Planning for 2018

Like most of you, right now the GE committee members are caught up in the craziness of the winter holidays!  Children (grandchildren!) home from school , child care centers closed, work schedules disrupted, travel, parties, planning and cooking special meals, gift buying – wonderful but tiring.

No wonder many of us give a relieved sigh when the New Year begins and schedules go back to normal.  

 For the GE committee the New Year brings a marathon planning session for the 2018 fall event.  We’ll be meeting the 1^st weekend in January to digest all the suggestions made by presenters and participants last fall, tweak old processes and formulate some new, exciting events for 2018.

The committee takes all suggestions under consideration, so if you have a wish or a hope you haven’t already expressed, let us know in the comments, below, or on the GE Facebook page.  An email to gsgreatescape@yahoo.com will find us, too.

If you have a workshop suggestion, we’d be especially interested in hearing about those!

Need a good salad for a party?  http://gsgreatescaper.blogspot.com/2014/12/wreath-salad.html

Girl Scouts Ski!

If you are a registered Girl Scout, here's a couple of opportunities to take the family skiing!https://www.facebook.com/GirlScoutsEMass/?hc_ref=ARRbiBoq0wnSkSTMvmf-uQOwTAdjl8TUWYacrHqKVEgCT5D6yXyyRha_Z-2cBv5YRhE&fref=nf

Raise Your Hands!

She's 10, and she wants girls to raise their hands!  Read her opinion article in the New York Times.
Raise Your Hand! Article Link.

Raise Your Hand Program Materials

Parents! Go here for tips on helping your girl raise her hand!

Take the pledge!

Teen Escape

I just returned from Teen Escape at Camp Wind in the Pines.  Girl Scouts of Eastern Massachusetts offers this program twice a year for teen girl scouts to blitz through a ton of exciting scouting activities in one weekend, and meet a lot of other teen Girl Scouts from across the council.  If you are a GE attendee who wishes that your troop had the chance of attending a program like GE, this is it!
(Some leaders and staffers at TE wished there were a program for them - so I told them about GE!)

Girls had a choice of 5 individual activities from a list of 8, including archery, high ropes, kayaking, matchless fire starting, campfire cooking, pumpkin carving, and making luminarias and flower crowns.

Saturday Schedule

The food was great, with options for vegetarians, gluten free and 'I just don't like it!"  Those who opted for campfire cooking feasted on apple and pumpkin pies.  The seeds from all the pumpkins carved were roasted and offered as a snack on Sunday!

Although it rained all weekend, nothing was cancelled and no one was daunted.

There are 11 kayakers in the picture above, but the mist descended so quickly and heavily that you can't find them!

Pumpkin with rain gear!

Bottomless coffee and tea for leaders and hot chocolate for girls helped keep everyone warm.  Night time activities included a glow in the dark hunt through the woods on Friday and a campfire, singing and smores on Saturday. It was a dark and stormy night, but the doughty GSEM staffers, including Hollywood, Binx, Crunch, Grace, Alex, Goosey, Moosey, Giggles, Sparks, JoJo and many, many more had no trouble getting the party (and fire) started and keeping it going all weekend long.  (These guys are some of the unsung heroes of our GSEMA council.  Thanks, all you camp counselors and outdoor facilatators, past and present!)

All the pumpkins the girls carved were lined up on the basketball court and lit up during the campfire - which added a lot to the atmosphere!

Learning to paddle

These are the same kayakers who are obscured by the mist in the photo above.

I'd love to add some photos of the ropes course and archery to this, so if you have some, let me know!

An owl carved into a pumpkin!

Someone had a big dinner in our unit, and here are the remains!  Can we count this as part of our wildlife badge requirements?

Fall Service Events for Girls and Adults

Forever Girl Scouts, Friends and Current Girl Scouts, Join Together!

Forever Girl Scouts are partnering with Project Sweet Peas and local homeless shelters for an afternoon of service, conversation and refreshments. Join us in making blankets and knit hats to donate to families with children in NICUs in Boston-area hospitals and families in homeless shelters.

Forever Girl Scouts are adults who were girl members, individuals who volunteered as adults and adults who wish to support the Girl Scout Movement. Please bring a friend and consider bringing a current girl member of Girl Scouts to Fall for Service. If you are also a leader, bring your whole troop!

If you want us to know you are attending, send an email to girlscoutalumnae@gmail.com
or call/text 781-789-6774

You may also RSVP on our Facebook page at www.facebook.com/alumnae.gsem

If able to donate, please bring polar fleece (1 yard pieces are perfect). Bringing a pair of scissors is also helpful – don’t worry you get to take them back home at the end of the day. If you knit, bring your US3 (3.25mm) double-pointed needles and we will provide a pattern and yarn. Donations of sport-weight soft yarn is welcome.

Two events!

October 21st, 2017
Saturday 1:00 pm
St Mary of the Nativity Church
Scituate, MA

November 5, 2017
Camp Rice Moody
Sunday 1:00 pm
 Reading, MA

Pumpkins

This year's theme for GE was pumpkins!  They were everywhere.

Wynelle and Deb K. (who couldn't be with us, sadly) did a great job on decorations and the photo board.

Audrey (above, left) was Wynelle's (2nd from right) partner in crime this year.

Even the tables were decorated with an additional 'pumpkin' candle for each place at Saturday dinner.

The photo board makes a great 'front drop' for pictures every year.

It was a great weekend!  Anyone got a good pic of Wynelle in costume?  Somehow no one's sent me one yet....

Videos

We're getting so tech-savvy at GE - this year we are bringing you videos, thanks to our friend Michelle.  She's put a few videos on YouTube.  You won't believe some of the things GS leaders get up to (SUP!) at camp when there are no little ones around.

Another One For The Books

I think this year's even had the best weather ever!  Although it was raining in MA, as soon as you got to NH the skies cleared, and Saturday and Sunday the weather was in the 80s. Hatchet throwing, mountains, yoga, stand up paddleboarding, swimming - it's all good when the weather's fine.  Here's a few photos, and more will be coming along later.

Mexico

Our thoughts are with the Guias/Scouts of Mexico, as they are with all the people in all the areas around the world that have been devastated by storm, flood and earthquake.

 

I have just heard from the Cabana people on Instagram that the Cabana and Ticalli in Mexico City, headquarters of the Guias de Mexico, are both ok, and that Ticalli is operating as a shelter.  

Just a little good news among the disasters.

Counting the Days?

Another weekend of Girl Scouting is over - Daisy and Brownie Essentials yesterday, and a troop meeting today - and it's time to look forward to Great Escape this weekend.  Are you as excited as I am?  As they are?

  Or as she is? 

Is this about to be a meme?  Jumping Girl Scouts?

In thinking about what I most want to tell you about the weekend, the best advice I can give is cotton kills!  Remember to bring warm wool or fleece bedsocks, synthetic pjs, a good sleeping bag, hat or hoodie, rain gear, and check the weather forecast on Thursday!  I wrote about this exactly three years ago today - goodness, talk about running true to form!

Throwback Thursday - GE 2007

Getting ready for camping this weekend, and came upon this picture from GE 2007 - some lovely work here!

Auction Time!

If you tuned in here and this post was blank, I apologize.  I wrote a long post and apparently Blogger lost it.  It usually autosaves, but not this time!  And I put in lots of photos and links and everything.

Anyhow, it's time to start thinking about what you are going to bring to the Great Escape Auction this year.  Here's the what and why of the auction:

Great Escape, by running a fund-raising auction each year, has raised and donated more than $14,250  most of which has been earmarked for Camp Wabasso.  The money was used by GSEM for new tables and windows in the Dining Hall, chairs, a new chair rack in the Lodge and to purchase mildew-resistant paint, a dehumidifier and a new stove for the basement of the Lodge, making it cozier and user-friendly.  More than 25 new mattresses were purchased for the camp cots.  In 2013, we donated money to help buy new ceiling fans/lights for the theatre so that it can be used more.  In 2014, we donated $1500 towards restoration of the Adventure Course at Wabasso.  This year we are giving $3,500 towards outfitting all the winterized spaces with new stoves and buying new cross country skis.  When you participate in our Auctions or purchase our merchandise, you are helping to support our Council properties.

What to donate:  Bring your wonderful hand-crafted or enticing gift items (minimum value $25) to be auctioned.  Need ideas for exciting gift baskets?  Go here!  Handmade items such as Lesley's zentangles, quilts, and theme baskets containing wine, chocolate or gift cards are also popular. 

I'm spending this rainy Sunday making something for the auction - so let's get cracking, and remember to bring cash or checks to the event.  Start thinking ahead to holiday gifts - my sister loved the set of handmade coffee-themed placemats from GE 2015!

True Story

Three women walk into a hotel bar, all dressed up.  After ordering, one says, "I read a great book, have you read it yet?  It's 'A Man Called Ove.'"  The second says, "I did, it was great."  The third says, "As a matter of fact, it's our Great Escape Book Club book for this year!"

 Two of my sisters and I attended our niece's wedding last weekend, and we all agreed that this year's book club book is a good one, so make tracks to your local library or bookstore!  Can't believe that GE is only 24 days away! 

Beach Reading!

Summer is at its last hurrah, but today and tomorrow are going to be good beach days!  If you haven't started reading the 2017 Great Escape book club pick, it's perfect for the beach. Neighborhood, community and transformation are the themes of our pick for this year's book and it's funny, too.

A Man Called Ove by Fredrick Backman

On Goodreads, its average rating is 4.35/5 and over 177,000 people have rated it.  We think you will love it - and it's an 'easy read' too! Don't forget your sunscreen and sunglasses!

Have You Seen This?

GSUSA and the Elliott Wildlife Values Project have released a couple of new videos about GS Songs and Games and Firebuilding!  Click on this link to the 'songs and games' video - take a look and tell us what you think.  Are you inspired to include more songs in your troop?

I am, and have resolved to take my harp and all my GS song books to our first camping trip this year.

BTW, your chances to 'linger' at Great Escape are getting slim - if you haven't registered, do it now!

Get Your Shirts and Windbreakers!

The GE committee had its last meeting before the event last week.  Just a handful of beds remain, so if you have not yet signed up, ASAP is the recommended time.

However, it's not too late to order some great GE duds.  This year we are selling long and short sleeve polo shirts and windbreakers from LL Bean, in multiple colors, embroidered with the GE logo.  You can order these now - even if you have already registered for this year, or if you can't go this year.  We won't be selling them next year, so go for it!