Christmas Joy

It's Christmas time and the most wonderful time to announce that Project Book-Nook has had 169 books donated. I'm so grateful for the wonderful people that have come to donate and to share their time for such a good cause. I still have some of my own children's books to look through, as well as collections from the Creative Writing class that I mentioned in an earlier post. It's a blessing to see this box of books continue to grow. Thanks again to everyone that's helped.

"No act of kindness, no matter how small, is ever wasted" -Aesop

Total Project Time: 26 Hours

New Ideas and Opportunities

SO, when the middle school said that they'd just had a book drive, and the elementary school never responded to my emails, I decided to think up new ideas. To start, we launched a book drive just through family and friends, which in itself generated a whole box of books. Then, my mom's office generated an entire second box filled with books, and I couldn't thank them enough!

As a senior in high school I decided that I had two options. I could reach out to my school and offer a book drive there, or I could go to other locations in the community pleading to leave a book box on their doorsteps for a week.
HOWEVER, I was having trouble sleeping last week, and I couldn't stop thinking about the book drive situation...and then my brain hatched an idea.

In my Creative Writing Class, our final project is to write and illustrate a children's book. If people were to donate their books to my project, what a wonderful way to share your story, and know that you're helping the community.........
So I emailed my teacher, who loved the idea, and today I printed up 60 flyers for the two creative writing classes. I'm not quite sure how successful it will be, but it's a cute idea and WORTH A SHOT! It's a good way to personalize the book shelf, and to bring the community closer together.

"If at first the idea is not absurd, then there is no hope for it." 

-Albert Einstein

Total Time Spent on Project: 25 hours 13 minutes

Update

The project is finally in full swing. My team and I have been working hard to collect books from friends and family, and have nearly completed cushions for the book nook area. Recently, I got a notice from the middle school we had reached out to, who said that they'd already had a book drive this year, and would not like to have another. And on the same note, we haven't heard back from the elementary school at all. My next step is to reach out to the YMCA and to gather the materials this week for the actual bookshelf construction.TREE House is super excited to have this shelf, and my team and I are more than determined to complete it for them. I know that we'd estimated a finish date at November 21, but it's been extended due to minor crises. We now have 10 completed book drive posters, two drop-boxes, and six seat cushions. As an addition to the project, with our extra fabric scraps from our seat cushions, we made dog toys that we will eventually donate to Five Acres Animal Shelter as to not be wasteful with our materials. From just family donations and friends, there's already half of a box full of books just waiting to make their way onto a beautiful shelf!

Timeline!

I Finally Completed My Timeline.
Finally.
I got it done.
It has 32 steps and is estimated to be completed around November 21, 2016.

I'm eager to continue the project further, and ready to actually start making bigger steps in the process. Thank you everyone who agreed to help me out, and volunteer your time to such a good cause.
The next step is to tweak my proposal, and send it in to the board! Sounds like an activity for tomorrow... I refuse to put this project off any more!

"A Goal Without A Plan Is Just A Wish" -Antoine de Saint-Exupery

Total Time Spent on Project: 13 Hours, 34 Minutes

Allow Me To Explain.

Allow me to explain. 

GS Uniforms: The girl scouts are allowed to choose between a vest and a sash.

Cookies: Because I'm a Juliette, I'm exempt from selling Girl Scout cookies. Do I still like them? Heck yeah, I love them. But I don't miss selling them. It's difficult to be an older Girl Scout and be expected to sell a certain amount of cookies. People tend to buy cookies from little girls rather than older girls.

What's the Point?: Well. "The Girl Scout Gold Award looks good on an application."

The most common phrase from people that aren't in Girl Scouts. No. Sure it looks good but that's not the point. The point is to help people and to do something good for society. However, I will not discount the benefits of the award. It is the HIGHEST AWARD IN GIRL SCOUTS. So you get bragging rights (just kidding). It is a sense of accomplishment and pride that you can actually help the community. Members of the US Military can also be accepted as a rank higher, due to the leadership role that the award portrays. and of course. It looks good on resumes and to colleges, some that even offer scholarships. But it's mostly about the accomplishment.

"I'd rather have a life of 'oh wells' than 'what ifs'" (Unknown)

TOTAL PROJECT TIME: 10 Hours, 34 Minutes

Getting Back in the Game.

Getting Back in the Game.

Nobody should make excuses, but I'm going to. Council approved my project with reservations, and to be honest I was crushed that I didn't have it perfect. I need to re-do my project timeline, show exactly where funds are coming from, and have background checks and letters from those helping me at TREE House. However, I decided that instead of getting everything done right away, that I would wait until after my vacation, my mission trip, and my veterinary medicine study at Kentucky State University. And, now my mission is to get back in the game, to make this project happen. So, I have contacted my project manager from TREE House, and have recently received a letter back, explaining to GS Council that yes, TREE House will love and keep the bookshelf. Forever. The very next step is to name and describe the volunteers helping me, create an accurate timeline, and re-fill out some fancy paperwork to get things officially going.
Ready, set, let's roll.

"Failure is the condiment that gives success its flavor." (Truman Capote)
TOTAL PROJECT TIME: 10 Hours 34 Minutes

Thoughts.

      So, as I've been going through my process, I've been wearing my vest a lot, and the response has me shocked. I've realized that many people know that "Girl Scouts is like Boy Scouts", but that's all that they know. So I decided to take out some time for anyone that's curious. What is a Gold Award? What's a Girl Scout? Ambassador? Juliette? Cookies? Vests and sashes? There are so many questions that I've been asked in the past few weeks.

GIRL SCOUTS: Girl Scouts of America is a member organization of girls that promotes character, leadership, outdoor activities, good citizenship, and service to others.

BRONZE AWARD: This is the highest honor a Junior Girl Scout can receive. It requires the scout to follow through with a project to make a difference.

For my Bronze Award, we made laminated paper dress up dolls. It sounds silly, but we actually did it for a cause. Our dress up dolls were sent to children that needed help with speech and were learning how to express themselves. Our project was used to help children to learn about clothing, to learn colors, shapes, and to help them speak their mind. Instead of "mom i need that", the goal was to increase the "mom i need a blue shirt", and to help the children develop. 

SILVER AWARD: This is the highest award a Girl Scout Cadette can earn, and it is even more prestigious than the Bronze Award. It requires the scout to follow through with a project to make a difference.

For my Silver Award, we created scrapbook pages with uplifting quotes that we then framed and took to a hospital. Our goal was to lift spirits of those that felt that there was no hope. I constantly think of this project, and hope that a small act could have made a difference in someone's life, whether it was to stay strong during chemotherapy, or to stay hopeful on their last day.

GOLD AWARD: The highest award in Girl Scouts. The most prestigious of awards, only 5.4% of those eligible actually receive the award. 

GIRL SCOUT JULIETTE: 

Juliette Girl Scouts are registered girl members, in grades K-12, who are not affiliated with a troop and complete Girl Scouts activities with the guidance of an adult mentor. They participate in a way that fits their schedule, attending events and participating in activities that meet their needs and interests. (GS Juliettes) 

I hope that this clears some things up for anyone that was curious. 

"Never stop learning, because life never stops teaching"

Time Spent on Project: 10 hours 24 minutes

Preparing for the proposal...

        As I prepare for my upcoming meeting with council to present my project idea, I've been thinking about the best way to propose the book-nook. I'm not entirely amazing at speaking fluently when I'm nervous, so I decided that it would be better to make a poster, and to use the poster to demonstrate my key points, goals, ideas, and strategies. It felt like a good way to answer the questions that will inevitably be asked...who, what, when, where, how, how much...and to answer in a detailed fashion that would (for me) work better to illustrate the vision.

Not completely finished yet, but it feels good that some of it is done! Progress, progress, progress. Looking forward to Tuesday and hopefully getting the project APPROVED!

"The only time you should ever look back, is to see how far you've come" -Unknown

Time Spent on Project: 10 hours 2 minutes

Sketching.

So I've been sick in bed all day, but to make the most of it, I've done a lot of sketching! Here's what I have so far:

I hope that the actual plans and shelf look a lot better than the sketch, but you get the idea!
The plan is to make a corner shelf, and have a wooden board (made to look like a fence post) across the back of the structure so that books aren't butted up to the corner. This way, many more books can fit onto the shelf. Because we chose to make the board look like a fence post, we also thought it would be a fun idea to paint beyond the fence post to look like TREE House pastures, complete with horses! How fun.


"Life is the Art of Drawing without an eraser" -John W. Gardner

Total Time: 6 hours 37 minutes

Feedback...?

Heard back from Council! No feedback until I meet to present my proposal! Can't wait. I guess I should make that digital render sometime soon...
However, my interview is set up for March 15, so not too much longer before we can actually get started.

Total Time: 5 hours 37 minutes

Drawbacks: Council didn't have a record of my Girl Scout Gold Award Workshop Training Day. Luckily, just one more email with my completion certificate was all that was needed to get back on track. Good thing I still have it 3 years later from October of 2013!

🐴🐔🐮🐷🐸🐦🐥🐠🐳🐬🐍🐢🐌🐴🐔🐮🐷🐸🐦🐥🐠🐳🐬🐍🐢🐌🐣🐴

"Patience is bitter, but its fruit is sweet" -Aristotle

Project Proposal!

      Today, I sent in my project proposal... now the long wait for the snail mail to go through before we can hear some feedback! Can't wait to hear new ideas about our book nook.

Steps Taken:
1) Project Idea Proposal to TREE House
2) Recruit a Project Adviser
3) Fill out paper-work
4) Take measurements...
5) Draw our vision
6) Redraw our vision
7) Perfect our vision
8) Materials List
9) Ways to make it safe...
10) How to incorporate a barn theme
11) Turn in project proposal to council
12) Ways to incorporate TREE House logo into the design

13) Start a blog. . .

     Can't wait to see how it turns out, hoping to make a digital render of our sketches sometime soon to show to the organization. Looking forward to working with new people and networking to make our dream come true!

Total Time Spent on Gold Award: 5 hours 32 minutes