We're moving the blog!

Have you had a chance to take a look at our new website? If not, it's got a fresh new look with amazing features like searchable forms and documents. In addition, there's a robust event search so that you can easily find your Girl Scout's next adventure. You can see the new site now at girlscouts.org.

What does this have to do with the blog? The new site also includes a great way for us to tell you the same stories we've been putting in this blog! It has news items that are easily accessible along with featured stories that appear prominently on our homepage. With these great new features, we know you'll have an easy time reading about all of the great Girl Scout adventures straight from our website.

Want to keep up with stories from our new site? Bookmark these pages!

• Featured stories will appear on our homepage: girlscouts.org
• News stories can be found here: News page

Thank you all so much for following along with Girl Scouts OSW adventures on this blog! We hope you'll join us over at our new site to continue the journey.

Events coming up in December!

There are some great things to do with Girl Scouts in December!

Check out these events on Personify

• Bricks 4 Kidz - December 6
• Bricks 4 Kidz - December 13
• Oregon Zoo - December 6
• Oregon Zoo - December 12
• Bugs R Us - December 6
• Young Rembrandts - December 6
• Young Rembrandts - December 6
• Young Rembrandts - December 13

Coming in August 2015: Wicked "For Good" Workshop and Matinee!

Tickets are not on sale or available to the general public! Announcing the Premiere of the Award-Winning Exclusive Girl Scouts & Families Portland Event: WICKED “For Good” Day. Participate in an Interactive WICKED Workshop then see a matinee performance of WICKED.

The workshop includes: Learn about themes and issues found in WICKED led by StudentsLive Teaching Artists, meet a High-Profile Key Note Speaker who is a successful industry leader, learn Music and Choreography from the Show from WICKED Cast Members, and much more!
Learn more or register here: http://www.portlandopera.org/GSWorkshop/

Gold Award Project Interview with Elizabeth Bryan

We were delighted to interview 2014 Girl Scout Gold Award recipient, Elizabeth Bryan, about her inspiring project!

Describe your project for us.
My project was a sort of donation drive for musical instruments for low-income students that couldn't afford to buy or rent one of their own. Mr. Schlabach, the band/choir director at Meadow Park Middle School, was my project adviser, and the instruments donated went to the Meadow Park band program. I collected about 40 instruments from May 2013-October 2013, they were fixed and assessed by Tigard Music in winter 2014, and the instruments will go to MP for the 2014-2015 school year.

Why did you choose this project?
During my freshman year of high school, as I was brainstorming ideas for my gold award, my younger brother was in sixth grade and joined band at Cedar Park MS. He mentioned at some point, October maybe, that some of the kids in his band class had had to drop out because they couldn't afford to buy or rent instruments (Cedar Park, like Meadow Park and most other Beaverton School District (SD) schools, has very few "school" instruments and they are in very poor condition - keys missing, etc.). I've been involved in school band up through my sophomore year, I've played in the Portland Youth Philharmonic Association since freshman year, and I now do choir at school - so obviously music has been a very important part of my life. It seemed like a big problem to me that some kids weren't allowed that opportunity. So I approached Mr. Schlabach to see if he was interested in being my project adviser, and my project grew from there.

Did you learn anything you didn't expect from completing the project?
I was surprised about how many instruments I received, honestly. I knew some people that had instruments in their closets that they hadn't played for years, but wasn't sure about the general public. So it was great when I got over 40.

Is your project still impacting the community?
In December 2013, I met Laurel Bookhardt at a Christmas party. She is part of the Music Task Force for Beaverton SD and the Beaverton Friends of Music and as I was explaining my project to her, she seemed very interested. As it turned out, many of the members of the task force were also there and they all seemed very interested in possibly taking up my project after I was finished. I met with the entire task force several times throughout the spring and it was finally decided that Beaverton Friends of Music would join with me and the Beaverton Education Foundation (BEF) to continue my project.

"Beaverton Band Together," as the project was called, launched in early June, spearheaded mostly by me, Laurel, Kristine Baggett (head of BEF), and some other members of the task force. You can read about it on the following sites:
Beaverton Friends of Music at http://www.musiceducationmatters.org/wordpress/?p=1467.
Beaverton Education Foundation at http://beavertonedfoundation.org/band-together-beaverton-instrument-donation-program/.
Interview by local newspaper at http://www.pamplinmedia.com/bvt/15-news/224011-85465-band-instrument-donation-program-gains-momentum (an interview with me, Laurel, Kristine, & Mr. Schlabach).

Updates on the Beaverton Band Together project: At last email sent out, almost a month ago, a little over 60 instruments had been collected. More recently, Kristine got a matching grant from the Starseed Foundation up to $3500 ($7000 once it's been matched), which we are very close to meeting!

Events coming up in November!

There's so much to do with Girl Scouts in November!

Check out these events on Personify

• Daisy Day at ScienceWorks - November 8
• Digital Media Studio: Movie maker - November 16
• Silver Award Information Workshop - November 8
• Gold Award Information Workshop - November 8
• Product Designer Badge Workshop - November 1
• Zoo Snooze - November 7
• Outdoor Skills Day - November 8
• Kitchen Chemistry - November 8
• Energy Burst - November 8
• Cartooning Class: Juniors - November 1
• Cartooning Class: Juniors - November 8
• Cartooning Class: Daisy & Brownies - November 1
• Cartooning Class: Daisy & Brownies - November 8
• Cartooning Class: Cadettes, Seniors & Ambassadors - November 8
• Chalk Pastel Workshop: Juniors - November 22
• Chalk Pastel Workshop: Cadettes - November 22
• Girls Yoga - November 20
• Girls Yoga - November 20
• STEM: Shrink Circuits - November 17

Prudential Spirit of Community Awards Opportunity

Know a Girl Scout who has provided significant community service over the last year? Maybe she's been working on her Girl Scout Gold Award? Or maybe the Silver Award? Encourage her to participate in the 2015 Prudential Spirit of Community Awards!

This unique youth recognition program, sponsored by Prudential Financial in partnership with the National Association of Secondary School Principals, has recognized more than 100,000 middle and high school students-including thousands of Girl Scouts-at the local, state and national level for outstanding acts of volunteerism over that past 19 years. Top winners receive sizable cash awards, engraved medallions and an all-expense paid trip with a parent or guardian to Washington, DC, for the national awards ceremony in May 2015.

Girl Scouts can apply online at http://spirit.prudential.com/view/page/soc. The application portion for certifiers (in this case GSOSW) must be submitted to the Portland Service Center by November 4, 2014. GSOSW staff will then review applications and select one or more honorees to represent our council in the state-level judging. If you have any questions or need a paper version of the application, please call toll-free 877-525-8491.

We’re excited about this opportunity to re-emphasize the importance of volunteering, and to possibly gain statewide or even national recognition for our Girl Scouts. Please help us spread the word!

Events Coming Up in October!

There's so much to do with Girl Scouts in October!

Check out these events on Personify

• Fall 2014 Rock Climbing Series - October 4
• Junior Drawing Badge Workshop - October 4
• Volcano Natural History Hike - October 11
• Elementary Drawing: Daisy & Brownie - October 11
• Product Designer Badge Workshop - October 11
• The Writer's Block - October 11
• Elementary Drawing: Cadettes - October 11
• Elementary Drawing: Juniors - October 11
• Zoo Snooze - October 11-12 (overnight event)
• STEM: Shrink Circuits - October 13
• Girls Yoga - October 16
• Girls Yoga - October 16
• Digital Media Studio: Movie maker - October 18
• Animal Habitats and Bugs Badge Workshop - October 18
• Become a Textile REvolutionary! - October 18
• Fall 2014 Work Party - October 25
• Engineering Challenge Overnight - October 25-26 (overnight event)
• Cartoon Fall Session - October 28

PLUS these other great program opportunities!

• Girl Scout Sleepover at the Portland Aquarium
• Oct. 18th (Saturday)
• More information
• Make a Difference Day tree planting event with Vancouver Watershed
• Saturday, October 25, 9 am – Noon at Leverich Park
• Avoid day-of registration lines by pre-registering using their web form!
• More information
• Oregon Children’s Theater Girl Scout Day (receive the group discount even if you go without your troop)
• Performance: The Magic Tree House: A Night in New Orleans
• October 26
• More information
• Lower Columbia Estuary Partnership - Volunteer plantings 
• October 11 - Salmon Creek
• October 25 - Salmon Creek

Girl Scout Silver Award project continues to find kindness

We're excited to have a guest writer for today's blog post. Phala Montgomery is the mother of Madisyn, a 14-year old Girl Scout Senior who completed her Girl Scout Silver Award by launching a campaign to stop bullying and Continue to Find Kindness (C.T.F.K.). Congratulations, Madisyn, on all of your success!

So much has happened since Madisyn has officially completed her project for her Girl Scout Silver Award. Her goal was to start a project that would carry on a message and continue to help the community far past the end of her project. In the end, she chose such a great topic that it has done exactly what she set out to do.

Madisyn screen printing her shirts! Photo borrowed from https://www.facebook.com/continuekindness.

Madisyn completed her project by speaking to over 250 girls in the Oregon City community about how to recognize being mean and know when it becomes bullying. She teaches how to recognize bullying, resolve bullying, and revolutionize kindness. Madisyn designed a logo for her campaign and put it on t-shirts to have a visual for everyone to recognize her message to Continue to Find Kindness and STOP Mean Girl Bullying! To this day, over 200 shirts are being worn throughout not only the Oregon City community, but other communities as well.

This summer Madisyn organized a parade march with her troop #42448 and troop #42123 and many friends. Over 22 participants marched in the Sandy Mountain Festival Parade this year representing her campaign to stop the mean girl phenomenon by Continuing to Find Kindness. Madisyn, the Girl Scout troops, and our friends took the first place blue ribbon home this year! A special thank you to all the girls and boys who played such an important part in Madisyn’s message. We totally appreciate the support given by everyone having such a fun time and believing in a really incredible cause.

Madisyn and friends at the Sandy Mountain Festival Parade. Photo borrowed from https://www.facebook.com/continuekindness.

The Continue to Find Kindness banner at the Sandy Mountain Festival Parade. Photo borrowed from https://www.facebook.com/continuekindness.

On Monday, September 1, 2014, Madisyn was interviewed about her Continue to Find Kindness campaign by KATU's Kerry Tomlinson (see link below). Madisyn had the opportunity to share and talk about her message and her work on the 4, 5, and 6 p.m. news that night.

Madisyn’s work has brought hope and confidence to so many young girls in our community. She is truly inspired by how the girls are responding to her by their positive feedback and pledge to Continue to Find Kindness.

Congratulations Madisyn and thank you for truly inspiring so many others! Your message really does stand strong with the Girl Scout Promise and Law. Way to go!

If you'd like to learn more about Madisyn's project, check out these links:

• KATU news feature: http://www.katu.com/news/problemsolver/Local-teen-teaches-kids-to-battle-bullying-with-kindness-273505291.html?tab=video&c=y
• Continue to Find Kindness Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/continuekindness

A special thank you from GSOSW to Phala for writing this post!