June 2022 Newsletter
A Note From the Founder – Frontier Girls Financial Aid
Kerry Cordy
I love it when our members are so enthusiastic about the program that they want to give back. Frontier Girls troop #449 held a VERY successful fundraiser this year and ended up with more money than they need for their small troop. The girls decided to use the extra money help others who want to join the Frontier Girls program, but cannot afford to do so.
For every dollar they donate to our new Frontier Girls financial aid fund, I am matching dollar for dollar. If you know of a girl who wishes to join the Frontier Girls program, but is in financial unable to do so, please have them email kerry@frontiergirls.com to apply for aid. This money will be used to pay their membership fees.
Thank you SO much to the girls and leaders of Troop #449 and their fabulously supportive community! You are an amazing group!!
New Badges Posted
Don’t Forget the Blog!
If you have never taken advantage of our blog, you are missing a great resource. Under the Resources section of the website you will find a link to our blog. In addition to information on topics like fund raising and ceremonies, you will find ready to go unit studies for over 50 of our badges that include links as well as downloadable resources.
To get you started, here are a few articles that may help you kick off your summer:
Troop #449 Gives Back
by Cathy Bloodsworth and Nancy Willey
For our ongoing community service project we collect can tabs for Ronald McDonald House. Over the past 3 years this has turned into a whole community project. The first year we collected and donated 70,000 tabs. The second year was the beginning of the community support with 160,100 tabs donated. Ronald McDonald House Wilmington, De staff challenged us to 200,000 tabs. Once again the community stepped up with their support of our project. This included tabs being sent to us in Maryland from North Carolina. On April 23rd, we donated 196,118 can tabs, 5 boxes of assorted chips, a box of assorted snacks and a boxes of assorted cleaning products. We have already started collecting can tabs for next year with some now being saved for us in Maine.
This is not our only project as we are very active in the community. We support the military during the year through various projects. Those projects include Valentines for Veterans, putting flags on graves at Memorial Day, participating in the local Veterans Day parade, Wreaths Across America, Stockings for Heroes and care packages to deployed service members. We do various projects to support patients at a local nursing home. This includes making cards and crafts for Easter, and making gifts bags for Adopt a Grandparent at Christmas. We participate in Operation Christmas Child by filling shoeboxes. We help other groups with fundraisers for local people in need from sickness or accidents.
To raise money for our troop we hold 2 Bingo/ Tricky Tray events each year. The money raised at these events is used for educational, fun trips, activities and giving backs to others. We are a small group of 6 girls that love to learn and help others. Due to being such an active part of our community the community has become very supportive of our troop. Not only helping with can tabs but also at our fundraisers. We have established a very good relationship with our local VFW.
We are currently working with Kerry to sponsor other girls that are interested in joining Frontier Girls that are financially unable to do so.
How to Create a Make A Difference Project
Running a Make a Difference Project can sometimes seem daunting, but Aliyah Winans, submitted a fabulous essay with her scholarship application that is a great resource for others on the same path. Not only did she step outside her comfort zone, but the planning and organization of the is particular project is a great example of a well run community service project. Watch the video above that she and Charlotte Tatem created on how to successful run a donation drive.
Here is her essay:
“For my Make a Difference Award, I ran a successful donation drive for a local animal shelter. This was a challenging but rewarding project because there was a lot of trial and error in the beginning. I started by brainstorming ideas with the other girls in my Frontier Girls troop. We passed around many ideas and came to an agreement with the intent of doing this project as a group. A few weeks later, we realized there was a lack of passion and our schedules were too different. I decided to move in the direction of helping animals in my community because that has always been a passion of mine.
Luckily I had a family friend who works at an animal shelter, which made the connection process much easier. After a few more weeks of a very difficult planning process, I got to work developing a base for my project by writing out a highly detailed project plan. This process took close to three weeks to fully complete. My project plan included my mission statement, my goals, a detailed task list, a timeline, and a list of contacts.
“Presents 4 Pawz” was all about collecting donations for a local, non-funded animal shelter (Lee County Animal Control/Shelter in Sanford). I started to develop a social media platform on both Instagram and Facebook. This was way out of my comfort zone because I have never enjoyed speaking publicly in social media posts; but I sure learned a lot and I’m super grateful for the experience.
For an easy collection process, I created an amazon registry with a list of shelter recommended items. In addition to my online drive, I worked with a local bank who provided an in-person drop off location. My sister informed me that First Carolina Bank hosts monthly drives and encouraged me to create a proposal. I designed a flier for the bank to review my project idea and a few days later I was informed that First Carolina Bank wanted to host “Presents 4 Pawz” as their non-profit for the entire month of March.
I boosted all of this information on social media along with creating several videos giving updates and spreading awareness for my project. The posting went on for several weeks and during this time I was receiving many donations. I made sure to keep inventory and lead a fellow Frontier Girl in helping me do so. I made sure to keep my followers updated on the amount of donations I was receiving to see how close we were to the goal of 100 donated items. It didn’t take long before I had already surpassed that goal solely with the amazon registry. We reached a total of 212 donations with amazon and I went ahead and made the first drop off once I was no longer receiving donations. I posted pictures with all of the donations in the office of the animal shelter to provide my followers with proof that they made a difference.
Once March had ended, I picked up a total of 103 in-person donations from the bank. I then made a second drop off trip and repeated the process of posting a picture. Around this time, I started to wrap up my project and began the last task before completion. A fellow Frontier Girl and I constructed a video together that explains, step by step, how to create and run a donation drive.
We each took a role that we were familiar with and guided each other through it. I took the role of writing the script and Charlotte took the role of filming the video. We gave specific details of everything we did, the struggles we faced, and what we would have done differently. Lastly, we posted the video to youtube and our social media platforms to provide a way for other girls to either follow in our footsteps or create a drive of their own.
Overall, I believe this project helped my leadership skills because I had to coordinate many schedules, lead myself in others in various tasks, and encouraged my community to make a difference. I learned many new skills and stepped outside of my comfort zone. One of the hardest lessons I learned was not everyone is dependable. I overcame this by frequently communicating, embracing patience, and always having an alternative plan. If you would like to view my social media platforms.
Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/presents4pawz
Instagram page: https://instagram.com/presents4pawz?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=
Final video: https://youtu.be/lJ_DanXTUvk
Frontier Girls Scholarship Winners
Each year our Frontier Girls program awards three continuing education scholarships to girls who have gone above and beyond the basic program and fully embraced what being a Frontier Girl is all about. I proud to announce this year’s scholarship recipients.
Charlotte Tatem, Troop #523 – Recipient of the $1000 Abby Olson Award
Award Qualifications: Eagle Level Diamond Award and WOW! Award
Charlotte has been a Frontier Girl for three years and has worked diligently to earn both her Diamond Award and her her Eagle Level WOW! award, the two most difficult awards in our program.
For her Make A Difference project she created “Woman Up!”, a collection drive to collect various feminine hygiene products for women and girls in her community. Since WIC, SNAP, and other public assistance programs do not cover feminine paper products, she supplied local nonprofit organizations with enough stock to give out to over 100 families. Charlotte hopes to continue the program even after graduating high school.
Aliyah Winans, Troop #523 – Recipient of the $500 Charlotte Duke Award
Award Qualifications: Eagle Level Diamond Award
Aliyah has been a Frontier Girl for three years, working hard to earn her Diamond Award. For her Make a Difference Project she ran an ambitious donation drive for a local animal shelter called “Presents 4 Pawz” benefiting a non-funded animal shelter in her community. Using
Kara Simmons, Troop #122 – Recipient of the $500 Megan Lundquist Award
Award Qualifications: Eagle Level WOW! Award
Kara Simmons just completed her 12th year as a Frontier Girl and has been one of our most active members over the years, earning her WOW! Award at the Dolphin, Butterfly and Eagle age levels. The award was not offered at the time she was an Otter or I am sure she would have earned it then too! Kara plans to continue her Frontier Girls adventures as an Owl after graduation and will help her mother continue to lead Troop #122.
Free Frontier Girls T-Shirts!
Moving Sale!! All remaining t-shirt stock is free to registered Frontier Girl members. (Must have a paid Frontier Girls membership or your order will be canceled.) Just pay shipping.