Oxnard Girl Scouts Give Back!

Troops 65202 and 60422 were honored last night at the Oxnard Downtown Management General Meeting, for their outstanding community service!

The girls (pictured planting flowers in the previous post), helped beautify downtown Oxnard by donating their time last weekend to plant flowers alongside Street Paseo, to brighten and make the walking area more colorful for pedestrians. 

Congrats to all the girls and volunteers!

GSCCC Troops help beautify Oxnard over the weekend!

Fun day planting project on Saturday with Girl Scouts of California's Central Coast Troops 60422 and 65202 and Downtown Oxnard Clean & Green Ambassadors!

A beautification process took place with girls planting flowers in large flower pots on Street Paseo next to Historic Bank of A Levy building. 

Potting soil + geraniums + Girl Scouts = a beautiful way to give back to the community!

  Way to give back!

Third Annual Fork It Over Fundraiser Tickets on Sale Now!

This just in! We have a confirmed array of some of the best local chefs and restaurants participating in our Third Annual Fork It Over Fundraiser event on August 3 at The Palm Garden Hotel in Thousand Oaks. This is a 21+ event!

Food and spirit sponsors include: Blvd. Brgr. Co., Brendan's Irish Pub, The Cave Ventura, DeLiese Cellars, Deliteful, DJ's California Catering, Dottie's Sweet, Delights, The Dudes' Brewing Company - Thousand Oaks, Enegren Brewing Co., Figueroa Mountain Brewery, The Gourmet Girl, Institution Ale Co., Labyrinth Winery, Martian Ranch & Vineyard, Mouthful Eatery, Opolo Vineyards, Poseidon Brewing Company, Seasons Catering-Ventura, Sugar Lab Bake Shop, and Sub Zero Ice Cream.

Each chef will create a savory and sweet Girl Scout cookie inspired creation, to tempt and tantalize your tastebuds! The Chefs will be judged by you, the guest, as well as a panel of distinguished judges. Who will be our next FIO winner?!

For information and to purchase tickets, please visit www.forkitovergsccc.com or contact Meghan Lopez at (805) 232-3963.
 

The Early Bird Catches the Worm . . and 2 special Girl Scout patches !

Renew Girl Scout membership by June 30 and get two patches for each girl you renew - a Early Bird Patch and a Power of G.I.R.L. patch!  Girls who register July 1 - September 30 will get the one Power of G.I.R.L. patch.

What is the easiest way to renew?

PARENTS
Go to My GS on www.girlscoutsccc.org and renew your daughter(s) for the 2018 Girl Scout year.
Parents/adults: To participate with the troop, 1) choose "Troop Friends or Family" and 2) complete the Background Check process.
NOTE: If you are not participating with the troop, then an adult membership is not necessary.

LEADERS
If your troop is paying for the girl registration with troop funds, the troop leader should renew the girls.

If the troop is not paying the girl membership, or if a request for financial aid is going to be made, the parent/guardian should renew the girl.

All adults should renew their memberships individually. If the troop pays the membership for key volunteers, it should be paid with reimbursements to the volunteer after they have renewed. NEED ASSISTANCE? Contact info@girlscoutsccc.org or 800-822-2427

Girl Scouts Can Now Earn a Cyber Security Badge

The new Girl Scouts cybersecurity badge will launch in partnership with security firm Palo Alto Networks.

Palo Alto Networks will invest in GSUSA to develop this programming over the course of five years, led by a panel of cybersecurity experts. GSUSA and Palo Alto Networks expect to roll out the first in a series of 18 Cybersecurity badges to Girl Scouts nationwide in September 2018. 
 
Computer security, also known as cyber security or IT security, is the protection of computer systems from the theft or damage to their hardware, software or information, as well as from disruption or misdirection of the services they provide.

Photo Credit: GSUSA

The focus for younger Girl Scouts will include data privacy, cyberbullying and protecting themselves online. 

Older members will learn how to code, become white hat (or ethical) hackers and create and work around firewalls. 


The Girl Scouts program could help narrow the gender gap in technical fields by exposing girls to these opportunities earlier.

Cybersecurity workers are in high demand. According to a report from Frost & Sullivan, there will be a shortage of 1.5 million cybersecurity workers globally by 2020. 

You can read the full article on ABC News.

Girl Scout Junior wins First Place Trophy at National Gem and Mineral Show

Girl Scout sisters Brynleigh and Breena Elliott of Troop 61686 in Ventura first

learned about gem and mineral shows through Girl Scouts of California's Central Coast, which provides the opportunity to earn a council's own badge called, "Rock Out!" 

The American Federation of Mineralogical Societies also offers a merit badge program called, "Future Rockhounds of America" which is available through local gem and mineral societies nationwide. 

Both girls earned their first rockhound badge called "Showmanship" through this competition. They've even had the opportunity to meet fellow like-minded Girl Scouts from neighboring service units at their monthly "Pebble Pups" meetings.

The girls recently entered a competitive display case into a gem and mineral show hosted by the Ventura Gem and Mineral Society. The event was the California Federation of Mineralogical Society's annual state show and the American Federation of Mineralogical Society's annual national show.

Brynleigh and Breena also gained knowledge about competitive gem and mineral displays after attending the Oxnard Gem and Mineral Society's annual show last Fall, after which they joined monthly junior rockhound meetings called Pebble Pups.

With encouragement from their Pebble Pups' mentor Louisa Carey (former Girl Scout Co-Leader), the girls entered in the Junior Exhibitor Group with an Open Division Project titled "My First Rock Collection." Their cases demonstrated many hours and days worth of work to display several months of collecting. 

The displays were judged using a point system which scored them on the following categories: labeling, showmanship, quality, and workmanship.

Brynleigh's case won first place for her exhibitor group, division and class, which earned her a trophy from the California Federation and another from the American Federation. Younger sister, Breena plans to win next year, and we think both these girls are real "gems"!

Girl Scouts use cookie money to buy vaccines for K-9 unit

REUTERS

What do rattlesnakes and Girl Scout Cookies have in common? Nothing . . . unless you consider how one amazing Troop from San Diego used a portion of their cookie sale earnings to help local K-9 units bitten by rattlesnakes!

Members of the Brownie Troop 3434 in San Diego donated part of their cookie sale money to fund hundreds of dollars’ worth of rattlesnake vaccines for the dogs, KSWB reported.

These brave dogs help police face danger every day, and often have to search in difficult and hard to reach places, including areas where they are prone to get bitten by venomous snakes.  

Troop 3434 raised enough cash to donate $900 worth of anti-venom and decided to spend $350 on training tools for the K-9s. Win/Win! 

You can read the full story here.

How does YOUR troop spend your earnings from cookie sales? Please share your story with us--whether it's community service projects, travel or STEM-education--we'd love to hear from GSCCC troops! Email us at media@girlscoutsccc.org

Troop 61686 Bridging Ceremony at Camp Arnaz

Ceremonies help Girl Scouts mark special events throughout the year, such as bridging to another level.

Brownie Troop 61686 made this year's bridging ceremony special with Fly-up Bridging,  in honor of the older girls bridging to Juniors and earning their wings. 

A Fly-Up is a bridging ceremony for Girl Scout Brownies bridging to Girl Scout Juniors. Girls receive the Girl Scout pin along with their Brownie wings.

The older girls in Troop 61686 raised one balloon for each line of the Girl Scout Law to prepare the Camp Arnaz bridge for their bridging ceremony. The ceremony ended with a flying of kites.

Congratulations to Troop 6168 and to every Girl Scout bridging this year! Have a bridging story you'd like to share? Email us at media@girlscoutsccc.org