Have a friend who wants to be a Girl Scout?

Hey, hey Girl Scouts! If you are enjoying hanging out with your troop, learning new things and having a blast with your Girl Scout sisters, invite a friend to join you! And guess what?? There's a fun patch for that! Sign up your friend AND get a patch for your uniform. How about that?

You can also get a patch if your sister joins! Sign her up, get a patch! Woo hoo!

What's Your Girl Scout Doing this Summer?

While some people are thinking about the beach and family vacations right now, Girl Scout families are thinking about Resident Camp, Day Camp, Troop Adventure camp and more!

If you're still thinking about a Girl Scout activity for your girl, there are still Day Camps open and a very few Resident Camp spots open.

So, if camp isn't in the summer for your girl, what can she do this summer to stay connected with Girl Scouts? GSWO is offering two patches this summer to encourage girls and their families to GO OUTSIDE!

First, girls can take the 2019 Get Outdoors! Challenge. Visit the GSWO blog for the checklist and how to get your badge! Adults and girls can both earn this badge. Girls will display it on the back of their uniform. I'll be adding mine to my leader bag! My Cadette has already done 34 of her required 35 items. With only 15, I've got some catching up to do!

If you're looking for something you'd like to do as a Girl Scout family, how about the Family Adventure patch? You can find out more here. Once you've earned the patch, the first 100 people to go in person to the Dayton Girl Scout center and show their pictures on social media will get their patch for free!

We'd love to see what you and your family are doing this summer! Join our Service Unit Family Facebook page and share your summer adventures! Until next time,

Wendy

Getting to Know You, Getting to Know All About You...

Hi everyone! I'm Wendy M., your friendly Service Unit Manager. I have the excellent job of being the person parents and leaders go if they need help, if they want to find out how to recognize an excellent volunteer or if they have a friend or neighbor that needs a Girl Scout troop. For the most part, our Service Unit covers all of Oakwood School District (although a girl does not have to attend Oakwood Schools to join) and Holy Angels Catholic School. We do have a couple girls who don't live in our "area" but we don't turn girls away if they want to be here, and we're so happy to have them! We also have a handful of girls who do Girl Scouts outside the troop setting. These girls are known as Juliettes and we're so glad to have them and their families!

I have been a troop leader for going on seven years now, and was a cookie mom for my older daughter's troop for two years before that. I have two daughters in Girl Scouts and I'm so glad they have not lost interest over the years. It's very important to me that girls who want to be Girl Scouts get that opportunity. It's also important to me that girls get up and go outside whenever possible. Girls do not want to make God's eyes from Kinder until 3rd grade. Girls want to do art, they want to pick up bugs (or at least look at them), get dirty, go camping and learn how to make a fire. They want to learn how to cook their own food, choose their own programming and learn how to be leaders by doing! Girls can do anything they put their minds to and my favorite part about being a leader is watching girls discover they can do something difficult!

In addition to me, your leadership team is made up of three other amazing moms and one equally amazing dad!

Steph H. is our woman in charge of knowing things. Steph's job as the Data Chair is to make sure all our paperwork is in order. In this role, she makes sure we meet or exceed our Early Bird registration goals as well as meet or exceed our on-time registration goals. She started the leadership team with me last year and I'm so grateful she said yes when I asked (begged) her to do it. Most of her work is directly with leaders and other troop volunteers but she also co-leads my troop and is our Cookie Mom Hero. She's been along for the ride for camping trips, overnights and all sorts of other activities our girls want to do, as well as making sure all our troop paperwork and money is in order for our seventh year this year, so she puts up with a lot of my shenanigans. Also, and most important, if one of our girls barfs, she sticks around while I run away. Seriously. She's. The. Best.

Dannette R. is our Product Chair. That means all the things about cookies AND Fall Product, which hardly anyone knows about but is the easiest fundraiser girls can do! You guys, she VOLUNTEERED for the job! We had a Product Chair who, due to unforseen circumstances, had to leave on short notice. We were a bit panicked because she was amazing and we loved and needed her. And then Dannette just...VOLUNTEERED. She must love me because I was seriously sweating how we were going to make that work! She also leads her own troop of girls at Holy Angels and she's a GIRL SCIENTIST, so she's showing our girls every day that there is no such thing as a glass ceiling!

Jen E. is our Girl Scout Leadership Experience Chair, also known as the GSLE. Nobody really knows what that means, but we're going with her also knowing all the stuff and things. So, when leaders need training, like with the awesome new badges and journeys, or when they want to learn how to cook outdoors with their girls, or if they need to know the proper way to conduct a flag ceremony, Jen can teach them! She sort of volunteered for the position and was sort of shanghaied, because she's my big sister. She's been putting up with me my whole life, so when I promised she'd be perfect for the role, she believed me and said yes! She's been a Girl Scout most of her life and, even though she's only a mom to boys, she bleeds green!

Last but certainly not least, is Vince R. Vince is our money guy. He's our Service Unit treasurer and also just volunteered last year, out of the blue, for our retiring Treasurer! Can you guys believe it? I don't have to ever worry about any of the money! Vince's wife, Emily also has her own troop, so when we have our monthly meetings I get TWO brains for the price of one! It's a pretty good bargain, if you ask me!

This is YOUR leadership team. Although our role, on the surface, is to provide for the leaders, our biggest commitment is to your girls. We are proud to be Girl Scouts and we are so happy you're along for the ride!

By the way, does this sound like an awesome team that you'd like to be in the middle of?? We are looking for a parent volunteer who would like to be our Recruitment Chair! This job is busiest in the fall, but we'll make it fun and there is always food and chocolate at our monthly meetings, so there's that! If you think you might want to know more about the job, I'd LOVE to hear from you! Send me an email at trioakserviceunit@gmail.com and I'll probably email you back immediately!

That's enough for a first post, don't you think? Bookmark our page and get ready for a great year!

Yours,

Wendy