Happy Earth Day to all!

Wow!  What a big day Brownie Try-It Day turned out to be.  We were not totally organized because we only had 2 girls, 3 leaders, and a Mom to do all the preparation work Friday night, but we still pulled it off to the total satisfaction of all the Brownies and their leaders.  The wonderful firemen of Station 19 came through big time with both a ladder truck and a rescue vehicle, and there was a lady firefighter who was both cute and nice!  The firefighters put us about half an hour late, but we managed to make up the time and finish less than 15 minutes late with a giant friendship circle. 

We learned several things.  One thing we forgot to put on the registration form was to ask if any of the Brownies had special needs.  Nobody did, but when we thought of it Sunday around noon, we realized it could have been a problem.  If we do this again, another thing we have to remember is to set up about half an hour for registration time.  We started about 15 minutes late and still had a few late comers who were added in later on.  We would definitely need a flexible activity for the girls who had to wait after they registered.

The Brownie leaders were great, as we expected.  They can certainly take a cue and dive in to lend a hand.  Mr. and Mrs. Caruso treated us to lunch, which was wonderful.  Ray Callaway gets honor and praise for being on hand in case of no firefighters, and as first aider and facilitator extraordinaire. 

When it was all over – down to putting away all the boxes at Pat’s house, and thanks very much for that!! – we were tired but aware that we had done well.  Brittany, Candra, and Maria all have completed the Service Project for the Emergency Preparedness IPP.  Callie, Crystal, and Laura will have to come up with a service project on their own.

Evaluation, Partying, and Planning

It’s too bad that none of the juniors participated in Brownie Try-It Day, because we had thought similar events might help raise money next year.  We need to talk about what we want to do next year.  It may be that finishing the three Gold Awards is as much activity as we can manage.

In order to reward ourselves and have a calm time to do our evaluation, we need to plan a get-together.  We need to get all the numbers crunched so that we can know what Brownie Try-It Day really cost.  With May being like it is, let’s check out some dates in June.  Friday, June 8 will fit in between Maria’s and Pat’s being out of town.  Who else is available?

Other June and July Events 

• Maria will need to finish her Gold Award by October 1, 2007.  She only has to finish the Career Exploration Pin before she can write her project application and do her project.  There should be ample time to finish, especially if she can get her project approved in June.

• Laura, Callie, and Crystal have until October 1, 2008.  Laura needs to finish the Career Exploration Pin and the Challenge before she can write her project proposal.  Callie just has to finish the Career Exploration before writing her project application, and Crystal has finished all her IPP’s and Studio2B books.  Crystal is partway on her Leadership Award, Career Exploration, and Senior Challenge and needs to finish the paperwork for all of them.  She’s done the work, but she has to get her calendars, logs, journals, and other paperwork all finished up. 

• Pat will be available to work with all the Gold Award girls the last two weeks in May and most of the summer except June 9-17 when she will be in Bloomington, Indiana.