Upcoming GSHCC October Events!

Kick off your 2014–2015 Girl Scout year with a fun GSHCC event! From discovering how the human heart works, to understanding energy and traveling back in time to the Renaissance, there are several upcoming adventures waiting to be explored. Take a look at the events in October: 

Happy Hearts – NEW!

(Grades 4–5)

Do you give your friends valentines and little heart-shaped candies? Do you ever cross your heart when making a promise that you really, really mean? Or turn on the radio to hear someone singing about their broken heart? Find out how the human heart works through a variety of hands-on activities. 

Modesto Thursday, October 2, 2014, 6 p.m. to 8 p.m.
Register here.


GreatValley Museum Tour – NEW!
(Grades K–3, families & friends)

Gain a greater understanding of the critters that inhabit your neighborhood. Great Valley Museum docents will guide you through displays depicting a variety of animals from dinosaurs to those living in our backyards today. 

Modesto Saturday, October 4, 2014, 2 p.m. to 4 p.m.
Register here.

Shutterbugs – NEW!
(Grades 4–8)

Take a nature hike through Caswell State Park as a photo journaling experience. Great Valley Museum volunteers will help you set the scene for the perfect picture. 

Caswell State Park on Wednesday, October 8, 2014, 4 p.m. to 6 p.m.
Register here.


Underground Tours
(Grades 4–12)

Explore excavated foundations and enclosed pathways on this one-hour guided tour. Your personal tour guide will lead the way, revealing the history and legends of Sacramento’s Underground.

Sacramento on Wednesday, October 8, 2014, 4 p.m. to 7 p.m.
Register here.


Energy in Motion
(Grades 9–12)

During this evening of electric science projects, you will discover how energy is converted to electricity by setting model turbines into motion using different sources of energy. This is a great start to work on the Science of Style badge. 

Modesto on Thursday, October 9, 2014, 6 p.m. to 8 p.m.

Register here.

Brownies on a Quest
(Grades 2–3, families & friends) 

By the time we finish the hike at Caswell State Park you will have an understanding of the value of Central Valley watershed. An energizing start to the Hiker badge! 

Caswell State Park on Friday, October 10, 2014, 4 p.m. to 6 p.m.
Register here.

It Takes Guts – NEW!
(Grades 9–12)

Learn the structure and function of the digestive system using common household items. Conduct hands-on experiments to observe chemical processes of starch digestion. 

Modesto on Wednesday, October 15, 2014, 6 p.m. to 8 p.m.Register here.


Renaissance Girls! #GSRenGirls
(Grades K–12, families & friends)

From leather crafting to science discovery, you will have an enlightening time touring the variety of free-flowing activities available at this Renaissance fair. Come in costume and visit one of the many booths and watch a variety of performances which will delight and entertain.

Note: There are troop-money earning possibilities as well as a need for volunteers and program aides. 

Sacramento on Saturday, October 25, 2014, 1 p.m. to 4 p.m.
Get your registration form here.

Browse GSHCC events for the whole year online, including more STEM event options than ever before. Happy planning!

Internship Insider: Twice and Twitter Field Trip

Hello blog readers,

Recently, the MarComm interns got to visit Twice and Twitter headquarters. We took a day trip to San Francisco to have fun and absorb as much information as we could. The experience was incredible!

We went to the Twice headquarters first, a small yet fashionable building. For all of you who have not heard of this company, Twice is basically an online consignment store, operating from their website and smart phone app. Through Twice, people can both sell their clothes to the company and buy from the site. In fact, all the clothes that Twice sells are clothes they have bought from their users. Rather than wasting the clothes, this is a neat way to up-cycle unwanted clothing and get a new wardrobe. The other girls and I felt this was a fantastic idea that would indeed flourish to become a larger and more well-known company. Since the idea is different, yet ingenious, this company may even become as large a Twitter one day. 

When we visited the Twitter office, we were able to see a distinct difference between the headquarters of a start-up company and a well-established company—both were amazing. Twitter is a very large building consisting of many floors, each centered around a different aspect of the company such as communications, media, or engineering. While we were there, we were able to talk to some of the employees about how they came to work at Twitter. We discussed their life experiences and how their education led them to this company. Their answers all centered around the fact that their major did not impact their current job, but their experience and love for learning definitely did. We left that building knowing that as long as you love what you do, success will find you. 

Overall, the day was productive, fun, and filled with new experiences we would have never had if it weren't for this Girl Scout internship.

Your Insider Girl,

Nikita

Family Partnership Highlight: Dime-a-Taste Event

Family Partnership Highlight: Dime-a-Taste Event

Girl Scouts Heart of Central California serves more than 28,000 local girls—offering financial assistance, quality programming, volunteer support, training, and more. Like any nonprofit, GSHCC needs the ongoing support of our families, friends and community to continue building girls of courage, confidence and character in Northern and Central California.

This year GSHCC girls, families, troops and service units came up with many creative, fun and exciting ways to support our council though donations to our Family Partnership Campaign. Our new blog series—Family Partnership Highlights—will feature ways our awesome community has supported GSHCC.

Our first Family Partnership Highlight features Golden River Service Unit and their awesome World Thinking Day event.

Golden River Service Unit in Modesto held a unique and memorable event for World Thinking Day 2014—and supported the GSHCC’s Family Partnership in the process!

On February 13, Golden River held “Dime-a-Taste,” an interactive event where Girl Scouts and families learned about Girl Guides and sampled foods from around the world for a dime per taste, and collected “passport” stamps for each country they learned about. Troops signed up to represent different WAGGGS countries, and presented country and Girl Guides information, costumes, decorations, food to taste, and a unique stamp for the passports.

Girl Scout Brownie Isabell N. attended the event, where she enjoyed learning about other countries and cultures. When we asked Isabell what she liked best about the event, she couldn’t decide! She said, “I loved going to see the booths and the different costumes and displays. I also loved trying all the foods, because the foods from other countries were so new to me.”

Dime-a-Taste was extremely successful, teaching girls about other countries and earning more than $400.00, which Golden River donated to the GSHCC Family Partnership fund. Way to go, Golden River! We appreciate your support and are so impressed with your great event.

Do you know a Girl Scout, family, troop, or service unit we should feature in our Family Partnership Highlights series? Please email the story and photos to funddev@girlscoutshcc.org.

Tales From Camp: Sunflowers, Camera Shots, Mythbusters, and More

Hi everyone!

Welcome to another great tale about camp. We had amazing groups this past week including Dazzling Dancers, Menzies Masterchefs, Trot ‘n Trek, Night Owls, Camera Shots, Get the Scoop!, Mythbusters, Myths, Magic and More, Girls vs Wild and Farm to Fork.

We had our All Camp event where the girls got to choose from different activities such as volleyball, making lemonade or friendship bracelets. There was also a writing club… love it.

These groups experienced many interesting activities. Mythbusters tried to fry an egg with a magnifying glass; do you think it worked? Menzies Masterchefs made their own recipe books and Night Owls did some stargazing. Camera Shots worked on their badge by making a collage and of course taking lots and lots of photos! Get the Scoop worked on their interviews, stories and advice column. Girls vs Wild learned all about first aid and prepared for their overnight trip. Farm to Fork visited a farm and brought back some sunflowers for our healthcare assistant Sunflower.

I could tell you all about the excitement at camp, but found that two of our Dazzling Dancers can do that much better than I can. Take a look at news reporters Lorra and Kaydence:

On Friday we welcomed Forest Friends, Sierra Safari, Camp Quest, Lead On!, which each cater to trying a little bit of everything and exploring all the fun things Camp Menzies has to offer. From nature study and canoeing to arts 'n' crafts, campfires and beyond. The campers had a wonderful time!

Today marks the end of our final official session here at Camp Menzies. We'll have another amazing Two of Us group coming up this weekend, then for the rest of the camp season we'll have troop camping and family camping--always a blast! 

Until next time,

Rapunzel