Bridging Ceremonies

Their Next Steps

Planning a Bridging Ceremony

When Girl Scouts bridge, they don’t just go from one level to the next. They step into a new Girl Scout year with courage, confidence, and character needed to accomplish their goals. Special bridging ceremonies allow for you and your troop to celebrate the girls and their accomplishments. Whether they are bridging from a Daisy to a Brownie or Ambassador to Adult, they’ve earned a celebration. Follow the tips and tricks below to plan the best bridging ceremony for your troop.

The Basics: When and Where

Each troop is unique. Pick the best location and time for you and your troop. Girl Scouts can bridge anytime from May to September.

Here are a few ideas:

• If you are traveling with your troop, you can bridge where you are going and give the girls a unique bridging experience. • If you have a unique bridge in your town or in a neighboring community, use your resources wisely, and have the girls walk across it. • Make it a service unit-wide affair. Contact your service unit and set up a service unit-wide bridging event. Just remember—keep it girl-led and make sure to ask the girls for help. The girls should be actively engaged in designing what their ceremony will look like and the ceremony should reflect their own personalities and interests. It also helps them get excited for their own celebration.

Sample Schedule for a Bridging Ceremony

General Tips and Tricks

1. Opening. Guests are welcomed, and the tone is set. 2. Main section. The ceremony is explained and the girls celebrate moving from one level to the next. 3. Closing. Girls can participate in friendship circles and thank their guests. Each of the ceremony’s parts offers plenty of room for the girls’ creativity and individuality. The ceremony should always focus on paying tribute to Girl Scouts as they move forward.

• It doesn’t have to be a bridge! Balloons can be a quick way to create a rainbow arch that girls walk under during the ceremony. Carpet squares, stepping stones or garden pavers, and chalk on a driveway can be used to mark out a path for girls to travel. These also allow girls to design and create the bridge themselves. • If the girls have speaking parts during the ceremony, it may be helpful to spend one meeting having the girls write or draw pictures on pieces of paper describing what they will share.

Leaders can collect these and hang on to them until the ceremony for the girls to refer to during the presentation. • Though this event should be girl-led, especially with younger girl troops, leaders may need to provide the audience with a bit of context or additional information during the ceremony. It can also be fun to ask for audience involvement—perhaps with a song with easy actions! In the end, it’s up to you and your troop how you celebrate moving up levels in Girl Scouts. Do what works best for you and your troop. If you are looking for some inspiration, consider asking your fellow volunteers on our GSMH Volunteer Facebook group or you can reach out to your Volunteer Support Specialist at info@girlscoutsmoheartland.org. Scan QR code to join the Volunteer Facebook Group!

Step Back

and Let Your Girls Take the Lead

One helpful Daisy spills handfuls of popcorn while passing a large snack bowl around the room; another excitedly squeals when she hears you might move the meeting outside and sprints toward the door with four other enthusiastic Daisies. At this moment you, as the troop leader, might be wondering, “Girl-led, or girl-led chaos?” Girl-led activities are the secret sauce of Girl Scouting, and it’s easy to see why. When girls step up and take ownership of their decisions, they grow into confident leaders who can make informed and empowered decisions—a valuable skill they’ll carry throughout their lives.

For some leaders, however, stepping aside and letting the girls take charge might seem counterintuitive, especially if you lead a troop of energetic Daisies or Brownies. And because girl-led activities start with you, how can you create a space where girls feel empowered to speak their minds and pursue their interests? Just how active a role a leader takes in troop life will look differently across Girl Scout grade levels, but below are a few ideas to help you get started.

Girl-Led for Younger Girls

Whether your girls are selecting a Journey or planning an event, they’ll need your support as they learn to take the reins. Girl-led for your Daisies and Brownies could mean that you consolidate their ideas and offer guided questions to help them reach decisions. Juniors will have more focused thoughts about what they’d like to do during their troop year but may need some support as they start planning activities. Girl-led programming means taking a step back as a leader and involving the girls in the decision-making process as early as possible to the extent of their abilities. Understanding what your younger girls want to accomplish makes guiding them easier. When giving girls choices, remember what their goals are to help keep them on track. Younger troops can be a talkative and energetic bunch; sometimes it’s hard for them to stay focused. In short? Be patient and understand that not everything will be as organized as you intended, and that’s OK! What really matters is that your girls are empowered to make age-appropriate decisions about troop activities.

Girl-Led for Older Girls

Girl Scout Cadettes, Seniors, and Ambassadors can take on more responsibilities, but your role as an advisor is still key as your girls hone practical skills that will benefit them throughout their careers. Understanding your girls’ interests is essential to keeping them engaged, so encourage them to think big and tailor activities as they see fit. Talk to them about what they value and what they want from their Girl Scout experience, which will become even more meaningful as your older girls pursue higher awards. Sure, they’ll be making outreach to local charities and facilitating community workshops—but you’ll be the one they turn to when they need advice or words of encouragement as they encounter roadblocks in their projects. It might be tempting to step in for girls of any age, but remember that giving them space to make their own decisions—and mistakes—is how they’ll tap into their most confident selves. Girls can feel somewhat uncomfortable—they’re probably not used to being the ones in charge of making decisions very often. But practice, though it might not make perfect, helps, and the sooner your girls get used to the process, the easier it becomes. And letting girls take the lead will often get everyone out of our comfort zones, which is a good thing—for girls and adults.

Self-Care:

Helping Troop Leaders Be Their Best

Self-care is more than just a buzzword associated with spa days or eating an entire sleeve of Thin Mints in one sitting (though we’re not judging). It’s about paying attention to your needs and taking care of yourself mentally, emotionally, and physically. And in stressful times, self-care—whatever it looks like for you right now—has become more important than ever. It’s easier said than done, of course, but if we don’t take care of ourselves, how can we best care for our families, our troops, and the other people and things we hold close to our hearts? In practicing self-care, you also demonstrate for your girls what it means to listen to your gut and be your best self. Just remember: you are enough! If your best isn’t what it normally is right now, be forgiving and show yourself a little love.

Borrow some ideas from volunteers around the country: from what to do at home to what to do with your troop, here are their tips for rolling with the changes like a Girl Scout.

Create Routines

There’s comfort in the familiar, and if having a regular routine—like enjoying a daily bike ride or phone call with your best friend—feels good to you right now, stick to it! Keeping to a schedule can help you feel organized. “Some things I’m doing to practice self-care are getting a full night of sleep, sticking to a wakeup and bedtime schedule, taking a daily walk, and eating healthy foods,” shares Cheryl Lentsch of Girl Scouts Spirit of Nebraska. “I also try to do something that makes me happy each day, like reading a book or working on a jigsaw puzzle.”

Prioritize Flexibility

On the flip side? Embrace the fact that every day may look different; if certain routines don’t work for you right now, consider shedding them until things normalize. “I have tried to adopt a flexible mindset,” says Denise Montgomery of Girl Scouts of San Diego. “What this looks like in everyday life is being flexible about our family routine and expectations of each other, making do with materials we have at home, and being open-minded.” This also means your expectations for your troop’s routine might change too, and that’s OK!

Set Reasonable Expectations

Saying no can be difficult for many of us, but if you’re already feeling stressed, trying to do it all can lead to burnout. “It was a hard moment of reflection to realize I just could not do more at this time,” says Bridgette McNeal of Girl Scouts Greater Atlanta. “I had to realize for my own sanity that this is temporary and that there will be a time when things aren’t this way.” Remember: whatever you need to feel balanced right now is the right kind of self-care for you!

Keep Connections Strong

Lean on your social circles—your friends or your fellow troop volunteers, for instance. Sometimes, keeping connections strong—especially when everyone is living in the same space—means carving out time for yourself. “My family is always together, which means that we get on each other’s nerves a bit more,” laughs Chrissy Schaeffer of Girl Scouts Western Pennsylvania. “To combat that, we are taking specific time for ourselves. My daughter spends time riding her bike. I spend time in my office; when the door is closed.”

Or, as Denise has found, balancing family time helps everyone feel good. “As a troop leader I have spent so much time with my daughter on troop activities and strive to balance that with special time with my son,” she shares. “We have tried various activities, and my son and I are both enjoying meditating together.”

Stay Grounded

Whether that means focusing on the positive, putting time into your hobbies, or letting go of what isn’t getting done, finding ways to stay grounded can help you cope with any stressful situation that comes your way. “I’ve made sure to continue to take time to do some of the hobbies that allow me to relax,” says Lara Cordeiro of Girl Scouts of Western Ohio, “so that when I am back doing work and chores, I can give it the 100% it deserves.” “Part of my self-care is being intentional about how much news I am taking in and when I am taking it in,” says Denise. “I am also balancing hard news with news of kindness and generosity during this time.”

Wrapping Up Your Year

From bonding at troop meetings, completing Take Action projects, earning new badges, and more—Girl Scouts have experienced so many new adventures this year and have made big waves in their communities. When it comes time to wrap it up for the year, we have the resources troop leaders need to succeed. Not sure what to do after your troop’s bridging ceremony or last meeting? No sweat! Here’s our handy list for how to end the year the Girl Scout way!

Participate in Spring Renewal and make sure your troop is renewed for the year! The earlier, the better.

Complete delivery of any leftover Cookie and Fall Product Recognitions to girls. They’ve earned it!

Distribute any remaining badges or bridging awards to girls, recap all you’ve done together this year!

Pull your troop reports from M2 and Smart Cookies! Then, complete a Troop Financial Report and submit to GSMH with requested bank statements.

Make sure all adults are renewed and background checked for the year.

Make sure you take some time to say, “thank you!” to everyone who has helped your troop this year—we couldn’t do it without them!

Complete the Troop Information Update Form.

Make sure adults in your troop are opted-in to receive emails from GSMH (Troop Leaders especially). We’d love to be able to tell you all the fun coming up! Spring Renewal: April 1 - June 1 On Time: September 30

Now through September 30

Now through September 30

Due: September 30, 2022

Now through September 30

Anytime!

Now through October 1

Now through October 1

Thank you so much for going above and beyond for your Girl Scout troop this year! We see how much energy and kindness you pour into your role, and we appreciate the dedication you show every day to your girls and communities! Thank you for your creativity, your resilience, and your dedication to championing girl ambition. You are truly the best of the best and we can’t wait to start a new year with you on our team!

Girl Scouts of the Missouri Heartland PO Box 10747 Springfield, MO 65808

877-312-4764 info@girlscoutsmoheartland.org

Girl Scouts Love State Parks

Save the date for September 10-11. Girl Scouts Love State Parks weekend is coming back for another year of adventure and discovery! Girl Scouts are invited to explore their state parks and the many resources they offer. More information will be coming soon on how she can lace up her sneakers and celebrate Girl Scouts Love State Parks with us! Make sure to stay connected with us via email and social to learn more!

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