Martin Luther King had a dream. As Girl Scouts, we dream a lot.

What’s your dream? You might dream of owning an animal shelter, being a musician, or even being a better friend.  What do you think you need to do to reach your dream? Share your dreams with us by January 16th to zippere@gsnc.org and you may see them somewhere special.


Leaders - Looking for ways to help your girls achieve their dreams?  Here are a few tips:


Think back to a time when you were your girls’ age and an adult made a choice for you.  Maybe it was what you had for lunch, what club or sport you should have joined, or what instrument you played.  Were you excited about that choice?  Probably not as much as if you had a role in making the decision.  The same goes for your girls.  If you let them have a role in choosing what dream to follow, they’ll be more successful and have a lot more fun.  Does your group need a little structure to help get their ideas flowing? 


Here are a few ideas:

• Try giving them a few “feelings” words to think about – happy, safe, loved, healthy, etc.  Discussing one word at a time, ask girls what they can do to help people feel that way.  For example, how can you help a person feel happy?  Why would a person not feel loved?  How do you think we can help people feel healthier?  Let this lead into one or a few project ideas.
• If you need to save time, you might want to give girls a few options and let them vote on the one they like best.  It’s certainly not as ideal as letting them come up with the ideas on their own, but they’re still getting a role in making the decision.
• Dreaming big is great, but what happens when they dream too big?  Suppose this is your girls’ first year selling cookies.  When you ask them what they want to do with the money and they say something like, “Go to Disney!” What do you do?  It’s a great dream, but may not be realistic for their first year.  Many girls need a lesson in balancing big dreams with realistic thinking.  To help them understand this, show them a big plate of cookies and ask “How many do you think you can eat?”  They might say 20, 100, or even 1,000.  Now say, “What if I said you only have 5 minutes to eat the cookies?  Would you change your goal?  Probably.  Time can make reaching our dreams challenging.  What do you think are some of the challenges we might face with the project we chose (money to fund it, getting the people power necessary, etc)?  How can we make our dreams more realistic while staying true to the spirit of our dreams?”