State College Girl Scouts

October is a good time to learn about our founder Juliette Gordon Low as she was born October 31, 1860. Many troops celebrate her birthday by completing the Girl Scout Way Badge for their level and doing a service activity in her name.

For more fun activities check out GSUSA Girl Scouts at Home or GSHPA Girl Scouts at Home.

GSUSA will be having it’s 55th National Council Session virtually this year. See the website for details about sessions your Girl Scout can attend. It is a great way for scouts to see the democratic process in action. Another one of their activities is the Traveling Trefoil. Download it, print it, make it yours, and share it with your friends and family on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram using #BecauseofGirlScouts.

As we go into November many people will be talking about the elections. We are currently working on adding the new Democracy badges to our website but I encourage your girls to check out the Citizen badges for their level.

Attention Troop Leaders and Juliettes:

The Fall Fundraiser starts October 9th. Troop Fall Product Manager training is online and can be done here: https://www.gshpa.org/en/cookies/fall-product-program.html. It’s about a 16 minute video.

FYI: Troops are required to participate in both Fall Fundraising and Cookie Sales to hold outside fundraisers but otherwise troops are not required to participate. I do encourage though that this is a relatively easy fundraiser.

If your troop is not going to participate, please have a troop leader email me with your troop number and not participating.

I have the packets at my house. Please message or email me for address and to arrange a pickup time. Please let me know if you have any questions. As always, reach out to me directly through email GSchristine416@gmail.com.

GSHPA held their Annual Meeting on September 12^th.  All Service Unit 416 delegates and alternatives attended the meeting.

The meeting started with a Flag Ceremony done by Service Unit 414 at the Little Brownie House in Bellefonte. Many GSHPA leaders spoke of the state of the council which included that no staff were furloughed due to the pandemic, the council did not make the cookie sales goal but had a high number of online sales and virtual cookie booths.  The remaining camps are being maintained and slate of improvements are pending or in progress and a Post-Covid Recovery Task Force has been formed.  Virtual Scouts – moved quickly to offering online programing including, career chats, 5 weeks of virtual summer camp, STEAM exploration. Please check out their site GSHPA Girl Scouts at Home

There was a vote to amend the bylaws to permit delegate nominations to be more streamlined including having to have quorum be counted for those voting (not simply those physically present) . A new Slate of Nominees to Board:  Alison Bernhardt, Jayne Huston, and  Judith Windom was approved along with Susan Smith being approved to the Board Development Committee. The final bylaw change approved was a one year extension of the current board and service unit delegates due to pandemic.  The approval is for one year only 2020-2021. 

Service Unit 416 delegates Lauren Lowe, Michelle Varrassa and alternates- Christine Clouse and Kirsten Grigor will remain delegates for 2020-2021.

The State College Girl Scouts Fall Outdoor Challenge is here.  How many items can you check off your list?  Get outside to see.   Starting September 1, 2020 and running through December 20, 2020, complete the required number of activities from the 2020 Fall Outdoor Challenge checklist and earn the Outdoor Challenge Patch and/or the fall rocker.

Daisies should complete 15 items to earn the patch, Brownies should complete 20 items, Cadettes/Seniors/Ambassadors should complete 35 items.  Adults should follow the Girl Scout Law and try to complete an “Honest and Fair” number of items based on their abilities.

Share pictures of your fall fun on our Facebook page or by emailing info@statecollegegirlscouts.org. Sending us your photos constitutes consent to publish.