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Featured Charity: Girl Scouts

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Recognizing our People in the Community – Amanda Watson

Amanda Watson is the Corporate Director of Marketing for Holladay Properties and Holladay Construction Group and supports Holladay’s ENRICH mission. Ms. Watson is actively involved in her community and volunteers as as a Girl Scout Cadet Troop Leader, and a Service Team Member of the Duneland Area Service Unit of Girl Scouts of Greater Chicago and Northwest Indiana, as well as an Committee Volunteer for Boy Scout Troop 929. Here is what Ms. Watson wanted to share about her one of her favorite community organizations, Girl Scouts: 

This year, I am a Cadet Troop Leader of a group of five girls between the ages of 12 and 13, including my own daughter who just turned 13. This is the eighth year I have served as this Troop’s leader and I have every intention of staying with them until they “Bridge” (the Girl Scout word for moving up to the next level) to Adults. The Girl Scout tagline is “Building girls of courage, confidence, and character, who make the world a better place,” and I try to live up to this goal in everything I do with my girls. Girl Scouts is a wonderful organization that tries to teach girls they can be anything, and do anything. As a Troop, and I include myself in this, we’ve learned how to be better people, how to be stronger as women and girls, and how to make a difference in the lives of others.

I’ve seen these girls, including my own daughter who is extremely shy, gain confidence and life skills that will help them for the rest of their lives. Right now, we are in the middle of our largest fundraiser – the Girl Scout Cookie Sale. The Girl Scout Cookie Program is the largest girl-led business in the world and helps Scouts earn funds for their Troops and learn goal setting, decision making, money management, people skills, and business ethics – aspects essential to leadership, to success, and to life. The girls in my Troop have set personal goals of how many boxes of cookies they would like to sell to earn Girl Scout incentives like toys, a party cruise, Apple products, and even a trip to Disney Land or Disney World. We also set a Troop Goal to raise money for our Silver Award, as well as a couple of service projects we are planning for the local food pantry and LakeShore Paws. The Cookie Program also helps ensure that no girl who wants to be a Girl Scout is ever turned away due to lack of funds.

The Girl Scouts programs gets girls out of doors and active in their communities while teaching important life lessons and skills. My Cadets have really enjoyed spending time together, camping, and doing science experiments. It’s been difficult this last year to keep the girls engaged with virtual meetings, but we will soon be able to be together again in person and I can’t wait!

Girl Scouts is a program I fully support and I encourage everyone I know to get involved as well. The Girl Scout Cookie sale is one way you can support the program. The Girl Scout program in our region is current running through March 22, 2021. Another way to help is the Gift of Caring support program that enables people (and companies) to support Girl Scouts while providing comfort to military personnel. Last year, the Girl Scouts of Chicagoland and Northwest Indiana council collected more than 160,000 boxes of cookies that were sent to organizations that bring comfort to women and men serving in the armed forces. You can visit our Digital Cookie site for more information.

If you’re interested in volunteering or joining Girl Scouts, you can Find a Council and join today. Girl Scouts needs Leaders who want to grow and learn and Scouts who want to experience all the amazing things that Girl Scouts does. It’s never too late to sign up!

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