Hurricane Katrina Lockdown

Local Girl Scouts Helping Victims of Hurricane Katrina

Media Contact:
Ann Marie van den Hurk, APR
302-456-7170
avandenhurk@cbgsc.org

Newark, DE, September 16, 2005: In Girl Scouting, girls are encouraged to discover, lead, and take action. From the youngest Daisy Girl Scouts to teen Girl Scouts, girls have taken their need to make a difference to the victims of Hurricane Katrina and put it into action. Girl Scout troops from all over the Delmarva Peninsula are collecting and donating goods through organizations in their communities. To see what the girls are doing, please visit Local Katrina Aid Efforts.

Girl Scouts of the Chesapeake Bay will be holding a council-wide event at one of our outdoor program centers, Hurricane Katrina Lockdowns, for girls, their families, and volunteers to support the hurricane relief efforts.

This Girl Scout program is two-fold.

Educational - The educational component will entail girls experiencing the life in the Super Dome… Our girls (and leaders) will walk from the parking lot to the overnight shelter with only the supplies that they can carry in one trip. We will have a little light (flashlight and lanterns only), some food and water, and we’ll learn some entertaining “no supplies necessary” ways to pass the time. Activities will include an easy art project - making their own “Hurricane Katrina Print” to prove they survived the night and a science lesson on hurricanes. The experience is designed to give our girls a little insight into what it was like for their sister Girl Scouts of New Orleans.

Service - They will be collecting money to purchase gift cards for other girls who have been evacuated from their homes in the New Orleans area. The gift cards will be sent to Girl Scout councils in Texas that are working with most of the displaced girls and their families.

Community service is a core value of the Girl Scout Movement. In the very first handbook, written by Girl Scout founder, Juliette Gordon Low, Girl Scouts pledged to do a good turn everyday to somebody. If by chance, a girl went through the entire day without doing a good deed, she was required to do two the next day to make up for it. Good deeds and community service were thought to be character builders for good citizens. Today, in the 21st century, community service is still central to Girl Scouting. Daisy to teen Girl Scouts participate in various community service projects as part of all badge and interest project criteria.

Girl Scouting builds girls of confidence, courage, and character, who make the world a better place. We do that by providing girls with personal leadership development and programs that build real life skills for the real world.

###