It's widely known that Girl Scouts care not only about their local communities, but also donate their time and resources to learn about, share commonalities with, and offer assistance to other communities around the globe. Take a look at a story posted by Colorado's Longmont Times-Call about Girl Scout Troop 3830 from Carbon County, CO, who have collected 684 pairs of shoes and 434 pairs of socks to send to children in Afghanistan as part of Operation Happy Feet. Boxes of footwear - tennis shoes, sandals, Crocs, flip-flops, boots and baby booties - will be brought to chaplains and soldiers at Fort Carson, who will take the donations to Afghanistan and distribute them to families. The troop is aiming to earn the President’s Volunteer Service Award, a national prize given to dedicated volunteers.An article at I'm United for Haiti points out that when Girl Scout Melissa Freitag was a high school senior in Hadley, Massachusetts, she began to prepare for the process of earning her Girl Scout Gold Award. While her original plan was to go to Haiti with her church group to work on rebuilding a church, her travel plans were derailed by the earthquake that struck Haiti on January 12 of this year. Instead of giving up on her project, Freitag refocused her efforts and began collecting donations from the community to aid Haiti in earthquake relief. By linking with the non-profit Pan American Development Foundation, she was able to contribute to programs benefiting more than 1.3 million Haitians. In addition to immediate relief, PADF is working on major recovery projects, including evaluating homes to ensure that they are safe for Haitians to use, as well working with the victims of violence, exploitation and trafficking.
Kudos to all Girl Scouts helping to positively impact their communities at home and abroad. Do you have any stories of outstanding Girl Scouts that you would like to share?