By selling one cookie box at a time, the Girl Scouts build a better world. That’s not all the Girl Scouts do! Through volunteering their time, the eleven-year-old Cadettes have done so many wonderful acts of service for their community, along with selling their delicious cookies. Troop 91150 consists of eleven -6th grade girls, who all attend Lee Eaton. Many of them have been together in scouting since kindergarten. They have learned to work together on projects, dividing up tasks amongst them.
The Girl Scouts of Northeast Ohio (GSNEO) references five essential skills through their cookie sales: goal setting, decision making, money management, people skills, and business ethics. They just finished up a successful cookie season, which is their primary fundraising for the troop. The girls really enjoy cookie sales, as they proudly work booths around northeast Ohio and develop lots of great skills without even knowing it!
Together, the troop sold 2,277 packages of cookies this year. This included 28 packages that will be shipped to those serving in the military through the Girl Scouts of Northeast Ohio’s “Operation Sweet Appreciation” program. They also collected 20 packages that they are donating to our local Nordonia Hills area police and fire departments.
Sara Ewing says, “My co-leader and I enjoy watching them interacting with customers, managing money, and working together as a team even just determining how to organize their table of cookies and who will take on which job is an invaluable experience for them.”
Last year, the girls earned their Bronze Award, the highest honor as Girl Scout Juniors. They ran a sock drive for the homeless, and made blankets and mini “Lovies” (hand-made stuffed animals with excess fleece material), which were donated to Laura’s Home Women’s Crisis Center in Cleveland.
They have continued their giving initiatives by helping local families this year. The donated care packages including groceries and toiletries through the Family Promise of Greater Cleveland. They also collected clothing donations that they sorted, folded, and organized by size for women and children. The women and children were able to shop during the shelter’s evening event that the cadettes helped with. They also donated money to sponsor a local family for Christmas, made Valentines, decorated cookies and chocolates, and donated them to local homeless shelters for Valentine’s Day.
Gabby Grams says, “I enjoy spending time with my friends at meetings and giving back to the community. I liked helping the families at the shelter and I always love selling cookies, and camping with my troop.”
Lilly Ewing adds, “I like that we get to help the community while working together to make the world better.”
They are an amazing group of young women that love giving back and having fun! Money raised from cookie sales has been used to fund their “giving back” initiatives, and purchase badges they have earned throughout the year.
When the cadettes aren’t volunteering their time to create a better world for all of us, they know how to have fun! They enjoy camping, including Glamping in beautiful cabins on Girl Scout Camp properties! They have used funds for horseback riding, geocaching, ice skating, snow shoeing, and other fun outdoor badge opportunities through the Holden Arboretum and Lake Erie Nature and Science Center. Best of all, they get to do all of these things with fellow cadettes they refer to as their friends.
To join Girl Scouts find out more at https://www.gsneo.org/en/join/join.html
Below there are pictures of the Girl Scouts listening to me chat about working with Nordonia Hills.News and grammar matters. You can see them all sitting with their newspapers next to them At Julie Ann Yoe Storybook Yoga studio
