While entering the concert, girls filled up bins with food for Feed the Need. To date, River Valleys has collected 12,800 pounds of food for Feed the Need, and we need your help to reach our 20,000-pound goal.

How to Donate to Feed the Need

• Donate to your local food shelf and log a record of it on our website.

You can also log food donations already donated to other community initiatives, such as Stamp Out Hunger, which took place on Saturday, May 11, or Boy Scout’s Scouting for Food program, which ended March 23.

Feed the Need ends May 31—help us make a difference and feed 16,000 kids!

Emergency Foodshelf Network is looking for assistance during the following times:

• Thursday, May 9, 4:30–6:30 pm (10–20 girls/adults)
• Saturday, May 11, 9:30–11:30 am (10–25 girls/adults)

Due to safety regulations at the warehouse, this opportunity is available for girls age 12 and up.

Where: Emergency Foodshelf Network warehouse, 8501 54 Ave N., New Hope, MN

If your troop or group of girls is interested, please email River Valleys’ Public Relations by April 22 to confirm attendance and receive further instructions.

This World Thinking Day, Girl Scouts of the USA is addressing the theme “girls worldwide say ‘together we can save children’s lives’”, which is based on the Millennium Development Goal 4, to reduce child mortality rates around the globe.

World Thinking Day Resources

Use these resources to plan a World Thinking Day meeting for your troop, activities for your Juliette Girl Scout or a larger event for your service unit.

Girl Scouts River Valleys Resources

• Service Units putting together a larger event can use our World Thinking Day Guide to plan their festivities.
• All Girl Scouts can use our World Thinking Day Pinterest Board to find resources to help plan their event.
• You can also buy the Girl Scout World Thinking Day award from the River Valleys shop.

Girl Scouts of the USA (GSUSA)

The Girl Scout World Thinking Day award is now an official award that can be worn on the front of the uniform. Review GSUSA’s guidelines to help girls at all grades/levels earn this award.

World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts (WAGGGS)

WAGGGS’ World Thinking Day website has many great resources including activity guides and ways to learn about Girl Scouts and Girl Guides from around the world.

Social Media

In addition to ours, GSUSA’s and WAGGGS’ social media accounts, you can learn about World Thinking Day from around the world by following the Twitter hashtag #WTD2013.

See how Chaska, Carver and Victoria Girl Scout troops 15435, 16550, 15988, 15044 and 16551 also remembered the children of Sandy Hook.

They chose to focus on Lebanon, because Eva and her father, who is Lebanese, would be traveling there during the summer. They found out about SOS Children’s Villages and researched the orphanages in Lebanon. During her trip, Eva visited a local orphanage and met with Mr. Jean-Paul Salameh, the Executive Director of the SOS Village. She visited the children and learned that shoes are donation items that can always be put to use.

Upon returning from Lebanon, Eva taught Caroline and Amani what she learned during her visit. During National Night Out this summer, the three girls compiled what they knew from research and Eva’s visit to create informational donation booths in their neighborhood. Community members learned about orphanages in Lebanon and donated shoes for the children.

Once all the shipping arrangements were made, the girls sent the shoes and a letter with pictures of themselves to the children in Lebanon. They were proud to complete their project and help other kids in need across the world.

GSUSA also established a donation account that will be distributed to the highest-priority recovery needs specified by the councils. To donate directly to councils or to the general recovery fund, visit donate.girlscouts.org.

GSUSA notes that while material donations and troop offers of assistance are appreciated, the councils are not currently able process and organize them. Financial assistance is the most direct way to support the councils and girls.

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:

Girl Scouts who have recently earned Silver or Gold Awards are particularly good candidates. Girl Scouts can apply online at spirit.prudential.com or nassp.org/spirit. Applications must be submitted to Girl Scouts River Valleys by November 6, 2012.

Girl Scouts of Minnesota and Wisconsin River Valleys can nominate one local honoree for every 1,000 Girl Scouts in grades 5-8 and one local honoree for every 1,000 Girl Scouts in grades 9-12. More information is available at spirit.purdential.com. With additional questions, please email Tiana.Woitas@girlscoutsrv.org.

For Troop 52691 from Balsam Lake, Wisconsin, Centennial Day of Service was not only a day to help prevent debris and leaves from entering their local waterways; it also marked the completion of their Silver Award project. Divided into three teams, the troop began their Silver Award journey this summer. Each team planned separate phases of the project with the goal of informing the community about proper water preservation and natural resources conservation.

When asked how the troop’s project impacts their community, troop leader Lisa explained, “In our Wisconsin community we heavily rely on our natural resources, so environmental issues that affect our waters, fish and other wildlife are very important to us.”

One of the first steps of the project was teaming up with the Water Quality Department at the Polk County Fair this summer. The girls created and handed out informational buttons, magnets and flyers to fairgoers.

The next step was planning and hosting a workshop regarding water and natural resources preservation. Hard work and creative planning resulted in a great turn-out for the workshop, which included an opening ceremony, learning stations, speakers, food, door prizes and even the Girl Scout flash mob!

For the final piece to their Silver Award project, the girls participated in Centennial Day of Service in Balsam Lake. After completing their Silver Award, the troop is already planning their next service project. “We have always been a troop truly dedicated to service and we are always looking ahead to our next area to explore,” said Lisa.