Thursday, December 18, 2008

Have a Happy Holiday

We have our 2nd official meeting under our belt and was it fun!

Mrs. Kanatas found a great Daisy friendship bracelet that each of the girls made. Some of our girls also performed their first Flag ceremony. Mrs. Coffey was moved by how well the girls did.

We read an interactive story about Juliette Low, the founder of the Girl Scouts and the girls participated in some of the speaking parts....

Our final activity was our "goodbye Daisies: song and Bridge.... Even after only doing this once...the girls picked right up and new what to do.

Remember that cookie sales begin in January. Tell all your friends and family that your Daisy will be participating in our troop sales, because Daisies are not allowed to go Door to Door and our girls will not be participating in ratail sales.

Our meeting schedule is as follows for January:

Jan: Meetings 2nd and 4th Fridays due to Winter Break: January 9th / 23rd

We will be meeting the remainder of the year in the Upstairs Multi-purpose room.

Have Safe and Happy Holiday from your Daisy Leader,
Wendy, Joan, Katherine, Renata

Friday, December 05, 2008

Helpers need for the Thursday, December 18th meeting.

We will need 4 more dads/moms....

Volunteers: Liz Buoscio

Our First Outing was a success

Hello Brave Daisies and Parents….

If they had a polar bear petal, it think we would have earned it last night. It was sure cold, but our tree looks wonderful.

We had 24 girls last night and 25+ parents for our first outing…..Fantastic!

A big thank you to Grumpies for their “special” hot chocolate and cookies…. If you get a chance to stop in at the Riverside Walk…please do and Tell them Hi from the Daisies….

So many of you had such good questions for us last night I hope to have them all answered in this email as well as through the original information form. ( see attachment : some readers may not keep original formatting of the booklet) Thank you for your patience with us as we iron out the kinks in our new troop. We have 27 girls with the possibility of 2 girls from Blythe joining us!

I have received the paperwork from the Vista and will be distributing it next week. In your paperwork there is one form for your Daisy, a health form and 1 form for the adult in your family to join.

Your Dues check $30 & $10 adult fee can be made out to Joan Kanatas as we are in the process of setting up our Checking account for the troop. I was asked if this can be made out in one check…. I checked again today and yes, one check for $40 will be fine. If you have already written out two, that is fine as well. If you already have a girl Scout or brownie and have paid a $10 adult fee, you will not need to submit a separate one to us, as you will already be registered/covered under the Girl Scout insurance.

Because we are just getting these to you, please just have them turned in to us at the next meeting ( see attachment for dates) or to the Winkler house by Dec 31. 8052 Country Club Lane, North Riverside.

COOKIE SALE: Begins Jan 1st: We wont have information for you till our first meeting after the new year due to the School Break but here are some basics
Daisies cannot sell door to door ( only to friends and family)
Our Daisies will not be selling at local businesses ( there is plenty of time for that in their Girl scout careers)
Cookie sales in our troop are NOT mandatory. If you wish to opt out of the sale, please just send us a note declining.
Cookie money will go into a troop fund to support fun troop activities for the entire troop.
Therese Kourim, ( my neighbor) has graciously offered to be our Cookie MOM and for those of you who have done this or have had other girl scouts who have sold cookies…. Know that this is a brave task and three cheers for Therese!!!

CAMPING:
Our Daisies will have min of 1 Camping experience.
It will be in the late spring
It will be in a bunkhouse, not tents, with running water and a toilet.
It is not mandatory
1 parent will need to join us if their Daisy chooses to attend.

BADGES
Will be earned as a troop during troop meetings.
Will be presented to girls at the investiture and Bridges ceremony


Our next meeting will be on Thursday, Dec. 18th
We are looking for 5 additional moms to assist with the craft, Please email or call one of the leaders if you are available to help out.

Yours in Scouting,

Wendy Winkler
Joan Kanatas
Renata Coffey
Katherine Kowal

Wednesday, December 03, 2008

What do you get......

When you put 27 girls in a room.
A mighty large Daisy troop.

Thank gosh we have 4 other leaders and a bunch of moms. I count our troop extremely lucky to have so many moms.

After hearing other Troop leaders talk about the lack of parental involement, I was scared to death...But once again , not here at Ames. We have so many parents who are willing to help out...we didnt have room for them all and sent some home!

Our next meeting will be on Thursday December 18th, 3:15 - 4:30 p.m

Our Meeting theme will be Friendship and following the meeting the girls will have officially earned their FIRST BADGE! A lilac sisterhood badge. ( badge wont be awarded till the investiture ceremony in February) This is the meeting that we will definately need those extra moms. We will need 6 extra moms to assist in making the friendship bracelets. Please email Wendy if you can help out at this meeting.
Thanks to all of the Leaders and Mom helpers we had. Made for a smooth meeting.
WOW what a troop of Girls...... 27 all in total and All were very excited to be there and eager to learn all it takes to be a Daisy. Either that or the fact that we told them we were going to Grumpy’s for Cookies and Hot Chocolate after tree decorating In Riverside...

Speaking of which.... The girls all made an ornament for the Riverside walk which will be held this weekend. Thursday, December 4th 6:30-7 pm we will be Decorating our tree followed by some Goodies at Grumpy’s. 1 parent is required to attend if their Daisy would like to participate. We will meet at the Riverside Water tower. If you are unable to attend, please don’t worry, your Daisy's ornament will be hung up that night as well.

We would like to announce that one of our kindergarten Daisy moms has agreed to be the Kindergarten Liaison for our troop. Lisa Hennelly will be going us on our leaders team to represent any of the needs and concerns that the Kindergarten moms may have. Please feel free to contact her if you have any concerns, ideas etc.

Troop Forms: Our sincerest apologies to those of you who have not received their forms in their Daisy's folder. We are awaiting more forms from our Vista ( Region) and will get those to you as soon as they are available.

With our first meeting behind us, we discovered a few things that need to be tweaked.
1. Time: we would like to adjust the time of the meeting 3:15- 4:30. By 5p.m some of our girls had already hit the wall. I think we can accomplish all we need within that time.
2. Supplies: When you are turning in your Supplies, please put the girls name on them so that we know who turned them in.
3. Supplies needed: scissors, Package of #2 pencils,1 box of crayons,1 package 8-12 thin washable markers, 2 glue sticks
4. Notes to the Leaders: Please make use of the Blue Daisy folders that we sent home with your daughters. Do not send to the school office. If your question needs immediate attention, please email or call one of the leaders directly.
We look forward to seeing you at the Riverside tree decorating if you can make it!

Yours In Scouting,
Wendy Winkler
Joan Kanatas
Renata Coffey
Katherine Kowal

Monday, December 01, 2008

If you did not receive the following email please send an permission slip with your child.

Hello Fellow Daisies,
We are all so glad to have you along this year! This is just a quick reminder that our first meeting is December 2nd, in the Ames school Library 3:30 – 5p.m.
If you have not turned in your form yet, or know a girl who would still like to attend but has not turned in their forms, we will just need a letter from the parents signed with a phone number where they can be reached during the meeting.
Official uniforms will not be needed until the induction ceremony in February, until then, Girls will need to wear a white or Blue shirt.
December 6th: 6:30 – 7p.m We will be meeting in front of the Riverside Watertower to hang our ornaments for the Riverside Tree walk. We will then go to Grumpies for some Hot Chocolate and cookies. One parent must accompany each girl.


you all and have a safe and Happy Thanksgiving,
Your troop Leaders,
Mrs. Winkler, Mrs. Kanatas, Mrs. Coffey, Mrs, Kowal