As Girl Scouts, girls build a better world starting with their local communities. For their Bronze award, Dayne and Shauna wanted to share their love of reading with kids who are living in homeless shelters. These Girl Scouts from Troop 15016 set out boxes at businesses so people could donate new or gently used books. In addition, they decorated and placed donation jars at a few businesses to collect money to purchase new books.

All together, Dayne and Shauna collected and donated 1,000 books to Sharing and Caring Hands homeless shelter in Minneapolis. We’re so proud of their work – way to go, girls!

Photos and story via the Hutchinson Leader.

Summer meals in Hutchinson, MN are a lot tastier and nutritious, thanks to Girl Scouts in Hutchinson. This is the fifth summer that Girl Scout Ambassadors in Troop 3011 and Juniors in Troop 34244 are growing a garden and donating the harvest for their local food shelf.

In April, they began planting seeds for tomatoes and peppers, and have since been busy transplanting, weeding, and picking veggies. So far this season, they’ve harvested 122 pounds of produce for the food shelf, including radishes, green beans, tomatoes, green peppers, and squash!

Amazing work, girls! To learn more about their work, check out their feature in the Hutchinson Leader.

At Girl Scouts, we’re all about building girls of courage, confidence, and character who change the world, just like the Juniors in Troop 55090. These girls created “hearing aid bling” to help kids who are deaf and hard of hearing be more confident in themselves.

A hearing aid bling is an accessory that is designed and decorated to add a little bit of “sparkle and fun” to hearing aids. Troop 55090’s efforts and creativity helped them earn their Girl Scout Bronze Award as well as completing the It’s Your Story – Tell it aMUSE Girl Scout action journey!It all started in January 2015, when Baylee (at that time, a member of Troop 55090) met another girl, Cami, who was her age and had mild to moderate hearing loss. Baylee received her first pair of hearing aid bling from Cami through an event hosted by MN Hands & Voices for children who are deaf and hard of hearing and their families. Baylee had undergone several surgeries since she was 11 months old to repair/remove her ear tubes, adenoids, and ear drums and had developed mild to moderate hearing loss and started wearing hearing aids in August 2014. Baylee received her second pair of hearing aid bling from a Girl Scout Brownie Troop 56171 who were donating bling for kids who wore hearing aids. Baylee later found out that the troop who had donated the bling was actually Cami’s troop!

Baylee’s experiences sparked her interests in helping other children become more confident with their hearing aids. After Baylee brought this idea to her troop, they agreed it would be a fun project, so they started planning.

The girls hosted a carnival fundraiser that included a hearing aid bling table, games, and a fortune teller! People came and donated money or hearing aid bling supplies and materials. At their hearing aid bling table, the girls explained hearing aid bling to people in their community and gave them the opportunity to make a pair to be donated.

With their carnival fundraiser, the girls learned leadership, decision making skills, budgeting, and time management. They also raised enough funds and materials to make an additional 75 pairs of hearing aid bling! In the end, the troop donated a total of 85 hearing aid bling for children with hearing aids.

Way to go Troop 55090!