Exploring Opportunities for Volunteerism with Girl Scouts of America

Hey everyone! My name is Molly and here is a little about me. I am 11 years old and live in New Jersey. I love hanging out with friends and participating in many activities. I enjoy team sports including my competition dance team, Jr. PGA Golf team, and Swim team. At school I am involved in Student Council and volunteer on the Green Team. Outside of school and sports, I really love to get involved in my community and being a part of the Girl Scouts of America (GSA). My Girl Scout troop has introduced me to many opportunities for me to volunteer and I’d like to share my experience with you.

What is Girl Scouts all about?

I joined GSA as a Daisy Scout when I was just 6 years old, then on to Brownies and Juniors. Just recently I have bridged up another level to become a Cadette. If you don’t know much about GSA, we do a lot of fun things! It isn't just about selling cookies (though that's super fun too!), it's also about making a difference in our communities. We use the money we earn from our cookie sales to fund our activities. Through our activities we can earn badges for all sorts of things like camping and business skills, but also for what we can do to help others, like helping out at a food pantry or planting trees. It's a great way to learn new skills while making a positive impact.

What type of volunteering do Girls Scouts do?

As a Girl Scout I do many types of volunteering, from baking cornbread at Thanksgiving to donate to the hungry, collecting donations for children at the holidays, participating in a community clean up, to planting flowers to help brighten up our school entrance. I have been an active role model and leader in the volunteering community. My troop has always been ready, and excited to help a hand, and volunteer at a new place.

What has been my favorite volunteering experience so far?

One of the coolest and most rewarding things I've done with my troop is our Bronze Award project called ‘Hopewell Helping Hunger.’ The Bronze Award is the highest honor for Junior Girl Scouts. We identified a need in our community and as a troop came up with a plan to fix it.  We noticed that many people and families struggle to afford healthy food and this is called food insecurity. We learned that there are a lot of different causes for food insecurity. Some families rely on their community to help them keep their cupboards stocked. Our troop met with our local grocery store owner and our local food pantry director to understand how we could partner with them to make a positive impact. They loved our idea to provide simple, healthy recipe cards and meal kits for the shoppers at the grocery store to donate to the patrons of the food pantry. We designed recipe cards for meal kits including Mexican Taco Fiesta, Italian Pasta Night, and Asian Stir Fry. Each recipe card had a shopping list to make it easy for customers to locate the items in the store. We got the word out about our project with handmade poster and flyers and even hosted booths at the grocery store to tell shoppers all about how they could help! Over a two-month period we collected hundreds of meal kits for the food pantry! It was hard work, but we had so much fun together, and it made me proud to see the results.

Girl Scouts also gives us chances to help people who might be having a tough time. We've made cards for people at our local senior center to cheer them up. It's amazing how something as simple as a handmade card can make someone smile.

And guess what? We even get to help younger Girl Scouts! Sometimes we assist with younger troops, like showing them how to recite the Girl Scout promise and law or helping them with crafts. It feels great to share what we've learned and help others have fun and learn new things too. The best part of all these opportunities is that we get to do them with our friends and troop leaders who support us. We're like a big family, working together to make our community a better place. Plus, volunteering with Girl Scouts helps us grow into responsible and caring leaders.

Want to learn more?

So, if you're thinking about joining Girl Scouts or if you're already a Girl Scout, I totally recommend checking out all the volunteer opportunities available. It's such a rewarding experience, and you get to make a real difference in the world around you. Can't wait to see what we'll do next!