The Wandering Girl Scout: World of Friends

World of Friends

I had a lot of fun working on this one, here is what I did:

For the Discover Portion of this badge I needed to do 3 things. I chose to:

Learn more about World Thinking Day.

So here's what I found out

Celebrated since 1926, World Thinking Day is a day of international friendship. It is an opportunity to speak out on issues that affect young women and fund raise for 10 million Girl Guides and Girl Scouts in 150 countries.

February 22 was chosen as it was the birthday of Scouting and Guiding founder Lord Robert Baden-Powell and of Lady Olave Baden-Powell, his wife and World Chief Guide.

In 1926, at the Fourth Girl Guide/Girl Scout International Conference, held at Girl Scouts of the United States’s Camp Edith Macy (presently the Edith Macy Conference Center), the conference delegates highlighted the need for a special international day, when Girl Guides and Girl Scouts would think about the worldwide spread of Girl Guiding and Girl Scouting, and of all the Girl Guides and Girl Scouts around the world, giving them, their "sisters," thanks and appreciation.

It was decided by the delegates that this day would be 22 February, birthday of both Lord Baden-Powell, founder of the Boy Scout movement, and Lady Olave Baden-Powell, his wife and the First World Chief Guide.

In 1999, at the 30th World Conference, held in Ireland, the name was changed from "Thinking Day" to "World Thinking Day", in order to emphasize the global aspect of this special day.

I learned a lot from the Wikipedia page, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Thinking_Day so I wanted to be sure I included a link.

There is also a ton of information about WAGGGS at https://www.wagggs.org/en/about-us/

WAGGGS stands for World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts

We then did an experiment which helped me to understand that everyone has an impact on others no matter how big or small they are.

For example my mom said:

“In the same way this rock makes ripples when it goes into the water, your actions can have an impact as well. When you say ‘good morning’ to someone, this can create ripples, or waves, of kindness that will reach many other people that day. The person who heard ‘good morning’ from you may smile and say ‘good morning’ to someone else, and so on.”

I like say good morning to people and my mom tries to always smile at others as she passes by.

I then took this quiz I guessed at a lot of the answers but I learned a lot from it. How did you do on it?

1. A PC monitor left on overnight wastes…

a. Enough energy to print 800 A4 pages

b. Uses a little energy to keep the screen warm ready for the next day

c. Doesn’t use much energy at all

2. What is the most effective way to save water in the laundry?

a. Line-dry your clothes instead of tumble drying

b. Fill the washing machine to maximum capacity

c. Use energy efficient appliances

d. Reuse rinse water from the washing machine

3. Which of the following products requires the most water to create it?

a. One cotton T-shirt

b. One hamburger

c. One microchip

d. One cup of coffee

4. In the bathroom, you can save water by:

a. Taking a shorter shower

b. Turning off the tap while brushing your teeth

c. Using the “little button” when flushing

d. All of the above

5. Roughly what quantity of pages does the average office worker print annually?

a. 10,000 pages

b. 7,500 pages

c. 5,000 pages

d. 2,000 pages

6. How much can you save on your heating bills by turning down your thermostat by 1˚C?

a. 1%

b. 7%

c. 10%

d. 50%

7. When it comes to LED (Light Emitting Diode) light bulbs, what percent of the energy they consume is used to create visible light?

a. 80%; only 20% is wasted heat

b. 0%; LED bulbs are not very efficient

c. 40%

d.100%

8. What can all Our Chalet guests and you do at home to reduce energy wastage?

a. Turn off lights when leaving a room

b. Keep windows and doors shut

c. Unplug phone chargers when the phone is fully charged

d. All of the above

Correct Answers: 1a, 2c, 3b, 4d, 5a, 6b, 7a, 8d.

I also agreed to make the Start stop Pledge, as an added bonus my mom agreed to make it as well. We have good days and bad days but I think we are making progress. Will you take the pledge as well?

Stop:

• Using your phone, TV or computer for one hour each day. Switch it off and save energy and maybe spend the time doing some Guiding/Scouting activities.

• Wasting food. Keep a record of how much you are throwing away, then try buying or cooking less. If you produce too much, see if you can donate it to those who could use it in your community, or compost it if possible.

• Wasting water. Keep the tap off while you brush your teeth, or cut your shower time in half.

Start:

• Using a reusable bottle, instead of buying a bottle or bag of water whenever you’re thirsty. Less bottles = less waste

• Using a reusable bag. Buy or even make your own and keep it with you at all times for shopping. Fewer plastic bags keep the environment clean and beautiful.

• Turning rubbish into art. Instead of throwing away that plastic container, polystyrene wrapping, or plastic bottle get creative and turn it into something useful or beautiful.

• Growing your own food. Maybe growing all your own food is a challenge, but see what vegetables, herbs or even fruit grow in your local climate. Food from the supermarket has to be transported and covered in packaging. Food from the garden goes straight to your stomach.

• Repairing and wearing. Holes in your clothes or a rip in your jeans? Instead of buying a new pair, why not just fix them. You’ll be saving energy, resources and money.

For the final part of the World Thinking Day 2018 challenge I have chosen to stay on my path and continue picking up litter and trying to inform others of the dangers that our trash has on wildlife. I know that I probably won't get the 2018 Impact Badge but it was fun participating in WTD and knowing that I completed the requirements.

#ThisIsImpact #WTD2018

Thank you http://slideplayer.com/slide/5833372/ for the map

As you can see there are some parts of the world that don't have Girl Scouting. Like some countries in Africa. That makes me sad because they probably don't treat women very well in those countries if they can't even have Girl Scouts.

The third thing I chose to do was to learn a little more about another country's currency. I chose Poland they use a currency called Polish złoty. It is worth about .30 of our dollars. That means a case of Thin Mints would cost 161.50 PLN.

For the Connect portion I needed to choose two activities, so I chose:

To read the story of Cinderella from another country, well actually my mom read it to me. (I like it when she reads me stories)

I also chose to find out what girls in China liked to eat. We made fried rice, we used the recipe from

https://www.thespruce.com/basic-recipe-for-fried-rice-695055

and we also had a stir fry which I have been eating for years and doesn't really have a recipe. My mom says that once you get used to cooking something you can just throw it together without a recipe because you remember what goes in it to make it yummy...

Here I am picking out a napa cabbage

the only one in Buffalo and it was slightly yellow instead of a nice green. We decided not to get it.

We did get some snap peas

and some mixed stir fry veggies instead.

We bought it and took it home in our reusable bag because we took the pledge to RRR!

The stir fry turned out well, we added some pork we already had at home and but the leftovers in the freezer to use in a future gumbo.

Finally I completed two tasks from the Take Action part of this badge work. I chose:

To fill out my Volunteer form for Our Chalet in Switzerland. Now it is all ready to go once I turn 18. Which World Center would you like to volunteer at?

And I made some WAGGGS Friendship Knots and gave them to some of my friends (plus I told them what they were.)