Creating Fun for Girl Scouts

Big Girl with her toasted marshmallows for s'mores.

Earlier this year at our Girl Scout Camporee, another leader and I were discussing how there was not an event for the Junior level scouts in our service unit. Daisies had a Teddy Bear Picnic; Brownies have Yule Log; but Juniors did not have anything, and they seemed to miss the fun gathering of the Yule Log event.

As a result, we decided to pull together a special event just for the Junior Girl Scouts in our town. The event was held at our local Girl Scout camp, and featured fire skills and safety, s'mores making, and singing.

The fire safety idea came from our Camporee, where there was a session on how to build a campfire. It was so helpful and insightful that it was recreated just for this event. Several of the girls had missed this at camp due to soccer schedules, so it was nice to give them a chance to learn how to make a fire. They used matches, learned different ways to start a fire, and learned how to "feed" a fire and keep it going, as well as fire safety tips.

Once the fires were blazing, the girls made s'mores, drank hot chocolate, and we had an old-fashioned sing-a-long of holiday and Girl Scout songs.

There were about five troops who attended, and the girls enjoyed seeing their peers outside of their own troops. It was also great to concentrate on just this age level. 

My troop will not be Juniors next year, but hopefully this is a tradition the service unit will continue.