Brownie Troop #420
Chapel Hill, North Carolina


Pines of Carolina Top Notch Troop 2001-2002!



A few of the faces are different but our size remains the same: eight girls eager to learn new skills and embark on new adventures!

At our first meeting, we discussed our interests and our ideas for the year ahead. We the Girl Scout Promise, the Girl Scout Law, and the special Girl Scout ways (the Brownie Ring, patrol circles, the Girl Scout handshake, the Quiet Sign, the Talking Sign, and the Friendship Circle). We helped our troop mascot, Effie the Unicorn, prepare for her year of travels in the mascot exchange program. Although we miss Effie while she's traveling, we enjoy hosting the mascots from other Girl Scout troops and are looking forward to reading about Effie's adventures when she returns. This year, Effie's travel itinerary includes Georgia, Wisconsin, New York, and Alabama.

We started out the year by working on the Strength in Sharing: Philanthropy in Girl Scouting patch program. We learned the difference between philanthropy and charity. We discussed how community service can make a measurable impact both locally and globally.

In November, we embarked on our fall camping trip! We had a beautiful site at Jordan Lake and the weather was perfect! After pitching the tents and setting up the cooking area, we set out on a hike, learned to identify animal tracks and plant life, looked for other signs of animal activity, played wide games, and had a scavenger hunt. We made tacos for dinner and discovered that a day in the outdoors makes for some pretty big appetites! After clean-up, we had a campfire program complete with songs, skits and s'mores. Now we can hardly wait for our next camp out!

With the holiday season fast approaching, we started working on making tree ornaments to decorate a tree at UNC Hospital. We painted wooden ornaments, made snowmen from beads, and fashioned a few of our own ornaments from Fun Foam.

We finished the requirements to earn the Stitch It Together Try-It. We made button collages and learned how to properly attach the different types of buttons. We practiced both the running stitch and overcast stitch to make beanbags and dunk bags. We made doll quilts and embroidered a flower design. We also earned the Wave the Flag and Safety Sense Try-Its and started working on the Penny Power Try-It.

For Thinking Day, we focused on Switzerland. We painted wooden spoons and plates with traditional Swiss folk art designs, sampled some Swiss foods (including Swiss chocolate of course!), and learned about Our Chalet, the WAGGGS World Center located in Switzerland. Our council also sponsors Different Shoe Day, a celebration of diversity, to coincide with Thinking Day. We discovered what diversity means and why it is important in our lives. We learned why acceptance of diversity is important, how diversity enriches our lives, and ways we can promote an appreciation of diversity in our own community. We encouraged our families, friends, and school mates to participate in the Different Shoe Day celebration.

We celebrated the 90th Birthday of Girl Scouts USA by holding a special Juliette Candle ceremony. When Juliette Gordon Low first established Girl Scouting in 1912, the tradition of the candlelight ceremonies was an important part of the various activities. Juliette wanted her original girls to carry a special spark with them as their Scouting group moved on. Several of these original Girl Scouts were going on to form their own troops and thus pass the Girl Scout tradition on to others. Juliette held a special ceremony with these original Girl Scouts during which she lit candles for each of them to represent the Light and Spirit of Girl Scouting. Juliette told the girls to take their candles with them and to use these candles in other Girl Scout candle lighting ceremonies to pass the flame on to others. We recreated that original ceremony and now each of us has our own 7th generation Juliette Candle so that we will pass the original light on to others as we continue our Girl Scout path. Also, in order to emphasize the service part of the Girl Scout program, each of us performed a minimum of nine service hours during the scouting year, giving "9 for the 90th."

We participated in Brownie Fun Day again this year and earned the Eat Right, Stay Healthy Try-It. We learned about the food pyramid and how to read food labels to make wise choices about which foods we buy. We also had fun making our own flavors of yogurt.

Our goal for the cookie sale this year was to raise enough funds to go to Brownie Camporee at Camp Graham. We achieved our goal! Brownie Camporee was great! The program was the Olympic Games. We participated in a full day of activities to earn the Team Challenge sports patch and even received commemorative Olympic pins from Salt Lake City. We slept in platform tents, made SWAPS and s'mores, and took a night hike that included crossing the swinging bridge in complete darkness! What a blast!

It has been a fun year. We are looking forward to even more adventures in our third and final year of Brownie Girl Scouts.


Third Year Brownies



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