Tag Archives: Parker

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Be a Pirate in Landlocked Colorado

May 17, 2021 admin

Submitted by Silver Bashaw

Metro Denver

Parker

I want to tell you about how Girl Scouts in Colorado have an amazing opportunity to experience boating in our landlocked state. A volunteer-run summer day camp in June 2021 through GSCO offers windsurfing and sailing that few councils around the country can provide. Kayak, canoe, and SUP are also sports to choose from at the camp. This camp has a more than 20 year legacy and gives instruction that covers the skills and safety protocols of the American Red Cross and the American Canoe Association. Big Soda Lake at Bear Creek Lake Park with its fabulous view of Red Rocks and its serene waters is the setting of five days of certified instruction with a lot of fun thrown in.

From June 21 – June 25, 2021, girls learn windsurfing basics on a land board and then soar across the lake. Sailors can practice turtling their sailboat and walking across the bottom while righting it once again! Canoers learn necessary skills for out of state backpacking and canoe trips, while jummping in and out of the canoe and then swamping it for a fun, wet paddle to shore. Stand up paddle boarders get to jump hurdles and play water lacrosse, while kayakers explore every inch of the lake and picnic at a secret sandy beach. Friday is “Pirate Day” when sport teams compete for pirate booty, have a scavenger hunt on the lake, and losing teams have to “walk the plank.” (The losers feel like winners when that happens!)

The second camp is July 19 – July 23 and is the Paddle Badge camp. It is held at the new and beautiful Rueter-Hess Reservoir between Parker and Castle Rock. The reservoir is still closed to the public except for paddle weekends and gives campers five days of paddling with few people around. This camp has girls rotate between canoe, kayak, and SUP to earn the Senior Paddle badge. Here campers also have a sport of choice day, and Friday is another “Pirate Day” with the games and competitions that lead to pirate booty and “walking the plank.”

If you are looking for wet summer fun, try one of our camps. Cancelled last year due to the pandemic, we are excited to “sail” once again and share the activities that have a natural social distancing on the lake. We believe that “real boaters don’t need motors!”

Check us out at h20sportssampler.com or email silver.bashaw@gmail.com for more information.

We want to hear how your girl is using her Girl Scout skills by taking initiative, caring for the community, and Girl Scouting at home. She can send in her story here.

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Cookies for Parker Task Force

April 19, 2021 admin

Submitted by Ellen Q.

Metro Denver

Parker

Katie Q. and Charlotte C. of Troop 65984 delivered 74 packages of Girl Scout Cookies to Parker Task Force, their Hometown Hero for the 2021 Girl Scout Cookie Program.

We want to hear how your girl is using her Girl Scout skills by taking initiative, caring for the community, and Girl Scouting at home. She can send in her story here.

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Cookies for the Heart Institute at Children’s Hospital

April 8, 2021 admin

Submitted by Ellie B.

Metro Denver

Parker

This was Andie’s fifth year selling cookies. Selling during during a pandemic shifted her selling strategies. She decided to make door hangers for customers in the neighborhood to order cookies, instead of her usual door-to-door selling cookies in-hand on starting day. She brought flyers with the QR code for her site to school and handed them out to her classmates and school staff. She contacted previous customers by phone. She used her family’s social media sites to publish her site and send thank you messages for those who ordered. The new sales tactics were successful. She quickly met and surpassed her goal of 400 packages.

The best part was one of the neighbors saw on the door hanger that Andie was going to deliver donated packages to the Heart Institute at Children’s Hospital. The neighbor called to ask for more details, and not only did the neighbor make a large donation, she also told her small business group about it, and some of those businesses also made donations. In the end, 140 packages of cookies were delivered to the Heart Institute at Children’s Hospital, plus three fleece blankets Andie made. Andie’s troop also contributed an additional 256 packages through the Gift of Caring program!

We want to hear how your girl is using her Girl Scout skills by taking initiative, caring for the community, and Girl Scouting at home. She can send in her story here.

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Earn Your Horsemanship Badge with Colorado Reining Heroes

March 24, 2021 admin

Submitted by David Eason

Metro Denver

Parker

If you have ever considered learning about horses and how to ride them, you will definitely want to participate in the Reining Heroes program especially designed for Girl Scouts. Girl Scout Juniors can even earn their Horsemanship Badge in a warm, welcoming—and fun!—environment.

When you arrive at the stables and walk by the horses on your way to the tack shed, these gentle giants meet and welcome you as you pass by. The Reining Heroes horses love Girl Scouts and eagerly anticipate working with you. On the tour of the grounds, you will meet other horses, which might include a couple of adorable, friendly minis.

You will see and learn about different kinds of horses, their different colors, and the historical uses of some of them, such as for knights in shining armor of medieval times.

Your unmounted lesson will be hands-on: catching, haltering, leading, and grooming the horses—no standing around watching! When you are riding, the horse is yours, and you are the boss. When you are not riding, you will be helping another rider and her horse.

Lessons this year are every Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday from 9 – 11 a.m. in May, June, July, and August. For more information about the program, refer to the Event List or Events Calendar on the Girl Scouts of Colorado website at https://www.girlscoutsofcolorado.org/. Weekends are not available for lessons this year. If that changes, the GSCO Events Calendar will be updated.

Reining Heroes has been conducting this program for Girl Scouts for more than three years, and more than 400 Girl Scouts have earned their Horsemanship Badges here.

To register, either email reiningheroes@yahoo.com or call or text the instructor, Paula Quillen, at (303) 877-0371. If you have any questions or want to tour the facility before deciding to participate in the program, you can email, call, or text Paula.

You can see more about Reining Heroes including photos of the facility, horses, and prior Girl Scout participants at https://www.facebook.com/ReiningHeroes/photos/?ref=page_internal.

We want to hear how your girl is using her Girl Scout skills by taking initiative, caring for the community, and Girl Scouting at home. She can send in her story here.

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Celebrating World Thinking Day

February 24, 2021 admin

Submitted by Troop 65857

Metro Denver

Parker

Our troop did World Thinking Day activities at our meeting on Saturday, February 20, 2021. We had an awesome, in-depth discussion with their guest peacebuilder about what peacebuilding looks like and how they can take some peacebuilding ideas to their everyday lives. They worked together on their Peace Pledge.

I am a peacebuilder because I’m stronger than the dark.

I am making this peace pledge to relax.

I believe we should have respect and no war in the world.

I want to help make a difference for peace by stopping the drama.

It’s important to respect and listen to others because everyone has their own opinion.

I plead to be a peacebuilder every day in my home, school,

community, and the world.

Signed, Troop 65857

Happy World Thinking Day!

We want to hear how your girl is using her Girl Scout skills by taking initiative, caring for the community, and Girl Scouting at home. She can send in her story here.

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Girl Scout from Parker is Crocheting 200 “Ear-Savers”

December 17, 2020 admin

Girl Scout Juliette H. is crocheting as many as 200 “ear-savers” for the deaf and hard of hearing. She hopes her “ear-savers” will make it easier for the deaf and hard of hearing to wear masks during the COVID-19 (coronavirus) pandemic because their hearing aid(s) would be less likely to fall out when they remove their mask. In researching ways she could contribute to preventing the spread of COVID-19, Juliette learned deaf and hard of hearing students struggle with keeping their masks on because the ear pieces fall off their hearing aid(s). “Deaf and hard of hearing students would benefit from an ‘ear-saver’ for their mask because the string isn’t touching their hearing aid(s). During mask breaks, students could pull the face mask down to hang around their neck with the ‘ear-saver’ still attached,” she wrote.

Juliette, a Girl Scout Junior from Parker, plans to donate the “ear-savers” to deaf and hard of hearing students in Denver Public Schools, along with community groups that work with the deaf and hard of hearing. She also hopes to earn the Bronze Award, the highest honor for Girl Scouts in fourth or fifth grade.

We want to hear how your girl is using her Girl Scout skills by taking initiative, caring for the community, and Girl Scouting at home. She can send in her story here.

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Gold Award Girl Scouts impact Colorado communities and beyond

December 1, 2020 admin

In the face of the global coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, Girl Scouts continue to do all they can to make our world a better place by taking action to address issues facing their local communities. There are no better examples of this Girl Scout spirit and resiliency than the 16 Girl Scouts from across Colorado who recently earned the distinction of Gold Award Girl Scout, the highest honor in Girl Scouting. They include:

Sidney Barbier from Steamboat Springs, Steamboat Mountain School, tackled the issues of waste and recycling, particularly at Colorado state parks. She designed signage for state parks, hosted events to educate others about waste diversion, and even created a Junior Ranger curriculum.
Charlotte Blish from Arvada, Arvada West High School, started a nonprofit, Watering Communities, to teach elementary-aged students about how the lack of clean water impacts socio-economic and education resources in parts of Africa.
Clare Bolon from Longmont, Apex Homeschool Enrichment Program, developed and taught a week-long online course about how to write and read cursive. She also created resources to help students continue to practice their cursive after completing the course.
Kayla Fairweather from Parker, Ponderosa High School, developed a video curriculum on Type 1 Diabetes (T1D) to supplement the T1D training that teachers currently receive. It features the perspectives of diabetic students, parents, a professional athlete with T1D, an endocrinologist, and a diabetes resource nurse.
Zoe Johnson from Monument, Palmer Ridge High School, created a handbook and video about horse care and safety to educate new or inexperienced horse owners, as well as barn staff at summer camps.
Beatrice Lin from Longmont, Silver Creek High School, developed a workshop and handbook for Girl Scout Daisies and Brownies called “Bringing Global to Girls” (BGtG). The goal is to help younger Girl Scouts develop a sense of connection to the rest of the world and appreciation for other cultures.
Ellie McWhirter from Denver, East High School, developed a series of educational materials, including a website, to decrease plastic bag usage in her community and increase the knowledge of plastic bag pollution.
Isabella Mendoza from Longmont, Silver Creek High School, designed a cheap and sustainable habitat for solitary bees to lay eggs in and distributed more than 350 habitats around Colorado and the world. She also hosted a community event for people to make their own habitat.
With the help of local Girl Scout troops, Ashlyn Morrill from Parker, Chaparral High School, created a pollinator garden that attracts various pollinators, including hummingbirds, butterflies, bees, etc. Girls learned the importance of pollinators and were inspired to do their part to help conserve the pollinator populations.
Opal Mosbarger from Peyton, Falcon High School, addressed the issue of animal displacement during emergency situations. She collected kennels and blankets for Perfect Fit Wellness Center, so people can keep their pets safe during natural disasters and other emergencies.
Wren Murzyn from Fort Collins, Poudre High School, partnered with doctors, nutritionists, and others to create a guidebook to assist individuals who are wanting to get healthy, but don’t know where to start.
Meredith Neid from Denver, George Washington High School, started a self-care club at her high school to healthily address rising levels of stress amongst her peers. After the start of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, she adapted her project to include Zoom conversations with high school seniors about processing the pandemic and what it means to grow up during this time.
Anna Rahn from Colorado Springs, Pine Creek High School, created 17 STEM activities for schools and after-school programs. Due to the pandemic, she was unable to distribute them to local schools, so she developed a website where PDFs of the activities are available.

The Girl Scout Gold Award is the mark of the truly remarkable— earned only by a high school Girl Scout who works to address an issue she’s passionate about in a way that produces meaningful and lasting change. Whether it’s on a local, national, or global level, Gold Award Girl Scouts provide innovative solutions to significant challenges. Of the skills learned through Girl Scouts’ Highest Awards, leadership, organization, and critical thinking are the fundamentals of the Girl Scout Leadership Experience. Universities and colleges offer scholarships unique to Gold Award Girl Scouts, and girls are entitled to enlist at a higher pay grade if they join the military.

“Gold Award Girl Scouts don’t just change the world for the better, they change it for good—and these Girl Scouts embody everything this achievement stands for,” said Leanna Clark, Chief Executive Officer of Girl Scouts of Colorado. “Each of these young women addressed an issue that’s important to her in order to earn her Gold Award, and we congratulate each of these Gold Award Girl Scouts on this momentous accomplishment.”

You can learn more about these Gold Award Girl Scouts and their projects on the Girl Scouts of Colorado blog.

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Centennial Girl Scouts Earn Bronze Award

November 5, 2020 admin

Submitted by Colleen Dooley

Metro Denver

Centennial

Congratulations to Ali, Josey, Maisie, Paige, and Samantha from Troop 65346 in Centennial! They earned the Girl Scout Bronze Award for a project that provides birthday kits to low-resource families.

In February, the girls toured SECORCares, a food pantry in Parker, to learn about the needs of their community and where they could make a difference. They decided to put together birthday kits so that families who are faced with food insecurities could still celebrate their child’s birthday.

After compiling a list of what could be included in each kit, they collected donations to supply: a boxed cake mix, canned frosting, birthday candles, balloons, favors, party hats, and a homemade card; packaged together in a disposable cake pan. The girls made posters and handed out flyers during their school’s Family Night Book Fair to share information about their project and raise awareness about suburban poverty in their community.

The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic required them to move to an online donation drive in the spring, but they continued to spread the word and collected enough donations to build more than 300 birthday kits! Once the girls were permitted to gather again, they assembled and delivered kits to SECORCares, where families can shop their free food market – and now easily pick-up everything they need to celebrate a birthday!

We want to hear how your girl is using her Girl Scout skills by taking initiative, caring for the community, and Girl Scouting at home. She can send in her story here.

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Gold Award Girl Scout Ashlyn Morrill, Parker, “Protect the Pollinators”

October 19, 2020 admin

What did you do for your Gold Award project?

I created a pollinator garden that attracts various pollinators, e.g. hummingbirds, butterflies, bees, etc., with the help of local Girl Scout troops to show how important pollinators are to the community and what they provide, and to inspire them to do their part to help conserve the pollinator populations. I also created a website and presentation for various classes at my high school to encourage others to create their own pollinator garden.

How did you measure the impact your Gold Award project made on your target audience?

My target audience was middle school and high school students because they are the future of the world. They will be the generation that will have to deal with the consequences of climate change, for instance, the decline in pollinators. I measured my project’s impact by creating an Instagram page for people to interact with. I also put free milkweed seed packets in the school library along with a flyer to explain their purpose.

How is your project sustainable? How will your project continue to impact after your involvement?

The first way I made my project sustainable is the plants themselves are perennials, so they will come back every year. Second, I created the presentation describing the issue and what the purpose of the garden is. The Interact Club at Chaparral High School will be continuing the presentations for various classes. I also created an Instagram account @chap.pollinator.garden, which I have posted various statistics and pictures from planting day. I also created a website, chapgarden.wixsite.com/chap, which explains the purpose of the garden and why this is an important issue that needs to be addressed. There is an email as well, it is chap.pollinator.garden@gmail.com, for anyone to contact if they have any questions at all.

What is your project’s global and/or national connection?

The national/global link is that this pollinator decline does not only affect the food supply of Parker, CO, it impacts the whole world. I linked my project to a national organization called Save Our Monarchs by receiving seed packets from them to share with my community. Globally, the Instagram page and the website could reach other countries and inspire others in different areas of the world.

What did you learn about yourself?

I learned that when plans change, I cannot get stressed out or worried because I will not get anywhere. The only way to overcome failures is to persevere through them and stay focused on the overall goal. Also, plans change all the time, and it is always good to plan ahead and almost expect the plans to change so I am prepared for anything.

How will earning your Gold Award impact you in the future?

I learned and improved upon many skills including leadership and communication, which I will need in the future for my career. It is also a good experience to include on resumes and applications because it shows your potential and what you can do as a leader.

Why do you feel the Gold Award was an important part of your Girl Scout experience?

My Gold Award was an important part of my Girl Scout experience because it gave me an opportunity to apply the skills I have learned and developed throughout my years as a Girl Scout.

How did earning your Gold Award help you become a G.I.R.L. (go-getter, innovator, risk-taker, leader)?

I would consider myself very innovative after this project. I ran into plenty of challenges including spontaneous snowstorms, rescheduling, and a global pandemic. I had to reschedule a dozen times and not panic because if the leader loses control, then the whole project could fall apart.

**IMPORTANT NOTE: This blog represents only a small fraction of the hard work, dedication, and requirements that go into earning a Girl Scout Gold Award. It is simply a brief summary, which is meant to inspire Girl Scouts to Go Gold in the future. For more information on earning your Gold Award, please email highestawards@gscolorado.org.