This story was contributed by Karen McMullen, of Denton, Texas, and shares how she helped organize a Girl Scout badge earning opportunity for her local troop. Check it out, and see if you can think of other fun and interesting ways to reach out to your local community!
Free Girl Scout Badge Workshop on “Who was Mary Baker Eddy?” for Women’s History Month
24 Girls Scouts learned about Mary Baker Eddy, The Christian Science Monitor, and The Christian Science Reading room in 2 workshops. Brownies, Juniors and Caddett Girl Scouts were invited through the local Girl Scout Service Unit. The first workshop filled up in 15 minutes of posting the event and there was a waiting list of 20 more girls so we added a second workshop the following weekend.
Here is what we did:
We started the workshop with a 9 minute video on Mary Baker Eddy – provided by the Mary Baker Eddy Library for the Betterment of Humanity. The video is a great tool to quickly cover her history and accomplishments. We used that material to have a discussion of her struggles and how she was able to overcome them. The Christian Science Monitor has a section in the weekly magazine called “People Making a Difference”. We reviewed a few articles from that section and asked the girls to write a brief description of how they would like to make a difference in their communities on a worksheet provided by the MBE Library. Then we moved on the a simple craft. In one of Eddy’s homes she had a cross stitch that read “ Do Right, Fear Not”. We had the girls cross stitch this phrase on card stock for them to finish at home and save. The idea tied in so well with how they could make a difference in the world. Next, we played a simple game of cat’s cradle with the younger girls. We had divided into 3 smaller groups, so the for the last activity we all came back together and preformed brief skits about the articles the girls wrote on how they would make a difference in the world. We all ate Eddy’s favorite food, ice cream, as we watched the skits. All the girls left with a certificate of completion for their badge and a copy of The Christian Science Monitor.
This event was Simple, Easy, Low Cost, Effective outreach to our community. If you would like to have details on how to do this in your area I would be happy to share.
Karen McMullen
dkammc@verizon.net
