BOARD GIRL ADVISORY MEMBERS & PROMISE CIRCLE

Honor Pins

The Honor Pin recognizes volunteers who have given exceptional service above and beyond the expectations of their positions and whose efforts have had an impact in two or more geographic areas of the council.

Christine Polito

SU305 – HB Pierside

Chrysti has adapted the Girl Scout program and activities to meet the needs of the girls with different abilities in her two troops, while encouraging them to become independent and confident. She has attended, with GSOC staff, the The Austim Community in Action Conference to help engage with girls and help educate how to work with this community of girls. Chrysti also used her expertise to present a workshop at the 2020 Volunteer Conference about all-inclusive troops and how to integrate girls with disabilities into troops. She is part of the Vol Con Squad and presented many other workshops virtually. Chrysti is a Council trainer for many levels and takes on trainings at any given moment to educate volunteers about Girl Scouts, so they are able to run a successful program. In addition, Chrysti holds multiple Service Unit volunteer roles and is in constant communication with all leaders in her Service Unit. She has developed social media platforms to relay communication, has a wide range of knowledge in the virtual world and was able to immediately put Service Unit meetings, trainings and events on virtually when the pandemic shut things down.

Jeff Winston

Board of Directors

Jeff is passionate about raising up girls to have a voice in the world whether it is personally, professionally and equally as demonstrated through his service on Girl Scouts of Orange County’s Board of Directors. His personal giving, and his dedicated efforts to the mission are evident while he serves in a governance role. Jeff sits on the Finance Committee and Fund Development Committee, and he is open to hearing diverse options in order to make the best decisions in moving forward for the best outcome for GSOC. Jeff has supported the Voice for Girls event since 2017, and rallied support for the All Girl Initiative to the Board when it was under review. He has been a leader in advocating for every girl having access to Girl Scouts in Orange County. Jeff has also taken on a lead role in the council-wide annual Promise Circle campaign, designed to engage individual financial supporters in consistent and generous support of the Girl Scout Leadership Experience. As co-chair, he is a champion of the Promise Circle providing thorough and consistent leadership.

Jessica Castillo

SU304 – Ocean View

Jessica has a focus on all girls in the service unit and develops and promotes girl programs for all levels that give leaders the tools for them to be successful. Jessica is a passionate volunteer who became a quick advocate for the Volunteer Toolkit (VTK) learning all the ins and outs of the system and has helped create a training to offer to volunteers to educate them on the VTK. Jessica also developed a Tips and Tricks resource on the VTK that helps leaders in a moment when they have a question. During the pandemic, Jessica was quick to develop Google Classrooms for all Girl Scout levels, which have quite a volume of Girl Scout programs and activities leaders can access. She continues to share these documents at Service Unit meetings and attends other Service Unit meetings to encourage virtual activities with their girls. Jessica developed Girl Scout events open to all service units such as the Step Out with Suffragists family event and World Thinking Day, which were both successful virtual events. Jessica also volunteers as part of the Vol Con Squad, helps plan and present numerous workshops and the well-attended SUMmer Series just for GSOC Service Unit Managers.

Mary Shipma

SU603 – Rancho Portola

Mary is a long-time volunteer who coaches and mentors girls to help them reach their goals and advocate for their projects. She was easily able to covert to an online platform when the stay-at-home order went into effect due to the pandemic and was helpful in coaching others into the virtual world. Mary is an integral part of the Rancho Portola Service Unit Team, and, through the years, she has held a variety of volunteer positions. Mary is a founding member of Oasis (Outstanding Activities for Sisters in Scouting) which is a supplemental program for girls Cadette through Ambassador levels in the Rancho Portola Service Unit. This group allows individual girls from the older girl troops to gather and do activities together outside their regular troop setting. Mary is a member of the GSOC Membership Advisory Committee along with staff, and researches and suggests ways in which all service units can gain interest and new girls in Girl Scouting. She is also on GSOC’s Fund Development team helping with annual giving and events by participating in the Imagination Workshop to brainstorm ideas to replace the annual Celebrate Leadership Event.