Girl Scouts of Colorado was notified in late November by our baker, Little Brownie Bakers, that they are experiencing supply chain issues and workforce disruptions that will impact our shipped cookies during the upcoming cookie season. We have been assured there is no impact to our in-person cookie sales. Digital Cookie will be open for girls to take girl-delivered and donation pre-orders beginning Jan. 12. However, the option to select and pay for cookies to be shipped will not open until Feb. 27. Girl Scouts of Colorado’s cookies-in-hand portion of the program (booths and door-to-door) runs from Feb. 5 through March 12. While this delay in direct shipped cookies is unfortunate, we’ve received assurances from LBB that this will not impact our in-state inventory. Girl Scouts can focus on selling in person Feb. 5-26 and then add in the opti on for shipped cookie orders Feb. 27-March 12, including the new Raspberry Rally shipped-on ly cookie. Direct-shipped cookies accounted for 6% of total sales last year so we do not expect a large impact council-wide. We are working with Girl Scouts of the USA to provide our troops and girls with cookie resources and marketing support to help customers understand the issue. We are looking forward to the start of the 2023 Cookie Season and are excited to see our Girl Scouts showcase their entrepreneurial skills. We can all work together to remind all cookie customers that the proceeds stay local and are critical to fund our troops’ activities throughout the year.

Third grade Brownies from Troop 66767 of Westminster visited the Colorado Capitol and learned about Democracy! They took a tour with Rep. Kyle Mullica from the 34th District in Adams County (and soon to be State Senator for District 24) and spoke with Speaker of the House, Alec Garnett. It was a great opportunity to learn all about our State Government!

Our Junior troop is hosting the 2nd Annual Duct Tape Derby in Castle Rock. Create cardboard and duct tape sleds and then race them. Build it and race it When: January 22nd, 2023 Check in starts at 10:00AM- Race starts at 11:00AM WHERE: Bison Park in Castle Rock Who: Girl Scouts- Daisies, Brownies, Juniors, Cadettes, Seniors, and Ambassadors Participation is $10 per girl (includes fun patch) and all entries must be registered. Register here. No day of registration. Girl Scouts & Leaders: This is a great way to earn a combination of badges from Fair Play to Automotive Design to Mechanical Engineering. Girls will have a blast designing and building a sled together. Then come together on January 22nd to race and have fun sledding! Team rules All competitors must wear a helmet while sled is on course. All riders and guardians must fill out liability release form before the race starts. All riders must be at least 5 years old and less than 19 years old to participate. Minimum of 2 kids per sled, maximum of 5 kids. If a team member is under 18, a parent or guardian must sign for them. Costumes are encouraged! Sled design rules Only sled materials allowed are cardboard, duct tape, paint, glue and wax. No hardwood is permitted (wood, plastic, metal, nails, screws, piping, etc.). Decorative elements such as paint, flags, and stickers are permitted. Width restriction on all sleds of 60”. No height, length, or weight requirements. You must be physically able to push your sled to the top of the hill. Check in on race day will begin at 10 a.m. Make sure you allow plenty of time to park, check in, and get your sled to the top of the hill before your assigned race time. Sleds that fall apart while sledding down, must be picked up and carried down the remainder of the hill. Judging criteria Sleds will be judged in four categories: fastest sled, best design, spirited award, and judge's choice. Important to note: Costume creativity and attitude will be considered towards score.

For their Bronze Award project, Troop 80572 from Yuma met with 911 dispatchers, law enforcement, and firemen then made a public safety education video about calling 911 that they shared with their community. The girls worked closely with their local 911 center to make an educational video explaining how to properly call 911 for help. They also spoke to local law enforcement, fire department, and ambulance personnel. Girls from troop 80572 said, "We chose this as our Bronze Award project because we had always been told to call 911 for emergencies, but never what would happen during the call. Our leader is a 911 dispatcher and she would tell us stories of ways NOT to call 911, and we think other people needed to know." Some of their favorite parts of the project were acting out the wrong way to call 911, visiting and touring the fire department, police department, and 911 dispatch. Through their project they learned that all the questions the dispatchers ask are for a reason, and it's important to try to stay calm and answer them to the best of your ability. You can view their educational video on their local 911 center's YouTube page.

For their Bronze Award project, Troop 15014 from Aspen made care packages for local animal shelter. For part of their project, the girls served a short term need of some lonely dogs and cats at the Aspen Shelter by spending the afternoon socializing with them. First they socialized with the dogs, pet them, and played with them. It was really special to see how excited the girls and the dogs both were and how they connected with each other and enjoyed it so much! For the other part of their project, the girls purchased tons of supplies for care packages for the dogs, cats, and even guinea pigs and rabbits that are waiting to be adopted at Colorado Animal Rescue. After discussing their ideas, they decided that they really wanted to give the animals things that they would enjoy, not necessarily things targeted for their potential new owners like leashes and bowls like so many people often do. So the girls chose tons of different kinds of treats, toys specific for their size, as well as beds and blankets because that would bring the animals comfort. The girls even went onto the website and made name tags for each of the animals care packages who are up for adoption and personalize each care package for them! They chose this project because they have been doing a lot of community service for veterans, homeless, and the senior center and thought it was the animals turn. They love and have a passion for animals and were also recently inspired by their overnight Girl Scout trip to the Cheyenne Mountain zoo. The girls made 10 personalized care packages for each of the dogs, 10 personalized care packages for each of the cats, two for the guinea pigs and two for the rabbits that are up for adoption. The packages were delivered to the animal shelter in person and the employees were so grateful, and the animals were so so happy. The dogs got to come out and open up their care package and get a treat from it. And then we went into the cat room and gave each of the cats their care packages, toys and treats. It was really sweet to see how personal of an experience it was instead of just dropping off the care packages in bulk and having them distributed anonymously to the animals. A favorite part of the project was the teamwork of putting together the care packages. This Take Action project was for the Think Like A Programmer journey. In order to integrate the project into the journey the girls created algorithms for each of the care packages. They practiced math by counting up the treats, dividing them by the number of animals, and even weighing the treats out on digital skills to make equal portions. They learned how to order supplies, they learned to work together as a team to put together the packages, and they learned how to use their coding skills, combined with math to make sure that the care packages were of equal value for each animal. The other favorite part was of course, socializing with animals!

For her Gold Award project, Isabel created the Bring Back the Bats program to raise awareness about the endangered species of bats. She chose her project because she has always been drawn to wildlife and loves working with anything nature-related. Her goal was to educate people about wildlife and bring more awareness to this local species. Through researching for this project I found that bats have become endangered and that they are crucial pollinators, so I figured this would be a great project to take up! Isabel says, "Completing this project impacted how I view wildlife work and education about wildlife, it was interesting to combine this project and the skills I've developed from working with Girl Scouts as a camp counselor over the summer. It was fun to combine these two areas of my life with this project when creating the patch to go along with my project." To Isabel, being a Girl Scout means making a difference in other Girl Scouts' lives. She adds, "This is a newer found meaning to me, but after spending the summer working with younger Girl Scouts, and even now with older Girl Scouts, it's become so meaningful to make a positive impact in these scouts' experiences as Girl Scouts."

Join troop 4251 for an amazing Citizen Scientist Journey hosted by iFly Indoor Skydiving! Date: December 19, 2022 Time: 9:30 a.m. - 1 p.m. Location: 9230 Park Meadows Dr, Lone Tree, CO 80124 Cost: $71 per Girl Scout Includes Take Action Project, Journey Badges & Fun Badge Click here for more information & to register.

I recently held two events as part of my Gold Award project. For the first one, the goal was to educate Daisy and Brownie-aged girls on the importance of adopting from a shelter. In order to accomplish this, a representative from Animal Friends Alliance came and had a discussion with the girls. After they finished learning, the girls were then able to make dog and cat toys which were donated to the shelter. For the second event, I held a supply drive at the grocery store and collected items requested by the shelter as well as directed people to donate to them in the future. In the end, people were very generous and lots of supplies ended up being donated.

Three of our Boulder 72418 Cadette troop took a trip down to Denver to earn their Urban Orienteering badge. We took the RTD down from a park & ride, walked to Confluence Park (& learned what the word confluence meant), practiced carrying bags in a protective way, took the free mall ride and walked rest of the way to Capitol building, shopped at the street fair, discussed what to do to find each other if lost, & navigated back to Union Station for an ice cream. When asked what they learned we got the following responses: "Denver is complicated & stores look like banks" (brick and older looking tall buildings), "Busses can be helpful & confusing" ,"Keep your stuff near you" , "Know where you put your bus ticket so you don't panic." The last one is great for any adventure! We recommend doing this badge as well as a fun field trip for Cadettes.

By: Merica McCarty, Leader of Troop 75980 When I think about leading our young girls, my goal is to be a role model and show that if I show up for them, they can show up for one another and their community. Our troop has been together for five years, and over those years, we have pursued a variety of service projects to make our world a better place. Depending on how old we were, we’ve led food drives, organized and led the making of hundreds of Thanksgiving meal bags at our school each year for people without homes, left many teacher and staff appreciation surprises, and helped with our school fundraisers. We really emphasize being grateful for all we have and paying that forward to make our world brighter. Now that we’re older, the girls opted to earn their Bronze Award, and they have been up for the challenge! If you haven’t done a lot of service projects already with your troop, or even just as a fabulous segue to earning the Bronze Award, I highly encourage your troop to earn the Agent of Change Journey first. It really sets the girls up for thinking about their own power, moving into the power of a team, and then into the power of community. Chances are, your troop will be able to brainstorm so many service projects with this journey, that you’ll set yourself up naturally for the Bronze Award. Since our troop is a part of the Marshall Fire community, we had experienced so much love in the outpouring of support by our sister scouts, neighbors, businesses, and quite honestly, the whole world, that when it came time for us to think of an idea, girls were ready to show their gratitude and try to give more to our community members as we continue to rebuild. Some of us had housed surviving houseplants for friends and neighbors who didn’t lose their homes, rather were in hotels or displaced for months. Many houseplants died in the fire itself, but others in the aftermath of there being no heat in the homes that did survive. And so began our idea. Plants bring life and hope. I cannot describe how many of us simply started crying when we saw the first spades of grass emerging from the black ground last spring. It was a reminder that even in the midst of chaos and loss, regrowth is around the corner. I remember seeing a peony growing last spring on a school friend’s burned lot. The family got a pot and took the only thing that made it with them. It’s hope. It’s life. It’s love. Our girls felt all this too and so we’re acting on it with our Bronze Award project. We brainstormed a list of all the things we’d need to buy and do to pull this project off, and we’ve been tackling things left and right. We received a grant from our Girl Scout council, specific to the Marshall Fire, to help us with this project as well. The girls thought about the pots, plants, soil, rocks, and then went into ideas of making special cards of love to include. Some decided to propagate plant babies at home to hand out! We let them choose what jobs they wanted to tackle at each meeting (I helped to decide the timeline of when we needed to get the jobs done ahead of time). I was pleasantly surprised at the variety of jobs and the excitement of girls picking them. I hate talking on the phone, and I really hate asking people for money or donations, and we had girls who jumped at the opportunity to do this. Two called to reserve the Rec Center space we’re using for our event and took notes. Another called our local plant shop, Planté, to see if they would sell us discounted plants to discover they would and they’d even teach us how to properly plant! Some girls made rough drafts for fliers and cards, others made them by computer. I admit, I’m not a tech guru by any means. So the girls really had to shine here. The troop came up with the idea of using Google Forms, created one, and wanted to include a QR for people to sign-up, while another group is creating a Xeric plant list to hand out. Girls also decided to include some optional holiday decorations for pick-up on top of it all! We also had to think about how to get the word out. This is where we enlisted our adults to help spread the word through social media, while girls hung fliers around the community and chatted with friends and neighbors. We still have our final meeting to learn how to plant properly, put finishing touches on cards, and organize our thoughts for our December 4th event, but we’re feeling great! This really has been a troop effort, where everyone has contributed their strengths, or stepped up regardless, for us to accomplish our goal. It’s been amazing to see how our Girl Scout Juniors continue to grow and plant hope in our community’s homes. We are so grateful to support our community and learn how to make an impact in our world. I hope to hear and read about other Bronze Award projects and how much good a community of girls and women can do! Girl Scout Strong and 80027 Strong!

Troop 26242 from Durango traveled to Santa Fe for a visit to Meow Wolf. This is what troop leader Allison Brown had to say, "We had a great trip to Santa Fe! The troop did awesome. These girls saved cookie funds to fund the entire trip. Here is a group pic. They were teeing for artsy serious faces!" What is your troop's goals this cookie season, and what are you planning to use your funds for?

Hello from the Girl Scouts of Colorado History Center in Loveland! As we all know, Girl Scouts love to sing songs around the campfire, at troop meetings, on the trail, or at special ceremonies and events. Why do we sing? It is fun! It’s a tradition going back over 100 years! It helps girls “Make New Friends” and binds girls together all over the world! The GSCO History Center with special help from Penny Roberts, Director of the Songbirds Girl Scout Choir, has just completed a Girl Scout Song Books History Project. Songs were collected and grouped by Graces, Campfire Songs, Songs with Motions, Rounds, Traditional Girl Scout Songs, International World Center Songs and more. A guide has been completed noting in which Girl Scout songbook and page number a song can be found. Also, there is a program recommending how to teach songs, suggestions for teaching motion and clapping songs, how to create a great campfire song list, and which songs go with what kind of ceremonies. Best of all, girls, troops or Service Units can now borrow from the History Center a bag complete with the guide, program and a variety of Girl Scout song books! Some of these song books were published as early as 1946! Often, we wonder how we might share with girls and (subsequently with their parents) classic, traditional songs like “Barges” or “Taps” or we might be looking for just the right songs to learn and perform for a grace or around the campfire. Girls or a troop might want to do a project focusing on Girl Scout songs. This complete and comprehensive collection of our traditional Girl Scout songs, action filled rounds, or quiet calming songs is a perfect resource. For more information about the GSCO History Center in Loveland, Colorado, or to borrow a Girl Scouts Music History bag with the program and song books, contact the History Committee at gscohistory@gmail.com.