starting a new year!

camp fire meeting sept 29th 6pm Monday
same old time, same old place (at the church)

bring a plain canvas bag and your workbook, bring workbooks to every meeting please (large canvas bag if possible).

i have several workbooks that havent been picked up, i will bring them.

i made a camp fire block stamp for us to use, let me know if you guys want to do this as a craft (each girl can make their own unique stamp). it costs about 12 dollars for the kit but you can use the cutting tool for other stamps. i would love it if we could do this as a craft together. the cost (12 dollars) is too high to take from the kitty, but if everyone buys their own we could do it sometime soon.

thank you to everyone who came to the cubberley recruitment night, i am working on something big right now that will benefit our group and cubberley too, hoping it works out! details later!

linda and i had fun at tincher with emily and sage (sorry the only photo that came out was of lizzie!)

see everyone monday.

do not feed the ducks taskforce

thanks to everyone who came out to the good neighbor festival! it was great fun and you all should be proud to be helping out our local wildlife!

Parents: if you cant make it to the parent meeting tonight, i will have sign ups at the first general meeting for you to help with one event this year. if you already know of an event you would like to help with, email me asap. so far i have dori signed up for the christmas party. i need a parent for each main event, a snack parent (to organzie the snacks for the year) and i am working out how we will do candy sales this year. please be ready to sign up at the next meeting, if you owe dues, please have that ready as well.

thanks!

parent meeting!! monday sept 22 6:30pm

the parent meeting is monday september 22 at 6:30 pm (the blog had the wrong date before, please check your calendars)

coming up: the good neighbor festival sunday september 21st, please contact me asap if you can attend.

camp fire meeting number one, monday sept 29th

please bring your workbooks (camp fire record books)
and a plain canvas bag. we will be doing some art work on the canvas bag. this will be the bag you keep all your camp fire stuff in, to bring to each meeting. you can even store your vest and patches in a ziplock bag inside too.

dont forget to keep saving alluminum cans and plastic bottles (without the lids) we will be collecting these all year to raise money. we will talk more about this at the meeting and in the near future.

see you then!

duck pond task force

i attended a meeting last night with the "lakes,ponds and wetlands taskforce" (this was organized by gerrie schipske, remember we were asked to help with this after the girls wrote letters to her regarding the los cerritos wetlands). we discussed future projects and came up with two events:

1. Good Neighbor Day Sept 21st Sunday (at the island of grass adjacent to the eldorado library and recreation center, on studebaker) 10am to 3pm

we will have a table set up with the same "do not feed the ducks" info/poster drawing we had at the earth day event we hosted in april. we will have the kids make posters and something different this time is having the kids sign up for "duck patrol" which will be saturdays and/or sundays in october and november (we have to see how many kids sign up to see how long we can run it). each kid will get a "duck button" (remember my button machine?) our girls will help run this table and we will help on the weekend duck patrols. we are going to ask other camp fire groups to help us as well as the boy scouts (maybe some girl scouts too?)

2. "Do not feed the ducks" poster contest for long beach unified school district, 5th district. i am working with the taskforce to set this up, there wont be much involvement for the girls, other than promoting this at school with friends once the contest starts, sometime in october or november at the latest. the winning poster will be on the official sign(s) displayed at the el dorado duck pond. there might be more than one winner and more than one sign (in other lakes/ponds throughout long beach parks) exciting! i am hoping to use some of the posters to make bookmarks for local libraries.

i need volunteers for the good neighbor event, even 30 minutes at the table will help. this will be funner than the earth day, there are more activites for kids this time. we will be set up from about 10am to 3pm, i will send out emails to other camp fire groups for help and the boy scouts will be there too. siblings and friends are welcome to hang out and help us. spread the word!

fall is going to be busy! don't forget the parent meeting (last post)

see everyone soon!

fall parent meeting

hello there!

we will be having a fall parent meeting on monday september 22nd, no kids please.

i just attended the adventure level training and have learned more about what to expect this year. the girls will become more involved in earning patches and beads, recording things in their workbooks as we go along. there is a "bead" book they will need to purchase and keep along with the "trail seeker" record book. at the parent meeting i will give everyone a handout that explains what they will be earning, the adventure level is more straightforward than the starflight level (which frankly confused me a lot of the time). i am super excited to work closer with the girls on the lessons and meetings, there will be more responsibilities given to them this year.

as most of you know, kathleen and isabella are moving to oceanside this month. i am hoping isabella will be able to continue meeting with us during the year and attend camp wintaka and camp shiwaka next summer. there are many activities during the year she can still attend so hopefully we will get to see her and kathleen often. lets all keep in touch with them and keep them up to date on all our camp fire activities.

with kathleen leaving, i will have to make some changes and ask more parents for help. i have learned a lot about being the leader of our group these past two years and have depended heavily on kathleen for advice and support. i dont intend on letting her get away from me entirely, but everyone will need to be more available if we want to keep things running smoothly. as usual, my goal is to have fun and keep camp fire a positive experience for everyone.

at the parent meeting i will go over a few ideas i have to share the workload a bit more, i dont think anyone will find it grueling or much different from the past. something new this year will be having each girl plan and run a portion of one meeting on a topic that interests her. we might have the girls pair up for this. it wont be scary like an oral report (those scared me to death as a kid) it will be just for fun and help them with leadership skills as well as help me out a bit.

earning beads will be a new thing this year as well, the girls will have an opportunity to earn beads on their own and log their progress in their workbooks. in the past the workbooks were not a high priority, now that the girls are reading, we will be able to use the workbook at meetings so make sure they bring them regularly.

a few dates to mark on your calendars:

monday sept 22nd parent meeting at the church 6:30pm (not 6:00!!)
no kids please, bring dues check if you havent paid yet

wednesday sept 24th recruitment meeting at cubberley, time tba (most likely 6pm)
cubberley cafeteria, just like last year
wear your vests, siblings are welcome

monday sept 29th first meeting at the church
bring workbooks


this year we will be more focused on indian themes, we will pick a new indian name for our group.

check back here regularly for any changes, i am hoping this parent meeting date will not conflict with anyone. please let me know if you cannot attend, i really need everyone to be there. thanks!

camp shiwaka, days 3,4,5