came out first and I stood with her, to whisper in her ear when she got nervous and forgot her descriptions. She did a great job!



After the fashion show we lit candles to symbolize the serious part of the night starting. I listed the awards that were being given out at the beginning - there were so many that if I tried to list what each girl was getting, we would have been there all night. Each girl came up and accepted her awards and shook my hand. I always present awards in the order the girls joined the troop, from newest to oldest. Then I recognized my Cadette Assistant and my Assistant Leader/Cookie Coordinator. My husband helped the girls coordinating giving me my 10-year pin, and a special daisy card they made me.

At the very end of the evening we did a quick folk dance we'd learned that year, and then closed with a friendship circle for the entire audience. About 45 people attended this event and it went very well. The girls felt a great sense of accomplishment, and the parents and families were very pleased. Within the week, I mailed each girl a note telling her how proud I was.