Heather and I are trying not to overload everyone with emails and information but we have a very busy two months ahead. I will do my best to include as much of the information as possible in this email to avoid bombarding you (and I'll apologize in advance if I still need to!).
Here is a list of upcoming events:
Feb 1st (our crazy day!)
Heather, Clark, Christie, and Cheryl are working to unload cookies from the truck and get them to Heather's house. Any other volunteers (girls, families) are certainly welcome. Just let Heather know if you plan to help. She plans to be there by 7am but said helpers could join her by 8am.
The Iowa Woman's Basketball Girl Scout's Day officially starts at 11am. There are several events planned between the start time and tip off which is at 2pm. (See below.) We have several scouts who also play basketball and they just found out there is a Regina basketball tournament that same weekend. The schedule/times have not been released yet. Donna and Mark Santillian plan to attend the Iowa game and have kindly offered to meet the girls who are there early. I am happy to bring the rest of the girls to Carver Hawkeye when the Regina tournament is over. If your daughter is scheduled to attend the Iowa game, could you please contact me with her plans so we can make sure everyone gets where they need to be?
SCHEDULE OF EVENTS:
11:00 am Doors Open and Troops check in
11:30 am Troops should be seated for pregame activities in sections F, G, and H
11:40 am Coaches’ Welcome
11:50 am Game Instructions by basketball staff – 3 point placards, cheers/
chants for the day
12:00 pm Cheer clinic (Girl Scouts will stay in their seats for this)
12:20 pm Registration for prizes, fun zone, poster-making
12:30 pm Doors open to public
2:00 pm Iowa vs. Nebraska
Cookie Sales/Goal Setting
First, I cannot thank Heather enough for being the Cookie Mom again. It is a ton of work and she's managed to put our troop in a really good position to be successful. Heather ran our last troop meeting and talked the girls through goal setting, safety concerns, successful selling strategies, and rewards. We set up small group exercises focused on giving girls experience with selling and thinking through what customers might ask them. It was very successful and they all earned a Meet My Customer badge.
Your daughter should have come home with a goal setting sheet. Each of them was asked to think about how many boxes they want to sell individually and at booths. Some were quite ambitious! If you did not see the sheet, let me know and I'll email you the number of boxes your daughter wants to sell. They earned a Goal Setting patch for this. There will be a chart in Mrs. Foley's room that is updated each week so the girls can track their progress.
The rewards have changed this year for sales over 500. The most exciting change is that they can now earn gift certificates for American Girl! That created quite a buzz in the scout room! If you do not have a rewards sheet, let one of us know so we can get it to you.
We are continuing the Troop to Troop program this year. We had great success with this last year. Customers can buy boxes of cookies that are then sent overseas to the active duty military. As a bonus, we earn 75 cents/box as a troop (compared to the usual 50 cents/box). Please consider having your daughter ask customers about this.
Cookie Pick Up and Booth Sales
Heather and Clark are storing the 3,000 boxes of cookies for us. Cookies can be picked up any time after they are sorted on Feb 1st. However, sales do not start until Feb 8th. Please, please, please do not have your daughters sell them before then.
To pick up the cookies, please either email or call Heather to set up a time. Phone: 319-331-0480
Heather also managed to set up some great booth sales for us, which is not an easy feat! (I picture her as a "cookie mom" version of a Black Friday shopper who camps out three days in advance to get an amazing deal on a 60 inch TV.)
When girls sell at booth sales, they get a percentage of the total cookie sales for the time they were there. For instance, if four girls sell 100 boxes in one hour, they get credit for 25 boxes each. It's a great way to beef up their numbers.
The booth sales are as follows:
(Sat) February 8th Fareway (Commerce Drive) 10-5
(Sun) February 9th St. Patrick 10 am mass
(Sat) February 15th Hy-Vee Drugstore 1-5
(Sun) February 16th Stuff Etc. (Coralville) 11-5
(Thurs) February 20th Theisens 3-6
(Sat) February 22nd 10-2 Fareway (Mormon Trek)
(Sun) February 23rd 11-3 Hyvee WaterFront
(Sat) March 1st Hyvee 1st Ave 10-2
(Sun) March 2nd Walmart (Iowa City) 10-6
(Sat) March 8th Walmart (Coralville) 9-1
(Sun) February 9th St. Patrick 10 am mass
(Sat) February 15th Hy-Vee Drugstore 1-5
(Sun) February 16th Stuff Etc. (Coralville) 11-5
(Thurs) February 20th Theisens 3-6
(Sat) February 22nd 10-2 Fareway (Mormon Trek)
(Sun) February 23rd 11-3 Hyvee WaterFront
(Sat) March 1st Hyvee 1st Ave 10-2
(Sun) March 2nd Walmart (Iowa City) 10-6
(Sat) March 8th Walmart (Coralville) 9-1
If your daughter plans to participate (any amount of time is fine!), please let Heather or myself know. She and I will do our best to be at as many booths as possible. Donna S has also offered to help. If any other parents are willing to pitch in, we'd be very grateful.
Some of the booths are inside but we are usually stationed just inside a door. Please make sure your daughter dresses for the weather. It is best to have two parents at each booth so we can take turns bringing girls inside as needed. If we only have one parent, we will make sure to send girls in pairs. Hand warmers worked well last year.
End of Cookie Sales Party!
The girls will be ready for a well-deserved party after cookie sales are done. We asked the troop to brainstorm for ideas. Several options were discussed including: a Saturday morning movie at a theater, ice skating, pottery painting, pizza party, etc. If anyone has ideas, we'd love to hear them.
Make Up Overnight
We are still working on this. The scouts only plan a handful of these events in the entire area so they are hard to come by. If all else fails, we can always have a pizza/movie/game night at our house and have the girls camp out overnight here. I will keep working on this and would plan for sometime in April or May.
Camp
Truly, the hit of our year so far was our troop's overnight weekend camp at Camp Conestoga last summer. The camp catalog comes out sometime in the coming week and Heather and I will work on possible dates asap. Girls can attend week long camps on their own, so if you are interested, let one of us know so we can get you the information.
For this summer, we will shoot for another troop weekend camp. Heather and I will be there for sure. Other parents are welcome to join us as well. Ali Comer helped us last year. We do all of the activities as a group and have some additional help from the great camp counselors. There is plenty of singing, campfires, hiking, arts/crafts, and fun. This year, they are old enough to do some additional activities like archery.
The girls who attended last year should have received a note from one of the camp counselors along with a $15 camp credit. That's a nice perk!
Again, my apologies for the information overload! Hopefully this information will get us through March at least. It's been challenging to find time but I do have some photos to put up on our blog and will (try!) to do it soon.
Mary
