Amazing Eau Claire Clean-up

On Saturday, April 21st, we participated in the Amazing Eau Claire Clean-up.  Two years ago we attended this same event and it rained the whole time.  This Saturday was chilly but sunny and gorgeous.  We "cleaned" Archery Park by 53 and Main St.  The park itself was fairly clean and the 9 volunteers from our Troop and Bank Mutual had the park, woods and trails done in an hour.  The excitement of the day came when the girls found a cluster of syringes behind a tree.  We quickly contacted the non-emergency police.  The officer we worked with, Colleen Bulman, talked to the girls about proper handling and what would happen next to the area and the syringes.  It was a good, unexpected learning experience.  Since we finished so early, I gave the girls the option of going home early or walking the river trail.  They opted to take the trail all the way down to Boyd Park.  We walked the side walk on Fairway St back to Archery Park where we talked until pick-up time. 

Book Delivery to Sacred Heart

Our delivery to St. Joseph's Children's Hospital was rerouted due to the overwhelming amount of books the girls collected.  As a result, we were able to help both hospitals in Eau Claire and several Mayo Health System clinics in the surrounding area out as far as Barron.



At Sacred Heart Back - Teri, Jennifer, Alex, Allie, Taylor, Abby, Maria

Front - Taylor, Alyssa, Rebecca

 

With Bank Mutual representatives Melissa, Dave and Jennifer

Abby, Allie, Taylor, Rebecca, Alyssa, Alex and Taylor

Cookie Booths Galore

Saying the girls attended a couple cookies booths this year would be a complete understatement.  In the first weekend alone, they participated in 4 cookie booths.  As part of their bronze award, they earned time by handing out fliers and talking about the book drive with customers.  The girls also handed out carts at grocery stores to talk to more people.

This year's cookie booths were:

3/9 - Gordy's 5-9

3/10 - Moving cookie booth and Subway on Eddie 9-1

3/10 - Festival 2-6

3/11 - Mega East 11-2

3/16 - Gordy's 5-8

3/17 - Mega West 10-4

3/24 - Festival 9-1

In contrast to last year's cookie booths, this year's were steady, with good sales.  As one girl said, "When the first customer buys 12 boxes, you know we're in for a good day."  So, with additional sales for the girls and cookie booths, our total number of boxes sold was 3312 boxes.  OUTSTANDING!!!!!!!  We ended with a 207 box per girl selling average which earned the troop the top tier of incentives.  Each girl also qualified for the 150 box goal prizes.  Way to Go, Girls!!!!!  Below are some of our cookie booths and the hard, hard working girls!

Cookies are now out of the vehicles and waiting to be sorted.

Amber, Katelyn, Alyssa and Hannah handing out carts during our first cookie booth at Gordy's.

Allie, Taylor and Alex with the impressive display of cookies and magnets.  At Gordy's.

Festival crew 3/10.  Allie, Alyssa, Abby, Katelyn, Rebecca and Alex

'Tis a wearin' of the green for St. Patty's Day at Mega with Katelyn, Alyssa, Abby, Taylor and Alex

That's a big bunch of cookies

Cookies arrived in Eau Claire on Thursday, March 1st.  Our original order consisted of 2316 boxes of cookies.  This did include about 200 extra boxes.  Fortunately, those didn't last long and we needed more before our first cookie book on March 10th!!! 

Below are pictures of the two vehicles that picked up cookies.  Alyssa was also holding cookies on her lap

Katelyn

Katelyn
Number of years in Girl Scouts - 5

Favorite Food - Pizza
Favorite Color - Purple
Favorite Holiday - Christmas
One special thing about me - I like animals
One thing I love about Girl Scouts - Friends
A place I'd like to travel to - Hawaii
My favorite Girl Scout Cookie - Peanut Butter Patties
My favorite Girl Scout activity ever - Games
Something you would like to do at a future meeting - Games

Taylor

Taylor
Number of years in Girl Scouts - 4

Favorite Food - Pizza
Favorite color - Pink
Favorite Holiday - Halloween
One thing I would like to see on the bog - Puppies dancing
One special thing about me - Hula hooping
One thing I love about Girl Scouts - fun
A place I'd like to travel to - Mall of America

My favorite Girl Scout Cookie - Thin Mint

Allie

Allie
Number of years in Girl Scouts - 4

Favorite Food - Crab legs
Favorite Color - Neon Green
Favorite Holiday - My Birthday
One thing I would like to see on the blog - Not me and Pigs
One special thing about me - I don't know
One thing I love about Girl Scouts - EVERYTHING!!!

A place I'd like to travel to - Everywhere
My favorite Girl Scout Cookie - Peanut Butter Patties
My favorite Girl Scout activity ever - Trips
Something you would like to do at a future meeting - Go to Disney

Bronze Award

For the majority of the year, the troop had been working towards their Bronze Award.  The Bronze Award is the highest award a Junior Girl Scout can earn.  The first step is to complete a Journey.  Next they decide on an issue and through the course of planning to completion, they must accumulate 20 hours of service on the project. 

Our mission - collect books for St. Joseph's Children's Hospital.

Our plan - hand out as many fliers and posters as possible with cookie sales, deliveries, and booths.

Our partner - Bank Mutual.  We were able to use Bank Mutual for collection sites and their marketing department donated all of our fliers and posters.  Collectively, we handed out close to 1000 fliers. 

Our results - close to 1500 books collected and donated to Sacred Heart Hospital and Mayo Health Systems.  342 hours spent by 16 girls who not only passed out fliers and sold cookies, but also handed out carts, sorted books, labeled books and made book marks for patients.

As we progressed through the Bronze Award, we discovered we needed to tell our story of our project.  Dare to be different!  We submitted our story in the form of a comic that depicted the girls as super heros trying to return the missing books to the Hospital.  These girls are so creative and easily came up with the story.  I hope you enjoy a peek at some pictures from their comic.  If I can figure out how to post the whole comic, I will.

My favorite picture - It's all about team work!!