Swimming on the other hand is a different story. Lexi can swim as much as she wants because it’s minimal impact exercise that causes her much less pain than other activities. In high school, she joined the Eden Prairie swim and dive team and the synchronized swimming team. She loved the water, and swimming became a true passion.

That passion turned out to be a great starting point for Lexi’s Girl Scout Gold Award project last year. Around the same time she was considering what to do for her project, she met Debbie Townsend, head coach for the Clownfish Swim Club, an organization that provides a swim team environment for kids with disabilities. With Debbie’s encouragement, Lexi began volunteering with Clownfish, and that’s when things started to click in her mind. “I could relate to how much the water is such a healer, and that’s kind of when I was like, oh my goodness, I can relate to these kids. They love to swim. I love to swim. And I think that this is a really cool opportunity for me to come in and work on my Gold Award.”

To complete her Gold Award project, Lexi took action by supporting the Clownfish Swim Club in three different ways. She created a brochure to recruit volunteers, a function that in the past was mainly done by word-of-mouth. She also created ten different lesson plans that will be used by volunteer coaches. And finally, she organized a Swim-A-Thon to collect new and gently used swimming equipment for the club.

To hold the Swim-A-Thon, Lexi rented out Eden Prairie Community Center’s pool for a Saturday afternoon. People could swim with their family or swim laps and enjoy the pool after making a donation. The event was a big success; about 100 people attended and a variety of equipment such as float belts, goggles, nose clips and swimsuits was collected for the Clownfish Swim Club.

Lexi says the best part about doing her Gold Award project was being able to work on something she was passionate about and making a difference in other kids’ lives. “It was really, really cool to see how a weakness of mine and a painful experience of mine—I kind of flipped it around and drove it into a passion, and helped kids who are going through the same thing I am. Now they can also continue to have the joy that water can bring, and they can do it in a safe way.”

The Agent of Change Journey focuses on power—the power of “me,” “team” and “community.” The girls used their power to plan and host an anti-bullying event for fourth grade girls. The event informed participants of the different forms of bullying youth can experience and its negative effects.

Girls sported blue nail polish on their pinky fingernails as a symbol of the anti-bullying cause. Each girl completed her pledge to not bully by placing her pinky fingerprint on the troop’s poster, which read, “Pinky Promise to Stop Bullying.”

The troop spread the anti-bullying message to their schools by handing out bracelets with the phrase, “Be a buddy, not a bully!” They also encouraged their classmates to take the pledge to stop bullying and continued to share their message with their Girl Scout service unit and families during a local event called the Powder Puff Derby.

“The girls are very proud of the work they have done,” explains troop leader Stacy Hutchison, “but [they] know that it takes everyone—students, parents, teachers and the community working together to stop bullying.”

In addition to Girl Scouts, Olivia is involved in an organization called Partnership for Change, which focuses on the prevention of chemical use. Incidentally, her leader at Partnership for Change recently formed a new Girl Scout Daisy troop and asked Olivia to help lead it. When she was asked to help lead the troop, Olivia couldn’t have been more excited to work with the young girls and share her own Girl Scout experiences.

“She knew I was really involved in Girl Scouts because in the past I brought cookies to our meetings to sell,” explained Olivia. “She asked me if I would help lead her troop, and of course I said yes!”

Olivia wears her vest to the meetings and the girls are in awe over the number of badges and patches she has. She explains to them what they mean and the fun things she has done to earn them. “When they see me at their meetings and I share all the cool things I have done, I hope it encourages them to stay in Girl Scouts longer,” says Olivia.

Another skill Olivia hopes these girls are learning is the confidence that comes from participating in the Cookie Program Activity. When she was younger, Olivia says that she was very shy and got nervous talking to people. After going door-to-door and selling cookies, she has learned how to interact with people and now feels like she can talk to anyone. Her Girl Scout Daisy troop is now participating in the Cookie Program Activity this year and is having a lot of success.

After the cookie season, Olivia wants to focus on her Girl Scout Gold Award. She has yet to settle on a project, but she will no doubt earn her award and have another experience to inspire her Daisy troop.

Since Toys for Tots doesn’t reach as far north as their community, they created an initiative called Movie Mania Toy Drive, which is held on the Saturday before Thanksgiving. The local movie theater holds a private viewing of three movies with an admission fee of a toy donation. The toys are then given to the girls’ classmates.

The drive this year was extra special for the girls, because they planned everything on their own. They made arrangements with the movie theater, promoted the event to their local service unit and managed donations the night of the showing.

At the end of the night, the donation boxes were overflowing with more than 75 donated toys. Over the last five years, the girls have collected 500 items for boys and girls of Chisago County.

When Lonsdale Girl Scout Stacey and her six-person family lost their home, they were grateful for the support they received to get through tough times.

Last year, Cheradin and her family knew that she needed to have surgery to straighten both of her tibia bones, which did not straighten correctly after her birth. The surgery would reduce or eliminate the pain Cheradin had in her legs since she was three years old. When it came down to setting a date, Cheradin, a very active Girl Scout Brownie, told her mom, “We have to do it after Cookie season.”

Cheradin has been the top cookie seller in her troop every year since kindergarten, so Cheradin’s mom knew how important Cookie season was to her daughter. “This is a little girl that is highly competitive, has to be the top cookie seller, has to be the top everything. That’s just who she is,” Dee reported. So they waited and scheduled surgery for after cookie season.

Cheradin went to work selling cookies, motivated by her competitive spirit and a promise her mom made that if she sold 800 boxes, she could go to horse camp in the summer. Cheradin reached her goal eight days before cookie sales ended, and then she came up with a new proposal for her mom. She asked if she could go to a second camp with her cousin Leah if she sold 1,000 boxes. Dee laughed as she reported what happened next: “I said ‘I’ll make you a deal. You hit 1,100, and I’ll send you to Camp Lakamaga with Leah for four days.’”

With the extra incentive in the final days of cookies sales, Cheradin sold another 323 boxes, raising the total number of boxes she sold to 1,123, becoming the top cookie seller in her service unit and the 79th highest seller out of more than 32,000 girls in the council.

The day after cookie sales ended, Dee, who is also one of the cookie moms for the troop, finished up all of her cookie entries. “The girls were awesome,” added Dee, “Literally the day—that Sunday—when cookie sales ended at six o’clock, I had every dollar.” And then two days later, Cheradin went into surgery.

After a long healing process and spending months in a wheelchair, Cheradin went to Camp Northwoods for horse camp and then to Camp Lakamaga with her cousin. A Girl Scout Junior this year, she also made the hockey team. “She’s a very persistent little girl,” Dee said, “She doesn’t let anything get in her way.”

When Sara brought home a Girl Scout flyer, she was excited but afraid she wouldn’t be able to join because money had been tight. Even so, Sara and her mother attended the sign-up event at her school and discovered that Girl Scouts is available to all girls because of generous supporters like YOU!

As a Girl Scout Brownie, Sara now has the opportunities to develop leadership skills, connect with the community and celebrate accomplishments; all while earning badges in math, health, cultural literacy and more.

After joining Girl Scouts, Sara’s spark returned. She now giggles with her new friends at lunch and leads the Make New Friends song at her troop meetings. The new friendships, self-confidence and valuable skills that Sara gains from Girl Scouts are life-long benefits generated through caring donations.

Recent research* shows that girls who participate in Girl Scouts are more likely to complete college, form positive relationships and feel optimistic about their future. Donations not only help girls like Sara join a troop, they also grow new programs, train leadership and cover fees for girls who are unable to afford them.

Thanks to supporters like you, more than 9,000 girls were able to join Girl Scouts this year. With your help, we can meet our goal of raising $750,000 and have a positive impact on thousands of girls who are struggling, feeling isolated and alone, just like Sara.

It only takes $333 per year to pay for uniforms, membership dues and Girl Scout programs for girls just like Sara. Give today!

* Statistics are from Girl Scouting Works: The Alumnae Impact Study, by Girl Scouts of the USA. Read the full study at GirlScouts.org.

Last year, Alexa traveled to Tanzania with her mom, Kelly Lynn, and spent a month teaching English, art through literature, math and science to kids ages three to 13.

Researching and planning her Gold Award project and trip took about two years. Prior to the trip, she gave presentations about poverty and education issues affecting Tanzania to schools and churches in her community. She asked kids to clean out their desks at the end of the year and donate the school supplies they no longer needed. With these donations, Alexa and her mom brought four full suitcases (200 pounds) of school supplies and books with them to Tanzania.

Alexa connected a local element to everything she did abroad for her project. She worked with Minnesota school kids to create English-to-Swahili translation books that she gave to Tanzanian children. Each book had a personal message from a child in Minnesota.

In Tanzania, children take a national test at the end of their Class 7 year (equivalent to 8th grade in the U.S.) which determines if they can go on to high school. If they don’t score high enough or can’t afford high school, they can’t go. This is one of the issues that Alexa hoped to address with her project. She knew there might be only a few textbooks in the classroom in Tanzania, but once she and her mom were there, they discovered that the three- and four-year-olds they taught had never seen a story book. “Their teachers didn’t know why you would read a story book to them,” Kelly lynn added. And the middle-school-age kids had never had chapter books.

“By giving them tools to learn like books and art supplies,” Alexa said, “we are better preparing them for these national tests so that when the time comes, they can hopefully get into high school, to give them more opportunities to support themselves later in life.”

While in Tanzania, Alexa lived with a local family and had the opportunity to climb halfway up Mount Kilimanjaro, visit a Maasai village, swim with wild dolphins in the Indian Ocean, tour three national wildlife parks and experience many other new adventures.

Now that she’s back, she is planning to build a library for the school where she taught through continuing donation projects and presentations. Half of the books she collects will be donated locally to a Christmas sharing program. She hopes to inspire others to take action.

“I can see that this could become part of Alexa’s life work,” commented Kelly lynn. “I know it’s really shaped how I look at things. . . . We have kids who cut a pencil in half over there, or share a pencil because there’s not enough pencils to go around.”

For other Girl Scouts who might be starting their Gold Award project, Alexa shared some encouraging words, “Think big,” she said. “There’s nothing you can’t do. If you find an issue or a topic that you feel passionate about and you feel like you can help with it, go for it.”

UPDATE:

If you are interested in supporting Alexa’s work or sending supplies to Africa, submit your information below:

Bridging ceremonies are special events that signify a girl’s transition from one Girl Scout level to the next. In Zimmerman, MN this year, a bridging ceremony had special significance for Troop 13529 as they demonstrated leadership and the value of Girl Scout sisterhood. It all started with a little problem—how to get Cheradin’s wheelchair across a bridge that was too small.

Cheradin was using a wheelchair because she had surgery on both of her legs in March to fix tibia bones that did not straighten correctly after her birth. Cheradin is an incredibly active girl who plays hockey, was top cookie seller in her service unit this year, and has been top cookie seller in her troop since kindergarten. Her troop mates and troop leaders, Renee Leonard and Cassie Gallay, hatched a secret plan to get her across the bridge in true Girl Scout sister form.

The wheelchair was measured and it became obvious that it was too wide to wheel across the bridge. “We were trying to think of ways to get her across, like Renee would carry her, or I would get up and carry her, or my husband would carry her. And the girls of course said ‘No, we’ll carry her,’ ” Dee Ralph (Cheradin’s mom) laughed.

At rehearsal, Cheradin and her mom were surprised and touched to find out that Renee’s husband built a brand new bridge wide enough for the wheelchair to cross. The troop also decided that Cheradin would be the color guard so she would not be left out. But this was just part of the troop’s secret plan. More details would be revealed later at the ceremony.

The night of the ceremony, Renee told Cheradin that she would be last in her troop to cross the bridge. All of the girls in the service unit lined up, ready to take their turn and walk across. When it was time for Cheradin’s troop to cross, they all walked across one by one. Then the troop leader made an announcement, explaining that the troop never leaves anyone behind. And with that, every one of the girls in Cheradin’s troop walked back, stood behind her and pushed her up over the incline of the bridge.

Dee described her daughter’s reaction, “She was so excited and then she got all teary-eyed. It was very sweet.”

The ceremony marked the girls’ transition from Girl Scout Brownies to Girl Scout Juniors. It also demonstrated their courage, character and understanding of the true spirit of Girl Scouting. They took action to help and support a sister Girl Scout. “Isn’t that the epitomy of what we are teaching these girls to be?” Dee pointed out, “To care for each other?”

Michelle traveled to Kenya with Girl Scouts from all over the United States through the Girl Scout destinations program, part of the Travel Pathway. Girl Scout destinations are travel experiences that range from two days to three weeks for Girl Scout Cadettes and older. Through destinations, Girl Scouts discover new places, gain confidence, develop leadership skills and connect with other remarkable girls.

During her trip to Kenya, Michelle and 12 other Girl Scouts connected with Girl Guides in Nairobi, interacted with kids at a Kenyan school and visited Kenyan villages. They sang and danced with people from the Maasai tribe, visited Maasai women who showed them how to make beaded jewelry, and spotted lions, zebras, water buffalo and other animals in the Maasai Mara wildlife reserve.

There is energy and enthusiasm in Michelle’s voice when she talks about Kenya. “I enjoyed myself so much,” she stated, “and the culture was so amazing. I want to go back. I don’t even know how to explain it—how it changed me. I was just very touched.”

After returning from Kenya, Michelle took action by exhibiting a poster display about Kenya at her local county fair. And this fall, she will deliver a presentation about her trip to a group of Cadettes at her local service unit. She lets people know what she did on her trip and then, if they’re interested, tells them about ways they can connect and make a difference.

Right now, Michelle is preparing to start college this fall, where she plans to study agronomy and agriculture. She said the destinations experience has given her the opportunity to travel even more and she is looking at ways to study abroad.

Ready to plan your trip to a far corner of the world? Visit travel to get started.