Girl Stories

Girl Scouts in Maine Give Back

For more than 100 years Girl Scouts have taken the lead helping their communities and making the world a better place. Girl Scouts across Maine are stepping up to find new ways to serve during the COVID-19 pandemic. From making and donating masks, to care packages for healthcare workers and cookies for those those on the front lines, Girl Scouts are giving back to their local communities. Read more by clicking the images below and keep checking back as we continue to add new Girl Scouts Give Back Highlights.

Troop 200: Troop 200 in Naples donated Girl Scout Cookies to the healthcare workers at Bridgton Hospital to show their support during this difficult time.
Troop 954: Girl Scouts care about giving back to their communities. Troop 954 donated 33 boxes of Girl Scout Cookies to the Rumford Hospital and 9 boxes to the Norway Hospital.
Lila Nichols: Lila Nichols from troop 794 made 36 rice bags for all of the local law enforcement chiefs and dispatchers including the Aroostook County Sheriff, Shawn Gillen, to show her appreciation for all they do and thank them for their service. She is also making face masks! Read this article to learn more.
Troop 896: Troop 896 gifted Maine Medical Center with Girl Scout Cookies and their thoughtful gesture brought joy to many healthcare workers.
Ellie Judice: Girl Scout, Ellie, from troop 1082 created some fun and educational videos to pass the time during quarantine. You can check them on her Facebook group.
Troop 498: Girl Scout Juniors from troop 498 have donated 140 boxes of cookies to their local food pantry, hospitals, and nursing homes. Great way to give back, girls!
Troop 187: Mapleton Girl Scout Troop 187 felt that home care heroes could use a pick up, so they made a cookie delivery to three health organizations close to their community: AR Gould Northern Light Health in Presque Isle, the Presque Isle Nursing Home, and Crown Ambulance. The girls also donated ear guards. One Girl Scout in the troop, Bobbi, is hard of hearing, so it was important to her that their ears were protected.

All three organizations were appreciative of the donations and they brought smiles to their faces. Thank you to the home care workers for all that you and and thank you to troop 187 for giving back in a time of need.

*Please know that the group picture shown here was taken in winter 2020 and the donation was done safely by following all social distancing requirements.
Troop 1087: We want to highlight the efforts of Troop 1087 to give back to healthcare workers in their community. These Girl Scouts delivered a basket filled with their favorite Girl Scout Cookies to York Hospital caregivers along with a heartfelt note of appreciation for all they they do. We are so proud to see Girl Scouts supporting their fellow community members!
Troop 422: Girl Scout Troop 422 decided that the best way to give back during these tough times was to donate 13 cases of Girl Scout Cookies to Maine Veterans' Homes in Bangor.

Want to see reactions from the residents? Check out Maine Veterans' Homes' post on Facebook.
Troop 727: Wanting some way to help out their community during COVID-19, Brownies from troop 727 donated Girl Scout Cookies to the Maine Veterans' Home in Bangor. They brightened the residents day with their cookie donation. Thank you, girls for giving back!
Troop 1340: We want to give a big shout out to troop 1340 in Herman for their 3-part Cigarette Pollution Awareness project! What started out as a simple air pollution project turned into so much more. Troop 1340 posted their project online and it got the attention of Brianna Bryant and Sara Yasner, who are part of the Tobacco Prevention team at Bangor Public Health. Brianna and Sara were so impressed with their project that they are now displaying it at their office and will be using it in future awareness programs!
Nonesuch Service Unit Bakes Pies: Girls from troops 651, 485, 1417, 574, and 1868 baked apple, pumpkin, blueberry, and chocolate cream pies at the Westbrook Warren Church in preparation to donate them to The Wayside Food Program for the Thanksgiving holiday! This year there were troops that participated for the first time, and for some girls, they were making their first pies ever. 32 pies were baked in total. Way to go, girls! Read more here.

Compass Stories

World Thinking Day 2021

Every year around February 22, Girl Scouts and Girl Guides across 150 countries celebrate World Thinking Day—that’s one big celebration! GSME joined in the festivities with a special event for Daisies, Brownies, and Juniors where we explored what it means to be a peacebuilder, an important part of our global Girl Scout movement. Miss Maine, Carolyn Brady, spoke to us about how we can be better peacebuilders by finding peace within ourselves, and we learned the importance of listening and communicating openly when faced with a challenge. Since peacebuilding begins with each and every one of us, girls reflected on how and why they could be peacebuilders in their own communities, and pledged to make the world a better, and more peaceful place.

Girl-Planned and Girl-Led!
That describes the 2021 World Thinking Day for Older Girls event. The six Senior and Ambassador Girl Scouts on the committee planned and led the activities for girls to earn the GSUSA World Thinking Day Award and WAGGGS World Thinking Day Badge. A young lady from Pakistan discussed cultural differences in US and Pakistan, and her experience as an exchange student in Maine as compared to living in Pakistan. The girls were excited to have Laura from GSME teach them about peaceful meditation and then lead some mediation exercises. The participants also had an opportunity to discover their conflict style, discuss what makes them peaceful, and looked at peace in songs. The event closed by looking at the Girl Guide/Girl Scout Promises from other regions, and considered based on the 10 million membership of girls and young women in World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts (WAGGGS) that “If we all took steps together towards a more peaceful world and did a good turn every day that would be ten million acts of peace each day and three billion, six hundred and fifty million acts of peace each year!”

Road Ready!

Senior Troop 574 spent an afternoon learning about car maintenance and safety to earn their Car Care badge. With all the girls in the troop now driving this year, the information was relevant and important! The troop is fortunate to have several troop dads with extensive knowledge and experience with truck driving and automotive repair, and one who is an Alive at 25 driver education instructor. They talked to the girls about what they have seen on the road and offered tips for safe driving. A Westbrook police officer provided a list of common safety issues among teens.

The girls learned basic car maintenance including how to check the oil level, check tire pressure and wear, and how to fill fluids (windshield washer, coolant, radiator, brake). This was the first time many of the girls had opened the hood of their car. They learned the importance of checking windshield wipers, how to use jumper cables for a dead battery, and how to handle common driving hazards with a hands-on demonstration of blind spots. Awesome work all around to be prepared to hit the road!

*Each girl was paired with her own parent/relative and they worked on their own car. The cars were more than six feet apart.

Reduce. Reuse. Recycle!

Daisy/Brownie Troop 1097 in Scarborough worked with ecomaine to earn their Eco Learner and Household Elf badges. Vanessa Berry, an environmental educator from ecomaine hosted a virtual tour of the recycling center. The girls learned about what can be recycled, why it is so important for our environment, and about food waste and composting. The girls had a blast making homemade recycled paper too and learning about ways to help our environment!

Virtual Alaska Dog Sled Adventure

Brownie/Junior Girl Scout Troop 520 of Brunswick stayed cozy inside as they went on a Virtual Sled Dog Adventure with Morganne Price from Dream Big Kennel in Willow, Alaska.

The girls took a tour of the sled dogs' facility, met the Alaskan Huskies, and learned about their care from what they eat and how much exercise they need, to the special care they required for their feet and general health. They learned why the order of the dogs on the line mattered as Morganne hooked them up and it was interesting to see how connected and in-tune Morganne is with her dogs.

Once all the dogs were hooked up, they were off! It was amazing to go on a dog sled adventure in Alaska, Morganne was inspirational to watch as she called out instructions to her dogs, kept on course
though beautiful scenery, and answered a huge variety of questions with humor, patience, experience, and knowledge.

Troop 520 did this virtual adventure in February 2021 when COVID-19 variants were concerning and flags were at half-staff to commemorate 500,000 U.S. deaths to COVID-19. The troop was transported away for more than an hour on the best zoom meeting they had ever been on, it was a bright spot during some dark days and a win for helping them on their way to earning the GSME Great Outdoors Winter Challenge patch.

Girl Scouts Who Give Back Together, Stay Together!

Despite starting off their year remotely, Troop 2300 from Gorham was able to complete badge work and several community service projects including "Be A Santa To A Senior", making blankets for "Project Linus", collecting socks for a local nursing home, birthday bags for the Gorham Food Pantry to celebrate Girl Scout week, and collecting over 4 cases of cookies and donating them to the frontline workers at the Maine Health Vaccine site at Scarborough Downs. WOW!

It is not all work and no play for this troop though! They participated in the Gorham Holiday Lights Parade, went snow tubing, hiked and explored the old Gambo Gunpowder Mills, and had a year-end ceremony on Portland's waterfront with a ride on the Narrow Gauge Railroad.

This group of Girl Scouts has been together since kindergarten and are graduating next year, but even a pandemic won’t stop them from enjoying every minute of Girl Scouting until that day!

*Click on the images for a larger view.

Superheroes on a Mission to Make the World a Better Place

After a long winter of remote meetings, girls in Troop 113 were enthusiastic about starting a new journey, selecting the Agent of Change Junior Journey. Troop leaders went with a superhero theme to present the information to the girls which led to meaningful conversation around power, role models, and eventually the power the girls had to change the world.

The girls thought about how they could make a difference in the world and how they are already making a positive impact around them. Outfitted in their superhero capes with positive traits for each girl on them, the girls met in person to share some of their individual work and work together on activities and brainstorm so they are ready to hit the ground running this fall with a Take Action project in their community! Great work, girls and kudos to your creative and hard working leaders!

Using Resources Wisely and Helping Others to Do the Same

After seeing disposable mask litter on the ground and learning about the environmental impact of these masks during the COVID-19 pandemic, Troop 612 in Brunswick began working with Midcoast Hospital to help recycle disposable masks.

Using funds earned from their cookie sale, they purchased mask recycling boxes through Terracycle to place in their community, keeping approximately 6,000 masks out of the trash! Outstanding problem solving to make a positive impact in your community girls!

For the Love of Animals

Troop 16 is very passionate about helping animals and when it came to deciding what to do with their cookie proceeds, they knew it would be something to help both endangered animals and shelter animals. For endangered animals, each girl chose a threatened species to "adopt" through the World Wildlife Fund. For shelter animals, the girls voted to sponsor one dog kennel and one cat condo at the ARLGP for 6 months each.

The troop also made many rope toys for the dogs, cat wands, some things for the critters, and purchased items from their wish list to donate. They went for a visit to the ARLGP in June to drop off more than six boxes of donations, tour the shelter and learn a little more about what they do, and of course, visit the animals!

*Click on the images for a larger view.

Personal care. Community effort.

Troop 1008 put together birthday bags for their local food pantry and learned during a facility tour how badly they needed donations of personal hygiene products. The girls placed donation boxes at the Lamoine Consolidated School and the Town Office for items such as soap, shampoo, deodorant, toothpaste, etc. They also held a drop-off donation event at the town's transfer station on a Saturday morning. Their efforts paid off as they collected over a dozen bags of products which were donated to Loaves & Fishes Food Pantry. Awesome work, girls!

*Click on the image for a larger view.

For the Love of Animals and Community

Cadette Troop 745 of Windham Think Big! When the girls met at the beginning of the Girl Scouting year they knew they had to be creative with the pandemic. They were determined to work their cookie business and set goals on what to do with the funds they earned.

One of the girls, who is working on the Think Big financial literacy badge, reached out to a local farm to discover their “wish list” for the farm. With a shared love for animals and helping their community, the troop agreed to fund the project and help with the work. Leandra Woodman and Chloe Poitras worked at It Takes Two Farm, making the wish list item come true. The troop didn’t stop there, they also volunteered at the Maine State Society for the Protection of Animals (MSSPA) in Windham, where they cleaned paddocks and scraped and painted picnic tables. Great work, Girl Scouts!

*Click on the images for a larger view.

PJ’s for Paws–Bronze Award Journey

In April, Troop 83 met and decided to try and earn the Bronze Award before their bridging ceremony in August. The girls researched options in their community of Fort Kent and decided to take action to benefit the Paws Cat Shelter, after learning that their other choice, the Red Cross, wasn’t an option with COVID-19 restrictions.

The girls visited the shelter, asking questions to discover what help and supplies were needed. Armed with the shelter’s needs, Troop 83 created a supply drive called PJ's for Paws where their peers at school could wear PJ's if they donated a needed cat supply. Through this initiative the troop collected: 39 bags of dry food, 36 Rolls of Paper towels, 232 cans of wet food, 352lbs of litter, 2 disposable litter boxes, 19 toys, 11 containers of treats, and 17 cleaning supplies.

The girls re-purposed a wooden chest for an after-hours donation box, decorated two bins for grocery store donations, and spent time helping to clean and organize the storage shed at the shelter! In addition, they took the funds that were donated to buy extra supplies.Amazing work! Congratulations on earning your Bronze Award and making a positive impact in your community.

*Click on the images for a larger view.

Passion and Perseverance Prevails

In the fall of 2019, Juniors from troop 507 of Sabattus began the Agent of Change Journey—no one could have imagined the journey that it took them on! They set big goals to challenge themselves and were immediately faced with COVID-19 and many obstacles which prevented them from completing their Take Action project.

As time went on, they thought of different ways they could make a change. In April, after an amazing cookie season, the girls regrouped via Zoom and redirected their ideas to their local food pantry. They invited Kaydenz Kitchen to a meeting to get some feedback on a few ideas they had and after some research, troop members took it upon themselves to assist in building a cart to benefit the organization. Each of the girls participated initially from their homes, sanding down plywood, painting pieces, etc. They then brought it all together in May and collected food donations to fill the cart for delivery.

We love your passion and perseverance. Congratulations, girls!

*Click on the images for a larger view.

Helping People at All Times

Being 100% virtual didn’t stop Troop 520 from Brunswick from collecting over 200lbs of food to donate to the Midcoast Hunger Prevention Program! They also made holiday cards to be shared with the food collected, as well as sent to service men and women overseas.

As parents and Girl Scouts met to drop off their donations, they even got to enjoy some hot chocolate to warm up. What a nice way to see one another safely and to 'help people at all times' and 'make the world a better place.'

*Click on the images for a larger view.

Celebrating A Successful Girl Scout Year

Making the best of Zoom, Junior Troop 60 from Scarborough, Old Orchard Beach, Saco, and Biddeford completed a journey and started their Bronze Award virtually. They were especially proud to have earned the Bronze Award for a PSA video they created focusing on ways kids and adults can reduce food waste, which has a big impact on our environment. Sharing the video with their schools this upcoming school year will be one way they continue to spread their message far and wide.

They also loved finally being able to meet again in person this spring, and were lucky to meet near the ocean where they made candles in the sand and ended their year with a pizza party, Bronze Award video debut, and tie-dyed towels. They're looking forward to new adventures and memories next year, and we are excited to see what amazing things they do next!

*Click on the images for a larger view.