Spring 2021 Lead & Learn

AROUND COUNCIL

Community Service Girls who engage in community service develop a strong sense of responsibility for others. Girl Scouts of Eastern Missouri provides girls with opportunities to serve, to connect with their communities and to reflect on their experience to better understand themselves, area needs and their role in making the world a better place. Through programs like Seasons of Giving, Honor Troops and April Showers or by earning a Girl Scout Bronze, Silver or Gold Award, girls are making a difference each day. Need ideas for community service projects? For a list of agencies and their current needs, visit girlscoutsem.org/communityservice . April Showers Girl Scouts, their troop leaders, families, and friends can help individuals and families in need by participating in Girl Scouts of Eastern Missouri’s largest community service program, April Showers. For 23 years, Girl Scouts, their families and neighbors have collected more than 24 million personal care items. Though April Showers may look a little different this spring, we are committed to offering our girls the opportunity to support our communities, safely. Anyone participating in our personal care item drive will be expected to adhere to current COVID-19 protocols including face masks, social distancing and limiting group size. Girl Scouts are committed to the environment and using resources wisely. In 2020 Council made the decision to replace the traditional plastic bags with sticky notes that girls will post when going door-to-door. Unfortunately, since the drive was canceled last year due to the pandemic, we were not able to implement this new concept. This spring we are excited to have the opportunity to fully implement the use of sticky notes to support the collection of April Showers items. Self-adhesive notes will be made available to troops to place door-to-door throughout eastern Missouri the weekend of April 16-18.

April Showers Dates April 16-18 Door-to-Door Distribution April 24 Donation Collection April 16-25 Registries Available

These notes will encourage households to purchase items and reuse a bag or box of their own for pick up on April 24. Due to the success of the online registry we used to support Autumn Showers in the fall, we will now promote an online option during the door-to-door campaign. This will allow the community to either place their donated items on their porch for pick up or donate directly to the campaign through the online registries. Returning from Autumn Showers will be Walmart’s Registry for Good and new this year is Amazon’s Charity List. These options will be available by scanning the QR code on the sticky note. These registries will be available April 16-25 and promoted online as well as on the sticky notes. Items received through the online registries will be used to help support the agencies served by Showering the Community which will not be held in the same format as prior years. All registered Girl Scouts are expected to participate in April Showers. Due to COVID-19 protocols, girls will not be collecting items through Showering the Community. However, there will be new and exciting ways for girls to get involved through assisting with counting and sorting items donated through the registries in addition to the door-to- door campaigns.

Around Council 17