Impact Stories

Your Daisy's Circle gift helps more girls have incredible experiences as Girl Scouts in west central Florida. From her first camping trip, to advocating to her legislators in Tallahassee, to earning her Girl Scout Gold Award, your gift supports her every step of the way. Read the stories below to see your impact.

Seeing History in Savannah: Seeing History in Savannah

The end of the school year and start of summer often means it is time for many Girl Scout troops to pack their bags and head off on some very exciting trips, and Troop 32503 was no exception. They recently took a three day visit to Savannah, Georgia and it was action packed.

On their first day, they visited the First African Baptist Church to learn about Savannah's role in slavery and the role the church played in the Underground Railroad, along with a carriage ride around Savannah learning about many of the ghosts and spooky stories that Savannah is known for. The next day, the visited the Juliette Gordon Low Birthplace to tour and see some of the historical artifacts that belonged to Juliette, as well as touring the First Girl Scout Headquarters where they were able to see historical Girl Scout uniforms and memorabilia, as well as touring two more historic churches. Finally, on their last day, they were able to visit nearby Tybee Island. They climbed the island's lighthouse and learned about its history and visited the Marine Science Center. It was a wonderful and memorable trip!
G.I.R.L.s Take Over Tallahassee: G.I.R.L.s Take Over Tallahassee

In early February, girls from GSWCF's Rising Diamonds outreach program joined Girl Scouts from across the state of Florida to travel to Tallahassee for Legislative Days, an annual event where girls have the opportunity to advocate to their legislators for the continued support of Girl Scout Programming, specifically the Get Real program that is funded by the Department of Education. During their time in Tallahassee, girls had the opportunity to tour Florida A & M University, explore the Florida Museum of History, tour the State Capitol, participate in a mock Senate Session, and meet with their legislators to advocate for the continued support of the Get Real Program. Pictured are four of our Get Real Girl Scouts meeting with Senator Wilton Simpson, Majority Leader of the Florida Senate. This trip was an incredible opportunity for these girls to see first hand how government works, and the importance of being an engaged, involved citizen, no matter what your age!
Camp CEO: Camp CEO- Connecting Leaders of Today with Leaders of Tomorrow

High school is both an exciting and scary time for many girls. New opportunities are just over the horizon and big decisions have to be made, but sometimes making those decisions can be intimidating-that’s where Camp CEO comes in. Camp CEO is a weekend experience in which high school age girls have the opportunity to connect with, learn from, and also teach a few things to some of the most incredible female leaders in the Tampa Bay region. During Camp CEO weekends, girls have the opportunity to learn critical skills from accomplished mentors, including networking skills, goal setting, etiquette, and leadership skills. Girls have the chance to hear first hand about the obstacles that many of these leaders have overcome, learning valuable lessons about perseverance and working through setbacks and challenges. But it’s not all adults teaching the girls-the girls have the opportunity to take the lead and teach their mentors some classic Girl Scout activities, like archery and canoeing, giving girls the chance to practice their mentoring abilities and share some of the skills they've learned through their Girl Scout journey. The mentor-mentee pairings last well beyond the weekend at camp and provide our older Girl Scouts with an invaluable support system to take with them through the rest of their high school years and beyond-it is truly a magical weekend!
The Career Cafe: The Career Cafe-Preparing Young Women to Enter the Work Force

When preparing to start her Girl Scout Gold Award, Girl Scout Ambassador Anne Bauer noticed a serious issue among her friends-as they got ready to head to college and the workforce, many did not feel comfortable with essential real world skills, such as resume writing, interviewing, and networking. This became the focus of her Gold Award project, as she created the Career Cafe, a one day event for women ages 16-23 to meet practice important career skills, meet with mentors, and ensure they are better prepared for the workforce. Anne secured mentors and speakers for the event, worked to secure sponsors to cover funding, and designed flyers and materials to market they event herself. The event was so successful that it garnered the attention of the Tampa Bay Lightning who named as a Community Hero of Tomorrow, earning her a $50,000 donation. Half the donation will be used to fund Anne's college education, while the other half will be used to ensure the Career Cafe continues in future years, preparing even more young women to successfully enter the workforce!
Sharing the Love of Reading Throughout Tampa: Troop 32301 has been taking part in our council wide Reader Leader program to promote literacy in the Tampa community. As part of the Take Action requirements for the program, the troop needed to plan a literacy related event. The troop decided they wanted to try and reach as many people as possible with their literacy project, so they decide to share their books "into the wild" via bookcrossing. Each girl picked a special book, added a tracking label, and selected a special place in Tampa to leave their book, with the goal being for the next reader who finds the book to continue its' travels. What an awesome way to share the love of reading with as many people as possible!
Building Business Skills and Helping Their Community: Brownie Troop 31805 decided to sell Girl Scout cookies for the first time this year. Along with learning the essential business skills that the cookie program entails, these Brownies wanted to make sure they helped their community at the same time. The troop voted unanimously to support a local animal charity and after researching options, decided on Friends of Strays Shelter. The troop's initial goal was to sell 1,000 boxes-they smashed that goal, selling 3,300 boxes!!! This meant Troop 31805 was able to donate $2,000 to Friends of Strays, to help the shelter in their quest to build new dog kennels allowing them to save more animals. Great job troop 31805!
Improving the Well Being of Shelter Animals: For their Silver Award project, Kayleigh, Lindsay, and Gabriella of troop 20162 in Hernando County worked to help improve the welfare of shelter animals at the Humane Society of Hernando County. They found out that shelter animals needed more socialization time with humans, so began to read to the animals and recruited other friends to do so, along with making toys for the animals to play with. The girls saw a major need for volunteers at the shelter, so they worked on volunteer recruitment efforts to help with continued socialization for shelter animals. Additionally the troop staged donation drives to collect pet food and supplies. These donations not only helped the shelter to care for animals in their care, but also were available for low income county residents who may be struggling to take care of their pets. Providing these resources to low income residents helps keep pets in their homes and prevent them from being surrendered to the shelter. Throughout their project, the girls worked to educate their Girl Scout Service Unit and other organizations to spread greater awareness of the needs at their local shelter and make a long lasting difference in their community!
Bringing Extra TLC to Kids in Foster Care!: Girl Scout Cadette Gabriella decided to focus her Silver Award project on providing comfort and some sense of normalcy to children in the foster care system. She teamed up with A Kids' Place to put together 50 Bedtime Bags containing some essentials such as toothbrushes and toothpaste, and some comfort items, such as books, pillows, and fun pajamas. She was able to deliver the bags to A Kids' Place, allowing her to see the impact of her project and also learn more about what A Kids' Place does. Gabriella also ensured her project would be sustainable by encouraging other organizations to put together Bedtime Bags and developing a video about her experience. Her Silver Award project provided comfort to children in what can be a very scary situation!
Pinellas Park High School Goes Green…: Holleigh noticed that her high school did not have any recycling bins accessible for student use, leading to significant numbers of soda cans and bottles being tossed in the garbage cans, and eventually making their way to landfills. She knew that the school administration wanted students to have the opportunity to recycle, but weren't sure how to make it happen. So Holleigh, being a go-getter, made it happen. She was able to get recycling bins donated to the school, develop flyers to educate students on the new process and the importance of recycling, and working with the environmental sciences teacher to ensure a longterm plan for collecting and disposing of the materials properly. Her project will provide a cleaner, greener high school for years to come!
Helping the Community One Plant At A Time: Brownie Troop 33222 recently spent a day giving back to their community at the Seeds of Faith Community Garden. This garden provides fresh produce for local shelters and food pantries. Troop 33222 helped plant fresh beans, harvest carrots, and weed, water, and mulch the garden beds, all while also learning about the mission behind Seeds of Faith. Troop 33222 was able to combine an opportunity to be outdoors and learn about the environment, with the opportunity to give back to their community-two essential aspects of Girl Scouting!
Combining Fun with Service: Beautiful Butterflies Service Unit recently held their encampment weekend. This was a chance for all the girls in troops in that area to enjoy a weekend of fun at camp, but in true Girl Scout spirit, fun was combined with community service. All attending troops collected new pairs of socks to be donated to Emergency Care Help Organization in Brandon, an organization that provides residents in South Hillsborough County with emergency food, clothing, and other resources. In total, the Service Unit collected over 500 pairs of socks. Shortly after the encampment weekend, representatives from the highest donating troops made a visit to ECHO to make the donations in person.
Instilling a Love of History in the Next Generation of Students: Bradley F. is an avid student of history. Yet when she began working on her Girl Scout Gold Award, she noticed that in many classrooms, history is not as popular a subject or as heavily encouraged as subjects like math or science, in part due to there being no standardized test evaluating students' knowledge of history. Bradley is passionate about archaeology, anthropology, and history and decided she wanted to change that. Bradley developed a presentation about history and presented it to a local third grade class. She knew how important it was to hold the students attention, so instead of simply lecturing, she also secured artifacts and models from the Florida Public Archaeology Network to bring for her presentation so that the students would have a hands on experience and be engaged with the presentation. The students were enthusiastic about the presentation which opened their eyes to exploring educational fields they hadn't previously thought about! Bradley also donated archaeology books to the classroom and made her presentation materials accessible to other teachers so they could be shared with more students.