2002-2003

Year in Review

for

Senior Girl Scout Troop 4715

 

Court of Awards

Friday, May 9, 2003

 

 

 

 

What We Did This Year

June 2002      This year it was Jessie and her mom that were lucky enough to be headed for London, and who were able to stay at Pax Lodge, one of the four International WAGGGS centers.  We hope that next summer all of us will be there.  The three Gargiullo ladies helped out at the FOCUS Day Camp again this year to make a great weekend of camping and activities for families of disabled children.  What a good project!

July 2002         Tuesday afternoons were set as times for Gold Award Notebook work sessions.  On a casual drop in basis we got together to fight the paperwork monster.  We decided in May that we would work on the service projects for the From Stress to Success IPP individually, so all summer we kept notes on family de-stressing activities.

August 2002 In August things started again – school, service unit meetings for the advisors, and regular troop meetings.  Diana joined the Council committee for CASE.  Tabby was active with the Gavel Club.  We continued using our system of having small groups of girls run the meetings (helps with those leadership hours), and we began committee work to plan our October camping trip. 

September 2002   Nicole, Katie, and Kasey were in charge of the meeting, and we were visited by Rathi Bose, who leads the Brownie troop we’re taking camping.  The next week we visited her troop to begin preparing her girls for the big event. Dr. Unger’s boss at the CDC , Dr. Reeves, his wife Barbara, and the incredibly courageous Dr. Paul Gargiullo took Christina, Karen, Evelyn, Anne, Jessie, and Stephanie Hoon on an orienteering trip in the Oconee National Forest.  Dr. Reeves thinks the girls were so great he wants them to compete in orienteering meets.  We signed up Dr. and Mrs. Reeves as Girl Scout Adults.  Tabby, Liz, Evelyn, Elizabeth, and Rossie began work on a new Council Patch for Fernbank.  The Brownie and Junior Adventures started up again, and our girls were once again very popular older girl leaders.

October 2002           The first weekend in the month was the big camping trip with our Brownie little sisters.  We went to Scout Haven on Friday to be ready to welcome the Brownies on Saturday morning.  It was really a great experience for us, and we think that our Brownies had a great time, too.  One really special thing the Brownies got to do with us was to initiate Stephen Elder, our newest Girl Scout. 

November 2002   Anne and Chandler led the meeting, and we met with Terri Otto from the Council Office.  She was the lead staff person for the Fernbank Museum Day when our patch debuted, and she was really fun to get to know.  We started doing some serious planning for our Big Trip next June.  The statewide celebration of the Girl Scout’s 90^th birthday was at Six Flags, and the girls who could go to it really had a great time.  We think that Rossie and Anne rode the roller coasters all day long!  Anne got to go on a caving trip set up by CASE and stayed overnight in the cave.  Some of us worked with the original Fernbank committee to check out and complete all the activities for the patch project. 

December 2002     We tried out a new service project this year, staffing the Empty Stocking Fund distribution center downtown.  It was really fun, and some of us went back again later.  This is definitely a project we want to do again.  Rossie and Liz led the meeting, which included some partying and a Secret Santa.  Fun!

January 2003          Cookie time again.  Christina, and Anne led the meeting, and we got some of the planning for Fernbank done.  Evelyn designed a gorgeous patch, and it was accepted and made for the event.  We also planned our February camping trip.

February 2003        Tabby represented our troop at the Council’s community dialog “Mixing it up at school:  What young people can do to improve race relations,” and was pictured in the May edition of The Insider.  The President’s Day weekend was entirely Girl Scouts!  During our camping trip, Mr. Callaway trained us in CPR and First Aid, and we worked on the other parts of the Emergency Preparedness IPP.  Laurel Martin, the Camp Pine Acres Director, came to be interviewed so that we could finish up the Camping IPP, and we took the Red Cross’s mannequin Annie, horseback riding.  Then on Monday we spent the day at the High Museum working on the Museum Discovery IPP.

March 2003   Cookie Booths again!  Oh, how we love them, but we got all our cookies sold – more than 2000 boxes.  Whew!  Jessie and Stephanie H. led out meeting and Terri Otto came to help us finalize our schedule and other plans for Fernbank Day.  Finally the big day arrived, and we did great!  Everyone from the Council to Fernbank and our own trusty advisors thought we were terrific – and we were!

April 2003       Compared with February and March, April was positively peaceful.  Karen and Tabby were in charge of the meeting, and we planned the Court of Awards for May.  Our trusty advisors were nagging us something awful about finishing paperwork for all the Gold Award components.  We wish it would do itself.

May 2003         All of a sudden the end of the year is here.  We found out that our troop is one of eight Blue Ribbon Troops this year in our Service Unit, which has a total of 27 troops!  We’re wildly finishing paperwork and receiving recognitions at our Court of Awards.  Another park clean-up is being planned, and we’re emailing Europe and talking to the Council about our Big Trip.  Tabby, Rossie, and Jenny are getting their ten-year pins.  It’s very strange that time speeds up so much at this time of year.  Next year some of us will be finishing our time as girls in Girl Scouts and bridging to Adult Girl Scouts.  Now that’s a scary thought!  Come to think of it, maybe we’d better volunteer to plan the bridging service.

I will do my best to be honest and fair, friendly and helpful, considerate and caring, courageous and strong, and responsible for what I say and do, and to respect myself and others, respect authority, use resources wisely, make the world a better place, and be a sister to every Girl Scout.