Helping babies in the NICU!

The blanket makers with their cozy blankets!

We had another AWESOME meeting on November 20, and helped make knotted fleece baby blankets for 12 babies in the neonatal intensive care unit at Methodist Hospital in Gary. NICU nurse Terri Hendrickson was our speaker and said the blankets would be very much appreciated by the families receiving them. Some families coming to Gary Methodist don't even have a going-home baby outfit for their newborn, and very few have blankets and just go home with the typical thin hospital blanket. So she said, especially with the cold weather upon us, the families would treasure the blankets the girls made.

We used troop funds to purchase the fleece at Jo-Ann Fabrics (thanks to those of you who contributed coupons! :-) and had the blankets pre-cut so the girls just had to tie knots. They were great at this and had the blankets ready in no time. We might make more in the future for animals as part of their bronze project. 

Nurse Terri explained what her job as a NICU nurse is like, including what led her to become a nurse. The girls learned about saving a premature baby's life and how Terri has helped transport sick and premature infants.

They learned there are stereotypes nurses face, too, and how to overcome them. The girls got to see Terri intubate a baby doll and how equipment helps babies stay warm and breathe. They saw photos and x-rays from Terri's work. They all learned how to diaper and swaddle a baby using their baby dolls and hospital diapers and blankets. Everyone really enjoyed it!

At the end of our meeting, the girls showed off their cartoon superhero drawings. We had superheroes helping the homeless, others helping stray dogs and others that were experts on friendship. It was fun to see how each girl came up with her own superhero!

Diane gave all the girls their cookie forms so they can begin selling cookies to family over the holidays. They can start selling to the public January 1, but to relatives beginning now. We will hopefully have another booth sale this  year.

Nurse Terri Hendrickson explains how she and other NICU nurses care for premature babies

Jilli and her intubated baby doll

Ava with her diapered baby ;-)

Naomi with her swaddled baby doll

Julianna with her swaddled baby doll

These blankets turned out beautifully!

Voting and Veterans Cards!

At this meeting (Nov. 6) we had the girls vote on the area they wanted to focus on for their Bronze Project. These girls have such big hearts, they want to help a LOT of different groups -- sick babies in the neonatal unit, kids in orphanages, animal shelters, seniors, the environment/parks, underprivileged kids who don't have a lot of books or toys, etc., etc.! We needed to get them to narrow their focus so we could figure out how to best use their time and our resources for their Bronze Award.

Here's the interesting thing: Many Girl Scout troops do ONE thing for their Bronze Project. These girls have so much energy and enthusiasm we will be doing service projects all year long! How amazing is that?! Talk about the Girl Scout slogan: "Leave a place better than how you found it." They are living examples of making the world a better place!

The "vote" on a Bronze project "won" by one vote: Helping Animals. But we plan to also help many other organizations this year, including making a meal for the homeless on December 5, making blankets for Neonatal babies on November 20 and collecting books for needy kids at a Hammond School. Letters keep pouring in in response to the girls' letters to community organizations, and we're confident we will be able to help many other organizations this year.

Suzanne and I are working to give the girls choices on how they want to help animals, whether it's through the Humane Society, a group called Power Paws, or another local shelter that assists wildlife. We will keep you posted on our plans.

At the end of our meeting, with Veterans Day coming up, the girls made cards for service men and women. I am mailing them to an organization that gets letters to service men and women currently serving in our Armed Forces. I'm sure these will brighten their day!

Civic Activists!

We had a special meeting October 23 so the girls could narrow their focus for a Bronze Project. I can't even tell you how cool this meeting was! I didn't expect it would be all that exciting, since it involved them writing letters, but it was! 

It seems the girls felt empowered learning to write REAL business letters like adults to local organizations, asking how we could help. They each put their own spin on their letters, which was also very gratifying to see. I can remember back a few years ago, when writing sentences for these girls was a struggle. Now they are able to write persuasive business letters! Amazing to see how they've progressed. Hopefully this is a skill they'll be able to use as they get older, too.

We had each girl write a letter, and some that finished early wrote more than one. We only used first names in the letters and had everyone respond to my home address. We've heard back from several of the organizations and plan to do projects with more than one of them!

Painting! October 16 meeting

A few of our amazing artists! (lots more photos at the bottom of this post...keep reading!)

On Friday, October 16, we had a GREAT meeting featuring Dawn Diamontopoulos, a local artist. She was wonderful with the girls, teaching them to paint a modern "Mondrian" style painting, complete with measuring first, primary colors and canvases.

As the girls asked her questions, we learned that -- even in the art world -- stereotypes exist that male painters are somehow more talented -- or sell their work for more money -- than female artists. The girls were interested to learn that Dawn had to overcome stereotypes to make a name for herself as a female artist, and how she followed her dream to become a painter. 

We talked about gender-based stereotypes the girls might have to break through -- or already have -- in their lives. 

Several brought up the idea that boys are considered "better" at sports or math, and how they have combatted that already by practicing sports or math and proving to others that they are just as good as boys, if not better. 

They are confident girls and we want to keep that going for them, as middle school tends to bring on a loss in self-esteem for so many young girls. The more we can give them skills to break through stereotypes, and be confident in their talents, the better off they will be as they head off to middle school and the teen years.

Example of one of the girl's awesome journal entries where they had to find quotes about success and failure

Suzanne and I have been very happy to see how engaged the girls have been in our discussions. They can't wait to share thoughts from their journal, or just be a part of the discussion on all of the topics that we've covered.

A reminder that Girl Scouts may seem different to you this year because the girls are required to complete a journey (the purpose of the journals and speakers this year) in order to earn the Bronze Award for their Bronze Project, the third highest award in Girl Scouts. We've been surprised how enthusiastic they've been with the curriculum we've come up with. Girl Scouts publishes books with journeys and we have picked and chosen things we think were most relevant or interesting for the girls to do for their journey. Basically we created our own curriculum in the journals. It's meant to get them to think about themselves a bit. 

The journal activities should only take a few minutes of time and they should be doing it between meetings, not in the meeting. We are rewarding them with treats for bringing it (one piece of candy) and for filling out the sections we've asked them to fill out ahead of the meeting (second piece of candy). They really want the candy, as you can imagine!

Dawn talking to the girls

More photos from our cool painting meeting!

Girl Scouts 2015-2016

Welcome Back!

Hello All and welcome back to another year of Girl Scouts! We met once over the summer to go fishing at Oak Ridge Prairie, which was a lot of fun for all! Jilli's Dad, Gerry, was an awesome fishing teacher and most of the girls caught a fish and all learned to cast. Everyone wants to go back another time and Gerry says he's up for going again, too! Don't miss it if we try this again! The girls also learned the basics of building a campfire and we roasted hot dogs and s'mores.

Julianna with a blue gill

Jilli and Gerry with a catfish!

We're looking forward to another fun year of Girl Scouts! This year the girls can earn the third-highest award in Girl Scouts: The Bronze Award. This one is based around a community service project. We've asked them to look for ideas of things that can be improved upon in the community when they're out and about and record their ideas in the journals we gave them at our first meeting, August 21. Please encourage them to bring any bronze ideas they have to our meetings and jot down ideas in their journals. These could be things like beautifying a neighborhood park, helping sick kids in the hospital, cheering up a senior citizen home, helping create something useful at a school, etc.

For the beginning of the school year, we'll be focusing on helping the girls complete a "Girl Scout journey" designed to help them explore different women's roles. This journey is required before we can earn a bronze award. Some of the journey will explore stereotypes about women and how to break those stereotypes and build self esteem and confidence. This is especially good timing since they'll be transitioning to middle school next year. The stronger and more self-confident they are now, the easier the transition will be to middle school.

The girls are to complete the first three sections in their journals by our next meeting, September 4. These sections include: Who are you right now? (a few short sentences describing themselves: "I am a sister. I am good at climbing and love to ride my scooter. I am a dancer.") The second section includes naming their favorite five characters in books or movies (this can also include TV shows). The third section involves them writing all the women they meet in their daily lives and what qualities they have -- so, for example, they might name their teacher and what they like about her; or their pediatrician and whatever her qualities are).

We'll be talking about what they've written in their journals in upcoming meetings so, the more the girls bring their ideas, the better our discussions will be. 

The girls made yarn dolls out of pipe cleaners and yarn at our first meeting to represent someone they admire. Some made dolls of famous gymnasts; others made teachers or parents. It was great to see their creativity! They seemed to love the craft so we'll do more like these!

We are looking forward to our annual trip to Camp Tecumseh with the other FHH Girl Scout troops September 19 & 20. Checks made out to Troop 10265 will be due at our next meeting Sept. 4, along with permission slips. If you didn't already contribute $10 per girl toward snack this year, please get that to us before the next meeting. We also need EVERYONE to read and initial/sign their health histories for themselves and their daughters. Most of you did this at our first meeting, but if you haven't yet, please plan on doing so September 4. And register yourself and your daughter for Girl Scouts if you haven't already done so. Thanks! 

UPCOMING CALENDAR 2015-2016
September 4

September 19-20 -- Camp Tecumseh

October 16

October 23

November 6

November 20

December 4

January 15

January 29

February 12

March 11

April 8

April 22

May 6

May 20