Trip Planning

As warm weather quickly approaches, troops are busily planning how they’ll use their Product Program proceeds. Many troops are going to Source programs, Outdoor Adventure Menu trips, or planning trips near and far! The skills girls learn from planning and implementing an event or trip with their troop will last them a lifetime. 

Whatever your troop is planning, please keep in mind some important items to keep you and your troop members safe while having fun! 

To drive girls on their trips, adults will need to submit the Driver and Privately Owned Vehicle Statement and a signed copy of the Driver’s Guidelines.

For longer trips, or trips with non-Girl Scout chaperones, additional insurance is recommended. Leaders can contact their Membership Specialist for information on additional insurance.

For an in-depth look at required processes and documents for every kind of trip and activity, check the “Troop Trip and Activity Requirements Guide.” This is available in the ‘Travel and Field Trips’ section of Forms and Documents in the Volunteer Resources on the Girl Scouts Heart of Michigan website.

All of these forms and training opportunities are available on the Girl Scouts Heart of Michigan website, gshom.org. Forms and Documents are located in Volunteer Resources, and training opportunities can be found on ebiz.  As always, if you need help planning a trip, contact your Membership Specialist and she or he can help you through the process!

Keeping Girls Engaged Over the Summer

Keeping girls engaged over the summer doesn’t have to involve a lot of planning, and it helps your troop to stay connected. You can attend camp or plan a field trip, using the proceeds from your product sales. You can have the girls plan a meeting at a local park for a few hours, or you can utilize the extra time girls have to work on a badge or complete a Journey. 

Summer is a good time to plan a family event-perhaps a picnic! Some troops plan mother/daughter or dad/daughter outings in the summer as well. These are all great ways to involve families in your troop, and show them how much their girls learn from being in Girl Scouts!

Does your community do a 4th of July or other holiday parades? This is a great time to get your troop together, and walk in the parade to show off your Girl Scout pride! Maybe there’s a festival in your community—what a wonderful time to have a cookie booth or recruit more troop members and volunteers for the fall!

Whatever you do, simple or extravagant, giving girls the opportunity to visit with their Girl Scout sisters to have fun this summer will keep girls connected and involved with Girl Scouting—both now and into the future!

Thank Your Local Hometown Heroes

It’s simple: Girls collect donations to send treats and cookies to local Hometown Heroes.

“It is amazing to see how much our community supports and appreciates all that we do as first responders, by putting Girl Scout cookies in the firehouse”, said one first responder. Girl Scout Treats and Cookies mean a lot to the heroes who keep us safe, and this helps girls learn skills to last the rest of their lives. Whether sending cookies to fire or police stations, deployed military, veterans, children’s hospitals, or local food banks, Girl Scout Cookies are sure to let someone know how much they’re appreciated.

Your troop can work with local businesses to collect donations, hold Hometown Hero cookie booths, walk your neighborhoods with a caravan, and pass out donation cards to send to your local heroes. Troops will earn up to $.80 per package. Large Hometown Hero Donations are tax deductible.