Volunteer Connections by Girl Scouts of Nassau County

Girl Scout Troop 1254 recently received their Silver Award at the Garden City Association of Girl Scouts Awards Ceremony. Together, the girls developed programs to help shelter animals. Ella, Mary and Deanna, created a reading program entitled “Reading to the Rescue” for Pets 4 Luv.  The girls donated a bookshelf that they personally painted with animals and bright colors to be placed at the main entrance of the center. The girls filled the bookshelf with books they collected throughout the year. The program helps young readers gain confidence as they read to a non-judgmental audience and it calms the animals and gives them the attention they need while they are waiting to be adopted. Riley, Simran and Colleen instituted a field trip program that invites sister Girl Scouts, senior citizens and all members of the community to visit Pets 4 Luv.  Visitors are encouraged to bring much needed supplies to the shelter. The Troop visited The Bristol assisted living residence...

Buddy Bench Bronze Award Project by Girl Scout Troop 3095 Hi! We are Troop 3095 from Jericho. This year we worked on our Girl Scout Bronze Award , the highest award a Junior Girl Scout can earn. For our Bronze Award, we decided to address the issue of loneliness on the playground. We didn’t want to see children afraid to join in with a group or to feel left out. So, we decided to donate a Buddy Bench to each of our 3 Elementary Schools. A Buddy Bench prevents bullying and is a great way to make new friends.  In order to pay for our benches, we had to sell A LOT of Girl Scout Cookies . Our goal was to sell 2,500 boxes and we actually sold 2,822 boxes!! We sold to our family and friends, went door to door and had a lot of booth sales. With our cookie money, we were able to buy 3 Buddy Benches and 3 plaques to put on the benches. The plaque says, “Buddy Bench donated by Girl Scout Troop 3095”.  We even had some money left over to have a pizza party ...

Plainedge Girl Scout Junior Troop #3456 started their Bronze Award project in June of 2013. Krystyna, Erica, Jessica, Sarah, Julia, Gianna, Natalia and Jacklyn decided that they wanted to positively impact the lives of animals. After much research, the girls decided to focus on making the world a better place for dogs. They wanted to permanently place water bowls in dog parks for people who forget to bring water for their dogs. They met with the owners of Marine Dog Supply. The Amato brothers helped the girls think their project through during a lively discussion. After evaluating the pros and cons of their idea, they decided that public water bowls may spread diseases. The girls hit the road again. Their next field trip was to the Last Hope Animal Shelter. There they learned that different breeds face different issues. For example, because of the facial structure of Pugs they take a very long time to drink a very small amount of water therefore requiring more frequent opportuni...

The Bronze Award is earned by completing a Take Action Project, where you discover an issue or need in your community that you work on to improve.  Here is a great list of "what NOT to do for the Girl Scout Bronze Award":   Don’t set up a project where you show no leadership. Each girl must take on a role in the Bronze Award project to make it happen. Don’t set up a project without a team, just working by yourself or just you and your parents. Bronze Award projects are team projects. If you do not have a troop team available to you, develop a team with friends your own age in your neighborhood. They would have the option to join Girl Scouting and earn the award themselves. Don’t put together a project that is a fundraiser to donate money to an organization. This is not allowed for the Girl Scout Bronze Award. Have your mom or Girl Scout Leader call Council for you to ask questions. This is your project and not your mom’s or your Troop Leader’s. Show your leadership sk...

From Local to Global – Connecting Your Gold Award Project to a Larger Community As Girl Scouts working towards our Gold Award, we have found an issue that is important to us… but is this issue important to others outside our local community? How are others affected but this issue? How are they working to solve this problem? Making sure that we have achieved the global component of our Gold Award is important, but it is often the most neglected piece our project. So, how do you make sure that you haven’t overlooked this key element? First, let’s take a look at the definition of National/Global Link . Girl Scouts should identify national and/or global links to their selected issue. Girl Scouts should learn from others and apply what they’ve learned to their project. Once their project is complete, they need to develop a plan to share the results of the project beyond the local community.   The hope is for you to develop a deeper understanding of your issue and how ...

For me, one of the toughest parts of the Girl Scout Gold Award…second to coming up with a project idea…is sustainability. The word “sustainability” is something you often hear in connection to Girl Scout Take Action Projects. What exactly does this mean? In terms of a Girl Scout Take Action Project, SUSTAINABILITY means that the project MEETS THE NEEDS of the people and/or the environment NOW, while having a plan AND the potential to CONTINUE indefinitely IN THE FUTURE. Sustainability allows for a greater, longer impact on the community. There is a difference between a sustainable project and one that is community service. Collections, drives, donations, visitations (no matter how many times done) are a onetime fix and considered community service. Beautification and renovation projects without an educational component are considered community service. What adds sustainability to a project is addressing the root cause of an issue and making a plan that addresses...