Submitted by Tanya Horning Denver Denver Metro Cadette Troop 4373 collected shoes for ShoeBox Recycling, a program that helps send gently worn shoes to developing countries. By placing a note in a pair of shoes we hope to trace the path the shoes take to meet their new feet. Great way to teach about sustainability and clear your closets at the same time! This story was submitted using the Share Your Stories form. You can share your Girl Scout moments too. #Cadettes #communityservice #Denvermetro #ShoeBoxRecycling

Submitted by Katy Herstein Highlands Ranch Denver Metro For the 2014/2015 school year, SU 616 and SU 619 in Highlands Ranch developed a program called ‘Commitment to Caring’ for their troops to participate in. In the fall of 2014, the two Service Unit Managers picked seven different ‘themes’ for the Service Unit troops to care about. September – Hygiene Drive for Project C.U.R.E. October – Toy Drive for the Denver Santa Claus Shop November – Book Drive for Colorado Reads December – Ink Cartridges for Recycling January – Blanket Donations to the Children’s Hospital Denver February – Pet Supplies to the Humane Society March – Food Drive for the Fresh Harvest Food Bank Each month, items were dropped off at SU meetings and at the homes of the SUMs. ‘Commitment to Caring’ main patches were given to each girl participating in the program (even if it was for only one month) for $4. Add-on themed patches were handed out for the items that the girls donated. Much to our surprise and excitement, the program was an overwhelming success and we will be running the program again in 2015/2016! Contact us if you’d like to do something similar in your SU – we’d love to share our plans and our lessons learned, etc. Download the flier. This story was submitted using the Share Your Stories form. You can share your Girl Scout moments too. #CommitmenttoCaring #communityservice #HighlandsRanch

Submitted by Alissa Bishop Skinner Aurora Denver Metro Come join us for a totally unique adventure day camp for girls 12 and older. Learn rifle, shotgun and archery skills in a safe and supportive setting at beautiful Cherry Creek State Park. Taught by certified instructors. This isn’t your ordinary day camp!! Register by 5/31 by sending an email to gscoshootingcamp. This story was submitted using the Share Your Stories form. You can share your Girl Scout moments too. #CherryCreekStatePark #daycamp #shootingssports

Individual or combined Service Units are encouraged to plan celebrations honoring the highest awards recipients. Please contact your local Program Support Specialist for additional support. Our annual spring celebrations are now in full swing! Friends and family are invited to attend any of the following celebrations. Please RSVP for all events online: girlscoutsofcolorado.org/highest-awards-rsvp Northern & Northeastern Colorado (Loveland), April 24th. Bronze, Silver and Gold Recognition, RSVP before April 20th. Northern Colorado (Boulder), April 26th. Bronze, Silver, Gold and Bridging Celebration, RSVP before April 20th. Denver Metro (Arvada), April 28. Silver and Gold Recognition (Bronze encouraged to attend), RSVP before April 15th. Western Slope (Grand Junction), May 1st. Bronze, Silver and Gold Recognition, RSVP before April 24th. Pikes Peak (Colorado Springs), May 15th. Bronze, Silver and Gold Recognition, RSVP before May 5th. Bronze Award Recipients March 2015 Troop12143 -Glenwood Springs Bronze Amanda McGill Brielle Spencer Ella Lindenberg Faith Savage Hannah Traver Kendra Pedersen Macey Schipper Maria Carlson Oyanza Rangel Rhaya Carmichael Sophia McGhee Troop13273 -Clifton Bronze Ceceilia Trujillo Troop13273 -Grand Junction Bronze Amethyst Correa Angeline Francis Kendalle Costello Madison Liles Savannah Powell Troop14196 -Grand Junction Bronze Maili Haraway Troop14643 -Grand Junction Bronze Kirsten Parks Troop24422 -Cortez Bronze Alexandra Abeyta Aspen Foster Aubree Sharp Caitlynn McKnight Emma Jones Emma Ward Laela Whitecotton Troop40969 -Colorado Springs Bronze Ahlia Kilgore Alyssa Frescaz Angelina Johnson Ayane Cool Elena Tamosaitis Emma Daily Jessie Pranti Jillian Mustain Kayla Rear Lilian Ford Madison Cline Stephanie Duderstadt Trinity Romero Troop42166 -Colorado Springs Bronze Cadence Craft Josephine Zotter Meghan McMahon Troop43399 -Colorado Springs Bronze Ella Kuenzli Hannah Murtha Kadence Grimm Lea Willette Lydia Phillips Miahna Fallentine Rebecca Anderson Sarah Fogle Troop43841 -Colorado Springs Bronze Mya Hill Troop51359 -Westminster Bronze Corinne Roe Dawna Holsapfel Faith Francisco Giada Rosch Itzel Ochoa Josephine Roe Maria Martinez Megan Marrs Rebecca Southern Willow Wilson Troop60769 -Castle Rock Bronze Avery Weiss Carly Bell Emma Lamb Holly Kirkpatrick Kendall Kobbe Laura Cusinato Lilli Herbon Sydney Craig Trista Montague Troop62426 -Littleton Bronze Anika Lindahl Jill Hansen Lauren Bostwick Lynsey Claybough Mae Stirrup Sophia Hopson Troop63891 -Highlands Ranch Bronze Abigail Barstad Aimee Albury Brianna Minifie Christina Friesen Claire Price Ellissa Martinez Grace Galligan Hannah Hughes Kaitlyn Caviness Lillia Murphy Lily Price Michaela Cain Olivia Betts TROOP70274 -Longmont Bronze Sarah Mearing Troop70720 -Fort Collins Bronze Alexis Lightner Teilee Brunson-Williams Alexa Marshall Avery Hickman Chanah janzen Korinne Bishop Aislyn Deeds Troop74446 -Longmont Bronze Victoria Purkiss Troop79747 -Fort Collins Bronze Kaley Scott #BronzeAward #HighestAwards #TakeAction

Individual or combined Service Units are encouraged to plan celebrations honoring the highest awards recipients. Please contact your local Program Support Specialist for additional support. Our annual spring celebrations are now in full swing! Friends and family are invited to attend any of the following celebrations. Please RSVP for all events online: girlscoutsofcolorado.org/highest-awards-rsvp Northern & Northeastern Colorado (Loveland), April 24th. Bronze, Silver and Gold Recognition, RSVP before April 20th. Northern Colorado (Boulder), April 26th. Bronze, Silver, Gold and Bridging Celebration, RSVP before April 20th. Denver Metro (Arvada), April 28. Silver and Gold Recognition (Bronze encouraged to attend), RSVP before April 15th. Western Slope (Grand Junction), May 1st. Bronze, Silver and Gold Recognition, RSVP before April 24th. Pikes Peak (Colorado Springs), May 15th. Bronze, Silver and Gold Recognition, RSVP before May 5th. Silver Award Recipients March 2015 Troop10659 -Breckenridge Silver Geneva Ascher Kalina Macias Lillian Tobias Littlepage Green Nicole Choma Savannah Halvorson Troop40923 -Colorado Springs Silver Cydnee Hild Troop43580 -Colorado Springs Silver Alissa Taylor Troop43841 -Colorado Springs Silver Allison Nelson Isabella Reilly Troop50020 -Westminster Silver Caitlyn Horst Haley Rountree Troop51427 -Lakewood Silver Taylor Sich Troop52869 -Arvada Silver Brianna Wolle Kathy Linz Keaton Maring Skylar Koch Troop60370 -Larkspur Silver Aimee Lee Emily Hammen Georgia Strimenos London New Olivia Oxley Troop62159 -Centennial Silver Alexa Wade Annastasia Keepper Marie Keepper Sabrina Rugg Troop73019 -Fort Collins Silver Alanna Jones Troop79747 -Fort Collins Silver Jaden Scott #BronzeAward #HighestAwards #SilverAward #TakeAction

Volunteers around the country are the extraordinary force that make Girl Scouting possible every day—and that is truly amazing. They give their time, spark, and hearts to make a difference in the lives of girls who in turn help make the world a better place. Now that’s a team effort! Celebrate the special Girl Scout volunteer in your life, past or present, with this awesome shareable card during this year’s Volunteer Appreciation Week! Download it, bring a few printouts to an upcoming troop meeting, and ask everyone to include a note sharing the love for the amazing effort your own Girl Scout volunteer puts in month after month. And don’t forget, today and every day, to let them know how appreciated they are. Share with them how they make a difference in your life, how they brighten your day, and how everything they do makes an impact—on girls and the world. #GirlScoutsoftheUSA #GirlScoutsofColorado #GirlScoutvolunteers #volunteer #volunteers

Submitted by Ariella Wells Fort Collins Northern and Northeastern Colorado Troop 70720 Juniors are a group of animal lovers and when it came time to decide what they would like to do for their community to try to make a difference, they all wanted to definitely help out our local shelter. They collected needed items from the community and families within our troop. They gathered food for cats and dogs, paper towels, blankets, towels, litter and more. They also spent a day making cat & dog toys and dog treats. They had hoped they would also be able to do volunteer work for the shelter but unfortunately they are just not quite old enough yet. Watch for that in future years. 😉 They did a great job, made some awesome things and collected a great amount of food and other items. Nice job ladies!!!! This story was submitted using the Share Your Stories form. You can share your Girl Scout moments too. #BronzeAward #FortCollins #LarimerHumaneSociety

Submitted by Ariella wells Northern and Northeastern Colorado Troop 70720, a mixed troop of Junior and Cadettes donated 90 boxes of Hometown Hero cookies to Crossroads Safehouse, a safe house for battered women and their children! Way to go ladies! This story was submitted using the Share Your Stories form. You can share your Girl Scout moments too. #CrossroadSafehouse #HometownHeroes

Colorado Girl Scout Crystal Schlueter is a finalist in the first-ever National Girl Scout Cookie Recipe Contest, sponsored by Taste of Home! Crystal, who is from Northglenn,  created this “German Chocolate Ice Cream Cookie Torte.” Read how Taste of Home describes Crystal’s dessert:  “This delicious, gooey treat combines Samoas/Caramel deLites, with chocolate and butter pecan ice cream – WOW – for a sweet, nutty feast of heavenly proportions!” To help you get to know Crystal, we asked her a couple of questions about the contest and her experiences as  a Girl Scout. Why did you enter the Taste of Home Recipe contest? I have been a fan of Taste of Home for many years, and have had several recipes published in past issues, so when I saw the Girl Scout contest, I immediately decided to create a recipe. I LOVE making desserts. I’ll admit, I have quite the sweet tooth. Ice cream cakes are one of the first things I learned to make as a child, and since they are so easy, its a great way for beginning cooks to build confidence in the kitchen. It’s hard to improve on something as perfect as a Samoa, but I decided to combine them with ice cream, which everyone also loves. I created this recipe just for this contest, but I did take it to a birthday party, and everyone raved. I will certainly make it in the future. And, it looks much more difficult to make than it really is-which is always a bonus! Tell us about your experiences as a Girl Scout. My sister and I were both Girl Scouts as children. Our mom was one of the troop leaders, and it is a  very fond memory for all of us. I actually developed a love of cooking while in the Girl Scouts, and the valuable skills and friendships that I gained through the Girl Scouts will stay with me for a lifetime. The Girl Scouts were very important to me in my childhood, and to this day every time I see a girl selling cookies I have to stop and buy a few boxes. Its just a fun way to reconnect with my youth, I suppose. So when I saw an advertisement for this contest, I thought it would be really fun to try and come up with something. I never really thought I’d be a finalist, so I was extra thrilled! I did sell Girl Scout cookies growing up, and since I was a very shy child, I recall being nervous my first time selling. However, I went with several friends, and very quickly got over my fear of approaching people. I believe that the sales and people skills that I learned through the Girl Scouts helped me to become a top consultant at my first sales position. Also, my troop did a lot for the community, but I specifically recall helping to feed the poor, as well as visiting with residents of a nursing home and decorating the home for the holidays. It was amazing to see how grateful the community was towards our troop, and it made us feel like we were really making a difference, regardless of how young we were. I love all of the Girl Scout cookies, but I’d have to say the Samoas are my favorites. Thin Mints are a close second, and I always have to buy a couple boxes of the Tagalongs and Dos-i-dos as well. I have to say that as much as I loved Girl Scout cookies as a child, my favorite memory was when I was an adult-in a very different kind of troop. I was 22, and deployed to Iraq, serving as a military policeman. My unit’s morale was pretty low. One day, our unit received several large care packages. They were from a Girl Scout troop, and were filled with dozens of boxes of Girl Scout cookies! Wow, I couldn’t believe the excitement of everyone. Its amazing how a little box of cookies can brighten a person’s day! Even our unit commander (a very stern, tough, giant of a man) had a grin while holding his box of cookies. Everyone in our unit got their own box. Sometimes the little things are the best things, as right in that moment, a familiar little box of cookies gave us just the boost we needed. Why should people vote for you? Honestly, I would love some votes, but only if people truly believe my recipe is the best. I feel that often times people vote just because someone is their friend or they have an interesting story. However, this is a recipe contest and I hope that the very best recipe wins, regardless of whom it belongs to. Voting in the National Girl Scout Cookie Recipe Contest, sponsored by Taste of Home, ends April 14. #cookies #cookingwithcookiescontest #GirlScoutCookies #TasteofHome

Submitted by Marlene Logan Have you ever thought about traveling—maybe as far away as Australia or as close as the Plains Conservation Center?  Join us at the Travel and Outdoor Adventure Fair on April 18, 2015 from           1 – 4 p.m. at WaterStone Community Church (5890 S. Alkire St. Littleton– just east of C-470 and Bowles).  Meet the GECCCOs (Girls Experiencing Camping, Canoeing, and Cycling Outdoors), who will share how they prepared for a trip to Peru, and  Ashley  S., who received one of the “Look Wider” travel scholarships for her Destination to Ireland last summer, as well as many well-traveled girls and adults. We will have information from companies like EF Tours, Disney (they have Girl Scout badge programs), Hostelling International, Outward Bound, and No Barriers.  Far Away Friends will share their program in Uganda. There will also be information about visiting Savannah and the Juliette Gordon Low Birthplace; going to Iceland for a GSUSA Iceland experience; the council sponsored trip to the WAGGGS world center Our Cabaña in Cuernavaca, Mexico; and GSUSA Destinations and Getaways. Do you want to stay closer to home?  We will have displays from the Plains Conservation Center, council properties (and the equipment you can check out), and what you can do in other parts of the state. This event is Junior Girl Scouts and older, as well as adults.  Although this is a fair, there is a fixed schedule.

Submitted by Emily Kleinsasser Greeley Northern and Northeastern Colorado Our troop’s Hometown Hero is Zac’s Legacy Foundation, it’s a local nonprofit organization that will provide financial assistance to families who have a child diagnosed with cancer. Last night our Daisies got the privilege to meet Skip Carlson and John Carlson from Zac’s Legacy Foundation and they got to present them with our troop’s cookie donations. Sydney, one of our own, said it best, “If you eat a Girl Scout cookie it makes you happy so we thought it would make the kids with cancer happy if they could get to eat a cookie!” In addition to the 115 boxes of cookies we were able to give 20 board games for the families that Zac’s Legacy Foundation is assisting. Each girl got to present their donated cookies to Zac’s Legacy Foundation. At the end they participated in a cheer for all their hard work! This story was submitted using the Share Your Stories form. You can share your Girl Scout moments too. #Daisies #Greeley #HometownHeroes #ZacsLegacyFoundation

Submitted by Marlene Logan Meet the GECCCOs (Girls Experiencing Camping, Canoeing, and Cycling Outdoors)! They have traveled the world (they are pictured above in Peru) and will share how they do it!  They will be at the Travel and Outdoor Adventure Fair on April 18, 2015 from                   1 – 4 p.m. at WaterStone Community Church (5890 S. Alkire St. Littleton– just east of C-470 and Bowles). The GECCCOs will be presenting a class on travel budgeting, planning, and fundraising. They will also be available to answer questions. Not sure what you where you want to go?  There will be information about the World Centers, including a council trip to Our Cabaña. You will also learn about GSUSA Destinations and Getaways and the scholarships available to help you with your travels. Whether your troop, or you individually, want to travel the world; visit the Juliette Gordon Low Birthplace in Savannah, Georgia; visit a Disney park and participate in programs for Girl Scouts; or want to stay closer to home—join us for an afternoon of fun, facts, and singing! This event is Junior Girl Scouts and older, as well as adults.  Although this is a fair, there is a fixed schedule. #InternationalTravel #travelstories #GECCCOs #travel #GECCCOgirlscout