On World Thinking Day (WTD), girls participate in activities, games and projects with global themes to honor their sister Girl Guides and Girl Scouts in other countries. World Thinking Day is part of the Global Action Theme (GAT) based on the United Nation’s Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), which aims to improve the lives of the world’s poorest people. The theme for World Thinking Day 2011 is “Empowering Girls will Change our World.” Five countries of focus for World Thinking Day 2011 were chosen to represent the five regions: Bolivia (Western Hemisphere), Cyprus (Europe), Democratic Republic of Congo (Africa), Nepal (Asia/Pacific), Yemen (Arab Region).
This is Eleri’s first WTD since we were in South Africa last year. Her tunic is getting full with all the fun patches she has earned this year and last year as a Daisy. Eleri’s tunic is extra full because last year she earned patches with the Junior Girl Scouts (4th graders), Emersyn’s troop which I was the leader. Daisy troops only meet once a month, but all other scouts meet twice a month. Eleri had the fun of her own Daisy troop and the Junior Girls every month.
As a troop leader, I am a group leader for the day at World Thinking Day. The event is held at Concordia School from 1:00 to 5:00. I have 10 girls from the various schools in the area attending the event. I have two girls from each of the five different schools. The fun as a group leader is keeping them all together.
Activity One: Giving our Helping Hands
This activity was organized by the Million Tree project of the Jane Goodall Institute of Roots & Shoots. At this activity, the girls traced their own hands, cut them out and put a wish on the hand. The hand represents the leaves of the tree.
Activity Two: Experience a mock United Nations Food Drop
We started this activity with a snack in the Phoenix Center for the girls. They were able to have small pizza, a small cup of rice and a banana. Most of the girls had two pizzas. After snack, we went up to the library commons to make an origami rice bowl and watch a video about food drops in a real village in the Congo. The interest fact at this activity was the small cup of rice (which was quite small) was the food for the entire day for these people in the village.
Activity Three: Global Education of Girls
This activity consists of several stations focused on the education of girls throughout the world. At one station, the girls learned to say hello in Greek. They made drawings using a piece of charcoal. In some countries, this is how children learn as pencils are not available. They also look at the faces of women throughout time who went on to get an education against all odds and become successful while giving back to society.
Activity Four: Small Acts of Love can Change the World
At this activity, the girls heard stories of local efforts to change the world…Small acts of love empower you to change the world. The girls left with the challenge to do small acts of kindness to make a difference.
After moving around all three buildings at Concordia for these activities, we went back to the Phoenix Center for closing ceremony, the friendship circle and the SWAP exchange. The girls love the SWAP exchange. Each girl made SWAPs (Special Whatchamachallits Affectionately Pinned Somewhere†or Share With a Pal) to exchange with other girls.
The tree in the Commons had been filled with the girls hands. The goal of the day was to collect donations to plant 500 trees. At the end of the day, Roots & Shoots collected enough funds to plant 828 trees.
It was a fun, informative day for the girls.