It’s that time of year again! Our annual SUPER FUN sleepover. While this is a fun event for the girls, it is ever-so-much-more than JUST a slumber party. We take this time together to work on our My Promise-My Faith pin, with the entire troop.
The My Promise-My Faith pin is a “Special Opportunity Award” whereby a girl who earns this award has explored how Girl Scouting and faith offer similar ideas about how to act – and how Girl Scouting can tie into faith. The pin can be earned once a year, every year they are a scout. So….in addition to a fun time, it’s a get down to business kinda night!
We started our night with a pizza dinner. Then we went right into our activities. As much as you would think “over night” is a lot of time…when you have things to accomplish and 38 super excited girls having a “slumber party”, the time whizzes by!
To earn the pin, a member should ideally focus on a different line of the law to explore each year. This year our troop voted on “Make the World a Better Place”. We geared most of our activities around this.
The pin requires completion of 5 steps:
1. Choose a line from the Girl Scout Law – The suggestion is to find a story, song or poem from your faith with the same ideas. We actually decided on two games, where we could talk with each other about this, and all the lines of the law and how they can work into our faith. We had a troop Bingo game made and a special version of Jenga. On half the Jenga tiles were words from Girl Scouting and the Girl Scout Promise and Law. When a girl chose a tile with a word they either had to talk about what that word meant to them, act out a skit, or do the action already prescribed on the tile (such as sing a specific song).
BINGO
JENGA
2. Find a woman in your own or another faith community– Ask her how she tries to use that line of the Law in her life. This year we were lucky enough to have been able to use the multi-purpose room at Monument Presbyterian Church. While working with one of the Trustees on preparing for our event, we were able to get in contact with a female member of their congregation who was willing to come and speak to our group about her faith and how it can tie into the Girl Scout Law. Ms. Margot was an AMAZING speaker! We were quite honored to have lucked out! She had a Henri Nouwen story that has great meaning to her and used it as an opportunity for the girls to see how we are all different colors in the world but together we form a single “unit”. She had a great demonstration with some fabric strips, where the girls all tied the strips together and in unity, it became a single piece of art…symbolizing how we unitely go into the world.
Ms. Margot has done this activity with her ladies group several times, and brought examples of other ways to create art from small pieces becoming one (a mosaic)
3. Gather three inspirational quotes – by women that fit with that line of the Girl Scout Law. Put them where you can see them every day! Our quotes were printed, laminated and make into magnets. We sat in groups and talked about the quotes, our interpretations of them.
“Don’t let anyone rob you of your imagination, your creativity, or your curiosity. It’s your place in the world; it’s your life. Go on and do all you can with it, and make it the life you want to live.” – Mae C. Jemison, female astronaut
“Make a difference about something other than yourselves.” – Toni Morrison, female author and Nobel Laureate for Literature
“If the first woman God ever made was strong enough to turn the world upside down all alone, these together ought to be able to turn it back and get it right side up again.” – Sojourner Truth, female abolitionist
4. Make something to remind you of what you’ve learned. We made a canvas with the words “A Better World” on them. We placed lettered stickers on each canvas. Then the girls colored over and around the stickers. When they peeled the sticker away, the “negative” image was the words, standing out among their art.
5. Make a commitment to live what you’ve learned – Through the entire evening, and our whole scouting year, we constantly reinforce that each girl live the Law. Firstly, they have to live the law to earn the right to be invited to the sleepover. Additionally, each week 3 girls earn a raffle ticket towards earning a monthly prize, for exemplifying the law. We also have available “pats on the back” (hand prints cut from construction paper) where any girl can write out a special message, calling attention, to a sister scout who has gone above and beyond to live the law, and deliver it to that sister during our Friendship Circle at every meeting.
So, in a short(ish) amount of time, with some good prep work (thank you Pinterest), this pin is very achievable. We have managed to find a different way to earn it each year, and each year it appears the girls have a great time of it.
But, there is also the SUPER FUN aspect of a sleepover, too…..
One other extra fun thing we did, since we had the means and time, was to watch the Girl Scout Cookie Wonderland Movie. This was in honor of last weekend being National Girl Scout Cookie Weekend!
For breakfast we had homemade belguim waffles, fresh berries, bacon, yogurt and milk! YUMMY!!!
It’s a crazy night, as you can only imagine organizing nearly 40 little girls can be. But, we alway have a really great time.
DAISIES
BROWNIES
JUNIORS
Our troop is so very fortunate to have an AMAZING leadership TEAM and support from our community! SPECIAL thanks goes out to everyone who makes this, and all our events, possible. Especially the Trustess of MPC and Ms. Margot.
Girl Scout Troop 2214 