Troop Announcements
Announcements and Reminders
May 22, 2025
TLE Take Action Project and Bronze Award
After almost a full year, I’m happy to report that the girls successfully completed the Think Like an Engineer Journey by completing their Take Action project! It is one of the more challenging journeys and they chose an even more challenging problem to solve. The final step was presenting their project to an administrator. Although Ms. Vashisht was not able to attend, Ms. Wilkins, the STEM lead attended and made the video to show her. She shared a copy of the video here. Completing their journey was a prerequisite for starting the Bronze Award project. They will now take what they have learned and come up with a project that they must complete by September 30th to earn their award. The requirements for the award are more time intensive, so they will need to meet at least a couple of times during the summer. The Bronze Award is a team effort. No part of it can be completed by one girl alone. Please let me know any Saturday dates that your scout will not be available to meet from June 14th to 30th and from July 20 to August 10th. The first meeting will be for 3 hours on a Saturday at Shannon Walker Library and the second meeting will be by Zoom.
Bridging Ceremony
The bridging ceremony will take place at Molly Pryor Orchard gazebo at Terry Hershey Park, 15200 Memorial Dr, Houston, TX 77079 on Saturday May 31st. Juniors who are bridging to cadette should arrive by 9:45 am. They should be wearing their Junior uniform and bring their Cadette vest or sash. The permission slip is attached. Please complete and return it by May 30th. All families are welcome to attend this event.
Next Troop Meetings
The troop elected to complete one more badge. This meeting will be held by Zoom on June 2nd at 6:30 pm. The link will be posted in the chat group. They will meet and speak with a first responder and create personal first aid kits. The final troop meeting of the school year will be on June 3rd after school. They will have their end of the year party to celebrate their accomplishments.
Kemah and Camping at Casa Mare
One of the troops’ goals for cookie sales was a trip to Kemah. This trip will take place from August 8-10th. Tentatively, we will meet at the Girl Scout headquarters at 12 pm on Friday, Aug. 8th and arrive at Kemah by 1 pm and leave by 7pm. We will then go to Casa Mare Girl Scout campgrounds in Seabrook and spend two nights, returning Sunday afternoon. More details will be sent out in early August. At Casa Mare, in addition to other activities, the girls will spend a minimum of 8 hours on their Bronze project.
Thank you for your support throughout the year. Looking forward to seeing you all at the bridging ceremony.
April 30, 2025
Day camping at Misty Meadows on Saturday, May 3rd
Leave: at 1pm
From: Girl Scouts Headquarters
Return: 6:30 pm
The Tack & Trails Horseback Riding session consists of a safety review and demonstration for riding, riders will learn how to stop, start, and steer the horse with the help of our SPURS, and either a trail ride or arena games on horseback. We have a covered arena in case of rain.
- Attire: -Dress in layers - appropriate for weather -Long pants are required for riding (either jeans or leggings are fine) -Shirts with sleeves that can be tucked in -Socks -Closed-toe shoes that can get dirty (both the girls and adults) -Boots with a 1-inch heel for riding (or you can borrow some of ours from the barn) -An ASTM SEI-approved riding helmet is required when riding. We have a lot to borrow in the barn. -Hair tied back low (around the neck, not on the top or back of head) to allow the helmet to sit correctly. If a participant chooses not to wear one, or a correctly fitting helmet is not available, the session may be delayed until a correctly fitting helmet is available or an unmounted lesson could be provided. What to Bring - Don't forget: -Bandana for each rider to go under the riding helmet or you can use one of our disposable hair nets or borrow a bandana -Refillable water bottle - we have a bottle filler at the barn -Girl paperwork (your troop leader may already have these forms) - F-204 or F-204M permission slips, F-185 girl medical form, and F-1157 waiver for girls – this paperwork will be retained by the troop leader
April 9, 2025
Membership Renewal
Don’t forget to renew your membership and your scout’s by April 15th! You will get a $10 discount per membership and your daughter will earn an early bird patch and get access to the early-bird glow party in September. If every scout is renewed by April 15th the troop will also be eligible for prizes including an overnight stay at the Galveston Bay House.
Cookie Sales
Cookie sales were up this year, and the troop met and exceeded their goal of selling 1200 packages. Each girl earned the family entrepreneur pin and the cookie collaborator badge. Here’s an overview of sales:
· Total sales: 1391 packages
· Per girl average: 198
· Top seller: Annie with 355
· Rewards earned: 56
· CC payments processed by girls: 127
· Total packages donated to Cookies for Heroes: 59
· Troop Booth sales: 15 (4-5 per girl)
· Direct Shipped (Troop website): 57
· Troop Gross Sales: $8,322
· Troop net earnings: $1248
Troop Meetings and Take Action Project
The girls must complete their take action (TA) project this month to stay on track to finish their Bronze Award by the deadline. At the last meeting they continued to redesign their bathroom locks. We will dedicate most of our Tuesday meetings to finishing the TA project this month. In addition, we will meet by Zoom on Mondays from 6:30-8:00 pm for the rest of the month. If more time is needed, we will schedule those times for after the camping trip in May. The girls will also plan their end of the year party in May.
Day Camping at Misty Meadows
In addition to the campout at Agnes Arnold at the end of February, one of the troop’s goals for their cookie earnings was to go horseback riding. On Saturday, May 3rd we will go day camping and horseback riding at Misty Meadows campgrounds in Conroe. We will meet at the Girl Scout Headquarters at 1 pm and return there by 6:30 pm. More details to come.
Bridging Ceremony
The Bridging Ceremony for 2nd year juniors is tentatively set for Saturday, May 31st at 10 a.m. at Molly Pryor Orchard gazebo at 15200 Memorial Dr. Houston 77079. This event will be organized by the Buffalo Trail Community and will include other troops. Please ensure that your scout has a cadette uniform (sash or vest) for the ceremony. She will wear this uniform until she graduates because it is the same for each level forward.
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March 14, 2025
Cookies
Cookie season is almost over but there is still time to order. If you have any friends or family living far away who would like to buy cookies, now is the time. The shipping just dropped to $5 flat rate for up to 12 packagaes. We are entering the final stretch, so please make sure you have cleared any balance owed. You can send payments to our bank account or use the link in CheddarUp to transfer payments for cookies. You can also pay by cash at your scout's last booth. Most girls still have one booth left, so there is still time for them to meet their individual goals if they haven't yet or set new goals and accomplish them. We have had a good season and the troop is on track to exceed their goal of 1200 packages with 1121 sold so far!
Buffalo Trail Community Campout Recap
During their campout, the girl's created fun memories and learned lesssons that will last a lifetime. The day started with our troop raising the flags and leading the pledge and promise. Throughout the day, the girls earned a cool patch and sharpened their canoing, archery, biking, and hiking skills. They also completed crafts, cooking/food prep tasks, and learned about safety. They also learned the importance of working together as a team as they competed with other groups to complete tasks. Finally, they contributed their art skills to a community service project that provides lunches for children in need. After the sun went down on Saturday, they had time to reflect and experience Girl Scout camping traditions during the community campfire. This campout was truly an exploration of the fundamentals of scouting. (See the photos posted in the group chat and on the troop website.)
Community Service Project -N95 mask drive
From time to time in our meetings we talk about how girl scouts make the world a better place. I was overcome with pride when I saw our troop used as an example of how Girl Scouts are doing that not only in their own community but wherever there is a need. The troop was featured in CORE's latest newsletter and on their social media pages. It is a reminder of how our simple acts of kindness can impact so many other lives. Thank you for raising kind, thoughtful future leaders. See Shout out from CORE to our troop.
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Feb. 4, 2025
TLE Take Action
On Saturday, the girls continued their take action project by redesigning their prototype. They used 3D software, and learned how to search a database and find models of similar objects and modify them to fit their needs. They will continue to redesign at the next meeting until their prototype is ready for printing and testing. To learn more about how Girl Scouts teaches design thinking click here .
Cookies
Cookie season is here! The girls received their sales packets at the troop meeting last Tuesday. If you haven’t already, please check your email for the Digital Cookie link. Your scout needs this app to enter all of her in-person individual sales, and to process credit/debit card sales. Last year was the first year that we had to use Digital Cookie. Hopefully, they have worked out all the kinks by now, but if you have any questions or issues, please post the issue in our Whatsapp group chat. Digital Cookie will not be live until Feb. 8th, the first day of cookie sales. If you need cookies to sell over the weekend or to fill orders next week, reply to this email with the quantity and flavor. We can meet at TH Rogers on Friday from 3:30-4:30pm or by arrangement at some other time or location. Booth sales start Feb. 15th. The booth schedule is here , please review it and mark your calendars. Each girl and her parent or guardian must be at the booth at all times during the assigned time slot and date. If you have a conflict on any of your assigned dates, please reach out ASAP by replying to this email, so we can reassign the booth. The girls will earn their Cookie Entrepreneur Family Pin as well as patches and cookie badges.
Buffalo Trail Community Campout
Our community campout is scheduled for February 28-March 2nd. The girls are really looking forward to this campout. They have planned their meals and will plan troop activities at the next meeting. We will carpool to the campsite from the Girl Scout Headquarters at 3110 Southwest Fwy, Houston, Texas 77098. Tentatively, we plan to leave at 7 pm on Friday and return by noon on Sunday. Check here for details and forms.
Community Service Project -N95 mask drive
At the January 14th meeting, the troop decided to support the victims of the California Wildfires by having a N95 mask drive. We are partnering with CORE (Community Organized Relief Effort) which is based in L.A. If you have any unused (K)N95 masks, please donate them. This is our last week for collection. So far, we have collected over 250 masks and counting!
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Dec. 18, 2024
The updated schedule for spring 2025 is now posted. This annoucement covers the past two weeks. It includes the Community Service Project, TLE Take Action Project, New Logo and Holiday Party ,.
Community Service
On December 3rd, the troop met to work on their community service project and plan their holiday party. They set a budget and created a shopping list using Amazon and other sites to compare prices. They then selected items on Amazon for their gift bag. These items were purchased and delivered to Interfaith Ministries/Meals on Wheels for their gift bag campaign.
TLE Take Action Project
Last weekend, our new scouts, Mia and Rebecca, joined Annie at the Think Like an Engineer (TLE) Junior badge campout to earn their TLE badges. See highlights here . This puts them on track to earn the journey award with the rest of the troop by completing the Take Action project. The troop will continue to work on their TLE Journey in January. We will have a meeting at Shannon Walker library on Feb. 1st to make up for the meeting that was cancelled. This is an important meeting for completing the TLE Take action project. The target completion date for the TLE Journey is February, so that they can begin work on the Bronze award in late March or early April.
New Logo
Arietta and Mia, have designed a new logo for the troop! The new logo will include a lion, a butterfly, and a microphone, that symbolize courage, character, and confidence, on a Girl Scout trefoil background. We will debut this new logo in 2025. This will appear in the header of all CheddarUp communications from the troop and on the troop website. The troop will also purchase T-shirts with the troop logo for excursions.
Holiday Party
Yesterday excitement was in the air as we ended the year with a celebration of holiday traditions. The girls decorated ornaments and made gingerbread cookies and decorated them. Thanks to Rebecca, they also learned some Hanukkah traditions. Click to see Highlights from the holiday party. To show appreciation for Ms. Perry, we left her a gift bag with glue sticks, Girl scout cookies and Fall Product candies, and a pink hour glass.
Whatever holidays you celebrate with your scout over the next month, may they be merry and bright and full of good cheer!
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Nov. 24, 2024
On Tuesday our troop had a business meeting. The highlights are as follows:
_Fall Product Recap:_
- Troop earned: $208.25
- Top Seller: Annie 35 units at $676
- Total units sold by troop: 91
- Total girls selling: 3
- Total sold: $1,228.60
- Avg$ per girl selling: $409.53
- Gross Profit: $596.00
- Net Profit: $208.25
- Amount Due Council: $387.75 Thank you so much to parents who participated. The money that the troop earned allows us to move forward with our community service project, Christmas party, and spring campout, and to give Ms. Perry a small gift bag to show appreciation for her support. _Skate Party Recap:_ The troop discussed what went well and what they would have done differently. This information is passed on to the community and council for future planning. _Fall Community Service Project_ The girls chose their communit service project. Click here for more details. In order to do this, we will need to schedule a shopping trip to purchase the items and bag delivery. The shopping date is tentatively set for Dec. 7 at 3 pm. If it is not a good day for your scout, please let me know. We need 100% participation to make our deadline for delivery. _Camping Trip_ This year the girls opted to attend a community campout. This is at a Girl Scout campground near Conroe from Feb. 28th to March 2nd. The girls will earn outdoor badges at this campout. More details to come. _Take Action Project_ We also discussed how we will present our Take Action project to school administration. They have a long way to go on their project, so we may need to schedule a make-up day for the Tuesday that was cancelled due to elections. They will discuss this at the next meeting. The next troop meeting is Dec. 3rd. We will plan our Christmas Party at this meeting. Thank you for all of your support. We would not have a troop without our parent volunteers. ---
Oct. 24, 2024
This weekend caps off a busy week for our troop.
Skate Party
This Saturday our troop is hosting Buffalo Trail’s annual skate party. This is a very important honor for our troop. The skate party is well-attended and celebrates the founder of Girl Scouts, Juliette Lowe’s birthday while also being a vehicle for introducing new girl scouts to our community. The party is at Dairy Ashford Roller Rink at 1820 S Dairy Ashford Rd St, Houston, TX 77077. We will meet at the roller rink at 9 am to set up. Each girl has been assigned a role and there will be other trained adults supervising them as they check-in guests, distribute patches and forms, and direct them inside to the rental booth. We are serving donuts and drinks and each scout will receive a patch. Our scouts have chosen a Halloween theme for the party. Also special guests from the Yellow Rose Roller Derby team are expected to attend. Please make sure that your scout arrives on time and in uniform or, if she chooses, a costume. Any costumes should be comfortable for skating. If your scout needs transportation please reach out today to make arrangements. Permission slips were sent out today by email.
Renaissance Festival Trip wrap-up
Based on feedback from the girls, the renaissance festival trip was a success. We discussed it on Wednesday and how the experience relates to the requirements for the Playing the Past badge. We also talked about what they learned about the past and how people lived and worked. Unfortunately we did not get to see all the demonstrations we had planned, but some of them did see artisans and craftspeople at work as they were exploring. Many thanks to Pooja and Lauren for accompanying the troop to the event and helping out. We look forward to helping our girls have many more such adventures in the future.
Take Action Project
On Wednesday the girls also discussed their prototypes. We specifically discussed why some failed and what improvements they might need to make to the prototypes before they will be ready for testing. To be continued . . .
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Oct. 19, 2024
**Schedule for our trip to the TX Renfest:**
10:00 am: Leave Houston
11:20 am: Arrive at the Renfest, meet at the gate. Go over safety checkpoints
11:30 -11:45: Check-in; Select afternoon activities, restroom break
12:00 - 1:00: Secrets of the Fallen Alchemist mystery at Guild Hall Booth 224
1:00 - 2:10: Eat and watch show at The Agora
2:10 - 3:30: Scavenger Hunt (explore the kingdom) Guild Hall Booth 224
3:30 - 4:00: Artisan demonstrations: Gutenberg Press and Booths 523A & B
4:00 - 5:00: Snack and chosen activity
5:00 pm: Return to Houston (ETA: 6:30 pm - 7 pm)
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Oct. 16, 2024
This Sunday is our trip to the Renaissance Festival. Families are welcome to attend. Please send your signed permission slip to me by email by Friday. Check your email or the link in my prior post for details. We will leave Houston at 10 am. The girls will be earning a Playing the Past badge. To earn this badge, they will be given a dark purple or black satin hooded cape to embellish and wear as a period costume from any ancient time period and culture that interests them. They can also wear other clothes and accessories that fit the period. They should sketch their designs, then use whatever materials they have to add to their cape. The capes haven't arrived yet, but I expect to get them to the girls on Friday. This should be fun, so if they don't want to earn the badge, they don't have to do it. Also, please no props that they would have to carry everywhere. Otherwise, their imagination should not be limited. Please show them the slides here for ideas:
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Oct. 13, 2024
The scouting year officially started on Oct. 1st. We are off to a great start with an adventure-filled year ahead of us. Our scouts have finalized most of their plans for the year. Below is an update on what to expect over the next few weeks. If you haven’t already, please mark your calendar accordingly.
Fall Product
Today is the last day for taking in-person fall product orders and orders for girl delivery. All orders must be entered from the order card into the online system by midnight tomorrow. Orders not entered will not be processed or credited to your scout’s sales, so please make sure all orders have been entered before you go to bed tonight. When ordering ends, the system will lock, and you will not be able to enter orders. Customers can still place direct-ship orders online until Nov. 10th. See the full schedule below.
Take Action Project
After two meetings of working on design concepts, this week the girls got off to a great start with their TLE Take Action project by completing a prototype of their door locks using various materials. At the next meeting they will test and redesign their locks. They are on track to complete their Take Action Projects this fall and start their Bronze Award project by January.
Upcoming Events
- The community service project scheduled for Oct. 19th has been postponed until November. More details to come.
- Renaissance Festival: The next event is a trip to the Renaissance Festival on Oct. 20th. If you are not familiar with the festival or would like to buy tickets, you can find out more here: http://www.texrenfest.com/tickets . We will leave Houston at 10 am. Families are welcome to come. Tickets for children 12 and under are free. The troop will cover the cost of lunch and a snack plus a limited number of games/rides for scouts. Shows are included in the cost of admission. All participants must complete the attached permission slip (scroll to bottom of page) and return it by Friday. Transportation from Houston to the festival is available for scouts.
- Halloween Skate Party: Our troop has the honor of planning and hosting Buffalo Trail’s annual skate party on Sat. Oct. 26th at 9 am. They settled on a Halloween theme this year and will have the Yellow Rose Roller Derby team members as their special guests, along with glow-in-the dark face painting as an activity. We need every girl’s participation to make sure that the party goes off smoothly. Permission slips for the party will go out next week. Fall Product Schedule Sept. 12 Fall Product Program begins! Order taking starts now! October
- 13 Fall Product girl-delivered order taking ends; Direct ship orders continue through girls' storefront
- 14 Families: Deadline to enter all orders from paper order cards into M2OS by 11:59 P.M. (CDT) November
- Nov. 1 Fall Product delivery dates Oct. 28th - Nov. 2nd Girls began to deliver nut/candy orders and collect
- payments. Turn in money to troop fall product manager frequently.
- Nov. 9 Family: Deadline for girls to send 18+ emails to earn Cookie Crossover patch
- Nov. 10 Online direct ship sale closes
- Nov. 13 Family: Deadline to deliver customer payments to TFPM
- No late submissions permitted. Week of Dec. 29 Girl rewards delivered to CFPMs. Distribute to troops. Jan. 5 Family: TFPMs arrange pick-up times for rewards ---
Sept. 16, 2024
This week is our first troop meeting of the school year. It is Wednesday at Jungman Library from 4:15 to 5:30 pm. This meeting will cover: welcome ceremony; Fall Product; TLE Take Action project and the skate party. The troop will also choose badges and/or journeys that they want to focus on over the next scouting year. The official start of each scouting year is Oct. 1st, so if you are still seeing that your registration is pending, it will change to "completed" in October.
_Future Meetings_
Thanks to Ms. Perry at TH Rogers Elementary, we can return to Tuesday meetings. She has generously agreed to sponsor future troop meetings so we don't have to compete with other groups for the library meeting room. These Tuesday meetings will start next week, immediately after school at TH Rogers. Click the schedule link to see the updated meeting times.
_Snack Sign-up_
We need parents to sign-up to bring snacks for 5-6 girls each meeting. You can send snacks by your scout if you won't be there before the meeting ends. Here's the sign-up link .
Thank you, parents, for all that you do for our troop. Without you, this troop would not be possible. We look forward to seeing you at the meeting on Wednesday!
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Sept. 2, 2024
- Welcome If this is your first year with our troop, we warmly welcome you to our troop family. We are a tight-knit troop that support each other and our scouts, and we look forward to getting to know you and your scout at the next meeting. There are a couple of forms that you will need to fill out for your scout, a medical form and a permission slip for attending troop meetings at Jungman Library. They are available under "Forms" on the Troop page. Please complete them and return them with the completed form attached. If your scout will need transportation from school to Jungman Library, please include that information in your reply email, and indicate the pick-up location on the permission slip.
- Fall Schedule Due to unforeseen circumstances, we are no longer able to have meetings on Tuesdays. Our troop will meet biweekly on Wednesdays after school from 4:15 to 5:45 pm. As usual, we will have excursions and trips on weekends. Any scout who wants to earn her Bronze award this year, must attend two Saturday meetings to work on the Think Like an Engineer Take Action Project. Ms. Perry from TH Rogers has agreed to assist us with the Take Action Project but we have not been able to confirm an afterschool time, so this is our only option so. Our complete fall schedule is attached here and posted on our website .
- Fall Product It’s that time again! The Fall Product Program runs Sept. 12th to Oct. 15th. Because our fundraising finances all of our troop activities and supplies, your participation is crucial to the success of our troop. Unlike cookie sales, fall product does not involve any door to door or booth sales and the troop gets a much larger percentage of the sales. Scouts sell Fall Product through online storefronts that they create. It is a great way to get family and friends involved in supporting her efforts because all they have to do is go to the website, watch her video or read her ad, and select products for delivery or shipping. The Fall Product items also make great Christmas gifts. More importantly, your scout will learn digital marketing and financial skills that are useful life skills. We will distribute Fall Product sales packets to scouts at our first troop meeting. Please complete the permission form for your scout.
- Overnight at Space Center Houston If your scout is registered for the overnight stay at Space Center Houston AND you have confirmed that you will be attending within the last week, you are good to go. Click this link here for more information. If your scout needs transportation, please let me know by replying to this email or text me asap. Otherwise, we look forward to seeing you there.
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