Day Camp Service Projects

Next week is our annual Girl Scout day camp. The day camp draws about 300 girls a year for a week of fun at a local state park. I love day camp and all the volunteers who either take off work to do this every year or just volunteer their time to give the girls a wonderful outdoor experience. This year almost my entire family is volunteering. Tom and Tricia are the leaders for the canoe unit. My son Steve will be working on different projects every day. He helps give swim tests, cooks on the day we have an all camp lunch, and he'll be in charge of our I Spy game this year ( a game to find objects that don't belong in nature.) Dan will be the only one missing, working his new job in Boston.
This year I am in charge of the Program Aids and also in charge of service projects. I was in charge of those last year too so I've been keeping a list of anything I run into throughout the year that we might be able to turn into a project for day camp. This year I chose three main projects. The first is America's Children for America's Heroes. It's a card campaign to let veterans know that we appreciate all they've done for us. I was sure that I could help with this effort! (grin!)
Our second project is the Butterfly Project for the Holocaust Museum in Houston, TX. I thought the girls would enjoy creating the butterflies but also learn something about the holocaust and what happened. I wanted them to be a part of creating this amazing exhibit.
Our third project is making patriotic centerpieces for a local senior facility. That's what I've been working the most on this past week. I've come up with two different centerpieces based off ideas I found in the Pac-o-Fun magazine.

This centerpiece consists of rockets made from toilet paper tubes covered in red, white, and blue construction paper and decorated with stars and "USA". The girls can use their imagination to decorate their rockets. The bases are heavy cardstock covered in fabric and I have a variety of borders to use around the rockets. This one happens to be gold pipe cleaners.


Our second centerpiece is made from styrofoam cups pained with red stripes with a blue border glued around the top rim and a red circle border cut with my Colluzzle. Without the flowers it looks like an upside down Uncle Sam hat. The girls will paint the cups and add the borders and then decorate. Some girls will be making the red, white and blue tissue paper flowers to put into the cups.

I have lots to do before day camp next week. But I'm always excited for the week to come. I'm praying for good weather and a fun time for all involved. Thanks for stopping by today. Hope the rest of your week goes smoothly!

Happy inking,

Donna