On Tuesday, I received a Facebook message from a Girl Scout leader wondering if it would be a possibility for her troop to paint Hearts. Of course, as a former Girl Scout, and knowing that Terry, our board member had just done a Girl Scout event with 150 girl scouts in attendance, I was all over it. "Absolutely!" I replied. "We have worked with many girl scout troops. We even have a patch available."
And so began the planning... FOR THE NEXT DAY!
Luckily for me, the troop meets at Sterling House, where Hearts of Hope Stratford has a room. This troop meets once a month and that next day just happened to be their next meeting. Anyone who knows me knows I have all my Hearts of Hope boxes organized and ready to go at a moments notice, so being ready with less than 24 hours notice was no big deal.
I arrived at Sterling House at 3:30 to begin setting up for 5-6 Daisy Girl Scouts who are in Kindergarten and first grade.
They were due to arrive at 4:30. When 4:30 came, I heard the elevator door open and the gleeful squeals of the girls as they came down the hallway to the room.
The best part for me was when they walked in and some of them realized that they knew me from school. This troop was from Eli Whitney, the school where I had taught for 28 years and still drop in from time to time to volunteer and take photographs during school activities.
Once they sat down, we talked about school, who their teacher was, you know... the important stuff. One of the girls was in kindergarten and had received a Heart in the beginning of the school year welcoming her to Eli Whitney, and all of the other students had painted a heart last year at school, so they all had had some experience with Hearts of Hope. I explained to them that today they would be painting for Nurses and Health Care Workers and that their hearts would be added to the ones that the community would be painting on May 14th. We talked a little more about what they needed to do when they painted and then it was off to the races.
Time to choose the paint colors.
When they finished the big heart for me, they each received a small heart that they could paint and take home for themselves.
All of the girls were so proud of their hearts and the patches that they received for their hard work and for creating Hope! They also took home a Hearts of Hope coloring book I created.
All that is left is the clean up!
It was so much fun working with the scouts! I already have another girl scout troop and one cub scout pack booked for May. You are never too young to create hope!
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