Harvesters

On Oct. 31, 1860 Girl Scout founder, Juliette Gordon was born.  She founded Girl Scouts 1912 here in the US.  One of the beliefs that Juliette instilled on girls from the beginning, is the commitment to help others.  Today, Oct. 29th, Christ the King Girl Scouts and fellow troop 4306, spent some time at Harvesters.  There the younger Girl Scouts colored and decorated bags that will be used at Harvesters when they take meals to people who are in need.  The older Girl Scouts spent a couple of hours sorting out and repackaging 4,141 lbs. bread that is being sent out around the area to help other food panties.   Girl Scouts collected food items to bring to Harvesters, CTK girls brought in 156 lbs and Troop 4306 brought in 213 lbs.

Energy

Did you know that if you wanted to learn a little about how power travels from the power plants to your home, you could visit Kanza Education and Science Park right here in Topeka!

Our two Brownie troops took advantage of visiting the park to earn their Energy badge.  Westar in partnership with the Topeka Public Schools, build this center so students can learn more about the fields of science, technology, engineering and math (STEM).  They also visited the wind turbine that is located there at the park.  This allows students to learn about renewable energy and conservation.

My Girl Scout troop #3715 went to Westar Energy on Saturday, Oct. 22.  We learned how electricity travels to homes and businesses. We also got to see a wind turbine, it was really big.  The trip was a lot of fun.

written by Alaina, 3rd grade Brownie

Topeka Zoo

"The Junior Girl Scout went to the Topeka Zoo and did the Twilight tour on Oct. 21st.  It started at the Rain forest.  After looking around, we went to a room at the back of the Rain forest and saw how they prepare food for the animals.  We saw lots of other animals through out the zoo like giraffes, bears, tigers and lions.  The Twilight tour at the zoo was a blast!" - Rosalia, 4th grade Junior

The 4th grade Junior Girl Scouts worked on the Animal Habitat badge.  Some of the steps to earning this badges are; 1. Find out about wild animals, 2. Investigate an animal habitat, 3. Create an animal house, 4. Explore endangered habitats, and 5.  Help protect animal habitats.

When we toured the zoo at night, we saw how many of the animals do different things within their habitats than they do during the day.  The owls were more "talkative" at night and were closer to the fronts of their enclosures.  The bats swooped all over the place, many of us had to dunk otherwise we would have had bats in our hair!  We also didn't realize how much space is behind the scene at the Rain forest.

After visiting the zoo, Emily did a short presentation on Fairy Penguins.  They are one of the smallest penguins and live off the coast of New Zealand.  We found out during the research that many penguins had gotten hurt from oil that has been spilled into the ocean.  To help the penguins recover after being cleaned, they are outfitted in a little knit sweater!  This is to help keep them from picking at their feathers and ingesting the oil.  Who knew that penguins were fashionistas!

After cookie season this winter, we voted on going to a rescue horse ranch south of Topeka.  There they take in horses that are sick or needing new homes.  We hope to raise a lot of donation money so we can give to the horse ranch to help take care of all of the horses.

This badge was a lot of fun for the girls to do.  They all have a special place in their hearts for animals!

Rome Sweet Home

Our CTK Girl Scouts helped again this year at Rome Sweet Home.  The younger girls had a great time helping people carry their trays to tables, picking up trash and wiping down tables.  The older girls helped clear the gym of tables and chairs for Mr. Russell.  The Daisy girls had such a great time helping people, that they didn't want to go back outside to play!  The older Girl Scouts got a lot of compliments for their teamwork clearing out the gym. Community service is one of the Girl Scout foundations that we strive do to our best at.  We are looking forward to helping again next year!

Sit Upons

A tradition in Girl Scouts is to make what is called a Sit-Upon. What is a sit-upon? They are homemade, usually waterproof pads used to protect the user's backside from the cold and damp while "sitting upon" the ground! They are also great for sitting any where the sitting surface is hard... a Girl Scout tradition for camping.  We made ours with vinyl table cloth, newspaper and duck tape.  The girls were able to decorate with markers and stickers to make theirs a little more unique.  

Junior Girl Scouts taught the Daisy's to make their first Sit-Upon

Aviation day

On October 1, 2016 we attended Girls in Aviation Day/Fly Kansas at Forbes Field. 

We started the day at the Museum of the Kansas National Guard.  There we listened to two female helicopter pilots, two female KC-135 tanker pilots and a female crew chief for the KC-135.  We also did a STEM project about the forces of flight.  We also got to walk through the museum and look at the equipment on display outside.  Just before lunch we moved over to the Combat Air Museum.  We listened to the Governor and state transportation officials about Kansas’ part in aviation history.  They spoke about the contributions that women have made in Kansas aviation.   There were many planes and helicopters to look at.  There was even a hot air balloon.  There were two female Air Force pilots that flew in from Oklahoma to talk to us.  One flew the biggest airplane the USAF has, the C5.  Both pilots had flown supply missions into combat zones.  One had landed on every continent, even Antarctica.   Both of them now train others to be pilots in the USAF.  Overall, we had a great day learning about women in aviation and started dreaming about what we could possibly do!