The Presidential Inauguration

How Girl Scouts Participate  

Girl Scouts have assisted with the Inauguration since 1933.  In 2013, the Presidential Inaugural Committee has asked for a total of 1,500 Boy Scout and Girl Scout volunteers.

750 9-12th grade Girl Scouts and adults will participate, this is enough adults to ensure our organizations' safety ratios.

Volunteer tasks will be tied to the Inaugural parade. Tasks will likely include: helping with seating, providing directions to metro and heating tents, and assisting the elderly and persons with disabilities.  At this point we don't have a Girl Scout holding the bible for the President.

10 Ways to Celebrate the Presidential Inauguration: http://www.gscnc.org/Ten_Ways.html

Martin Luther King Jr Day of Service
A Day of Community Service   

More than fifty years ago, Dr. King singled out the Girl Scout Movement as "a force for desegregation."  We are still a powerful force for equality and positive change as we develop the leadership skills of nearly two and a half million girls from every race and every walk of life.  Our girls teach people to read, clothe and comfort the homeless, establish medical clinics, found libraries, and much more. Through their individual acts of compassionate public service, they continue Dr. King's work of transforming our world.

Since it first became a national holiday twenty five years ago, the Girl Scouts have observed Martin Luther King Jr. Day as a day of community service. Troops throughout the nation have organized a wide variety of community service projects, from serving food at homeless shelters to painting murals at community centers.  We want to congratulate all of you involved in these projects, and urge everyone in the Movement to seek out, this coming Monday, an opportunity to serve others.

Commemoration is a fine thing, but we best honor and celebrate Dr. King's life by following his example. He is gone now, and it is up to us to make the world a better place.

Follow the link for opportunities in your area! http://action.2013pic.org/service

Girl Scouts can share pictures of your service activities on Instagram @gscnc.volunteers new to this project.

Local Girl Scout Winner of "Dear Mr. President" PSA Contest

The Girl Scout Council of the Nation's Capital would like to congratulate Hareem A of Sterling, VA on her winning submission to GSUSA's "Dear Mr. President PSA Contest".

Girl Scouts of the USA released a public service announcement that features the two winners of its “Girl Scouts Speak Out: Dear Mr. President” contest, in which girls across the country were invited to make PSAs addressed to the presidential candidates telling them how they can support girls.

The professionally produced 60-second video, which was filmed in Washington, D.C., is narrated by the two Girl Scouts who submitted the winning entries: Amanda, 15, from Girl Scouts of Central Illinois, and Hareem, 14, from Girl Scouts of the Nation’s Capitol. The PSA is aspirational, as the girls look to a world “that supports girls so that they reach places where big decisions are made; where one of us gets to sit where you do now.”

“It (Girl Scouts Speak Out) is addressing presidential candidates,” says Hareem. “The problems that are happening to girls and women today, they are not an easy topic to talk about, but they are really the moral challenge of the century. They are not unsolvable, but it takes political will—and that’s what the President can do. I want to be a marine biologist as well as a female leader. Girl Scouts helps me to do that through the skills I develop in scouting. It’s helped a lot in my everyday life.”  

The “Girl Scouts Speak Out: Dear Mr. President” contest was designed to provide a national platform for girls to engage with the presidential election. As part of the contest, girls could submit ideas and concepts for PSAs addressed to the presidential candidates telling them how to support girls and the next generation of leaders.

Girls submitted videos, slide shows, and other material that drew more than 10,000 votes. The “Dear Mr. President” contest is part of the “Girl Scouts Speak Out” series, in which GSUSA asks girls to submit PSAs on key national or global issues. The program provides girls with a dynamic platform for their voices to be heard and recognized on issues that are important to them, inviting them to engage in the elements of leadership and their own ability to influence their future.

Closings

GSCNC Shop will be closed Jan 19th - 21st in honor of the Martin Luther King Jr. Holiday.

Posted: Jan 18, 2013