May 18, 2012
Dear Members and Friends of Girl Scouts,
At this point in May, I should be writing to you about the Girl Scout year winding down, but not this year! I have lots of exciting news to report:
- One Hundred, Fun Hundred
- Forever Green Fundraisers
- Membership and Early Bird Renewal
- Camp News
- Bothin Organic Garden, Robots, and Movie-Making
- Volunteer Survey
- Got Choices - Solano
One Hundred, Fun Hundred.
Wow! On May 5, 20,000 Girl Scouts, from 38 states, Brazil, Canada, China, South Korea and Spain, celebrated Girl Scouts’ 100th Anniversary at One Hundred, Fun Hundred under perfect sunny skies and a super moon, at the Alameda County Fairgrounds in Pleasanton. As one member wrote:
"What an amazing event the 100 Fun Hundred was. Thank you to everyone who helped plan and run it. My girls took gun safety and shot bb guns, scuba dove, rock climbed, sang and danced with Melinda Caroll, made a blanket for the homeless, held a giant snake and other critters, bridged across a wonderful version of the Golden Gate bridge, visited the llamas, traded a zillion swaps, made wonderful new friends, ate more junk food than any stomach should handle in one day, danced in the flash mob and sang their little hearts out at the firework show. It was truly a once in a lifetime experience. We only wish it could have been more than one day."
I stand in awe of the incredible team of volunteers and staff who dreamed big, and worked so hard to plan, raise funds and bring to life this once in a lifetime event for Girl Scouts. I also appreciate the hundreds of vendors who participated in One Hundred, Fun Hundred. I saw only a small percentage of all that was going on at One Hundred, Fun Hundred, but had fun writing about and filming some of the parts I did see. Here are a few links you might enjoy:
- My SFGate blog post about One Hundred, Fun Hundred: 20,000 plus Girl Scouts Celebrate 100 Years!
- An 8 minute, 30 second home made video that I narrated real time on Friday, Saturday and Sunday (I admit, my voice does sound tired on Sunday!). Needless to say, it’s an incomplete view of all that was going on, but, hopefully, captures some of the amazing OHFH energy. If you have OHFH video, upload it to YouTube and send to it webmaster@girlscoutsnorcal.org – we are looking for videos for our Girl Scouts Speak Out YouTube Channel!
- A charming video that captures girls’ voices singing along to the fireworks display.
100th Anniversary, OHFH and Bridging Souvenirs. We apologize that the lines were so long at the One Hundred, Fun Hundred store. If we ever again hold an event for 20,000 plus people, we’ll find a way to make it easier to shop! Meanwhile, the wonderful One Hundred, Fun Hundred and 100th Anniversary Golden Gate Bridging items are now available online.
GSNorCal Facebook Page. Our Facebook page includes links to some wonderful photo albums and memories of the day. You can post yours too!
Thank you so much to the 2,000 plus volunteers who made One Hundred, Fun Hundred possible, and to all of the parents and troop leaders who brought your girls and helped them sell cookies to raise funds so they could be part of this special celebration of Girl Scouts. Thank you, also, to all the participants who donated everything from pennies to dollars when you registered and at various sites around One Hundred, Fun Hundred. We raised $2,909.20! Your generosity will help us provide financial aid for camp and support Girl Scout programs for girls.
Forever Green Fundraisers.
As part of our 100th Anniversary year, we are raising funds for Girl Scouts and honoring, with the Forever Green Award, 100 women who are “greening” the future of Northern California, through their contributions to education, health, economic stability, social justice, the arts and philanthropy. 
Alamo Mother’s Day Weekend Lunch. This past weekend in Alamo we held the second of our seven Forever Green events. We had 88 guests attend the event, and 6 girl ambassadors hosted tables, including three girls who spoke. Maggie, a high school sophomore, led 5 distinguished Forever Green honorees in a panel discussion; Erin, a high school senior, described the impact of her 13 years in Girl Scouts including summers at Diablo Day Camp as a camper and “Elf” (counselor in training); and Uma, a high school freshman, closed the lunch with inspiring comments about how Girl Scouts has helped her set goals and aim high.
Next up . . . Rutherford! Our next Forever Green event will be on June 14 at the beautiful Beaulieu Gardens in Rutherford. Award-winning chef, cookbook author, restaurateur and Forever Green Honorary Committee member, Cindy Pawlcyn, will attend, together with 7 confirmed Forever Green Award recipients. When Girl Scouts honored Cindy as a “Woman of Distinction” in 2011, we loved hearing her stories about how selling cookies as a Girl Scout helped prepare her for a career in the restaurant business. She launched Mustards Grill in 1983 and since then has been at the forefront of the “farm to table” food movement, operating successful restaurants in Napa and San Francisco. In 2010, the Monterey Bay Aquarium selected Cindy to bring sustainable, fresh food experiences to the Aquarium. Information about tickets and sponsorships is available at GirlScoutsNorCal.org/100 – or, please contact Clara Hah with any questions at chah@girlscoutsnorcal.org.
We appreciate your support as we raise funds to keep Girl Scouts “forever green” for our girls – today and tomorrow.
Membership and Early Bird Renewal.
- 2012 Membership. I have some good news – after 4 years of declining to flat girl membership, we’ve turned the corner. Daisy membership is ahead of our goal, and we are on track to grow overall membership in 2012! Most of this growth is due to our focus on growing volunteer-led troops, which is very important for making sure that we can sustain membership and reach as many girls as possible. Thank you to all of our troop leaders and service unit volunteers – girls become members and stay in Girl Scouting because of you!
Early Bird Membership Renewal. This is our third year offering online membership renewal, and, so far, over 4,500 members have renewed their membership online. Thank you! If you haven’t renewed your/your daughter’s membership yet, I encourage you to do so by June 15, so you can receive this commemorative Forever Green patch for registering for the first year of Girl Scouting's second century online and on time. If you are new to online membership renewal or need a refresher, click here for step-by-step instructions you can print and follow.
And while you are renewing your Girl Scout membership, I hope you will consider making a donation to support GSNorCal as a Family Partner. You can register and donate with a single transaction. All donations help! A $60 donation helps close the gap between the $300 cost and the $240 we raise each year (through product sales, program fees, camp fees, and property rentals) to deliver Girl Scouts to girls in volunteer-led troops in Northern California. Click here to view an inspirational video about all of the good your donation can do.
Camp News!
Camp registration is open and camps are filling! Bay Area Parent Magazine readers have voted GSN
orCal camps “Best Sleep Away Camps” two years in a row! Remember, you can use cookie rewards to pay for camp, and financial aid also is available. We still have a few spots left at our first-ever family camp at Deer Lake (in the High Sierra, near Truckee, over Labor Day weekend), at the Bothin, Deer Lake, Skylark Ranch, and Sugar Pine sleep-away camps and at Camp Metro Day Camp (at the Rainbow’s End Outdoor Program Center, in the northeast area of Santa Clara County). Sugar Pine family camp and Bothin Mom & Me programs are now full!
- For information about all GSNorCal camps, visit camprocks.org.
- For help finding the best camp program for your daughter, send an email to our camp registration team at happycamper@girlscoutsnorcal.org.
Bothin Organic Garden, Robots and Movie-Making!
Bothin Organic Garden. This weekend, 2-5 p.m., Sunday, May 20, it is time to plant the Bothin Organic Garden, and our garden team could use more volunteers. On the docket:
- Add a soil amendment to readied beds
- Build up beds 1-4 with new “stuff”
- Turn compost and add new manure
- PLANT:
- Peppers (sweet and hot)
- Tomatillo
- Eggplant
- Watermelon
- Spinach
- Cucumber
- Beets
- Radish
NASA-Ames. Breaking news ... we just got the go-ahead to run an amazing three-day program at NASA-Ames in Mountain View (June 11-13), where Juniors and Cadettes will work on the Amuse and MEdia journeys. Girls will discuss stereotypes, learn how to build and program Lego robots, interview female STEM professionals, tour NASA facilities, and create movies to tell their stories about breaking stereotypes. This will be a day program (not a resident camp). Our Girls Go Tech program staff is working out the details now, but I wanted to make sure you “save the date” if this is something that would be of interest to girls you know in grades 4-8. If you receive the Monday Mailing, look for information there. If you do not receive Monday Mailing, please feel free to send an email to jclark@girlscoutsnorcal.org for more information.
Volunteer Survey.
Are you an active volunteers working with girls? If so, you should have received an email last Friday, May 11, with a link to a volunteer survey. I hope you will take the time to complete it! As we celebrate Girl Scouts' last 100 years and look forward to the next 100, we want to hear from you. Girl Scouts of Northern California is continually taking steps to make Girl Scouts a great place to volunteer. The survey provides you the opportunity to share with us your thoughts and feelings about your volunteer experiences in Girl Scouting. Remember that your participation can make a difference for the future of Girl Scouting and for girls and adults throughout our council. To thank you for your participation, those who complete the survey by June 1 will be eligible to win one of five $100 Visa Gift Cards. If you have any questions about this survey or didn’t receive a link to the survey, please send an e-mail to survey@girlscoutsnorcal.org or contact Heather Vilhauer at 1-800-447-4475, ext. 8010.
Got Choices - Solano. 
With all the big news around GSNorCal, it is important to also celebrate programs that are changing lives one girl at a time. I was privileged to attend the Soroptimist of Central Solano County awards luncheon in late March, where they recognized GSNorCal staff member, Shalon Marol, with the Soroptimist Ruby Award: For Women Helping Women, for the “extraordinary ways” Shalon benefits girls through her work in Solano County juvenile detention centers. Soroptimist of Central Solano County donated $1,000 to the charity of Shalon’s choice – Girl Scouts’ Got Choices program in Solano County! Got Choices reaches about 600 girls each year in Santa Clara, Sonoma, Solano, Alameda, and Napa Counties – empowering these girls with the skills they need to make better decisions in their lives. I’ve heard the girls in Shalon’s programs describe Shalon as an “angel” in their lives, and the head of the probation program in Solano County attended the Soroptimist lunch to show his appreciation for all that Shalon does for girls. Thank you to the Soroptimists and to our members and donors who help us keep Girl Scouting strong for all girls!
Yours in Girl Scouting,
Marina H. Park, CEO
Girl Scouts of Northern California






Sunshine, the leaders of our wonderful volunteer-run summer resident camp. We next traveled down Highway One to Skylark Ranch, where summer resident camp was in full swing – 200 girls per session.






early to predict with certainty, it is looking like 2012 will be the first year since our Oct. 1, 2007, merger that girl membership will grow! That will, of course, be a great way to launch the next 100 years of Girl Scouting in Northern California! Thank you to the troops that added girls this year – 198 troops earned the “Each One, Add One” button. And thank you to all of our volunteers, for helping us reach more girls than ever. 


Phase 2: Expand number of troops and opportunities for co-ed groups ($1,177,000). The total cost includes site improvements and project costs (including design fees and a 20% contingency).
We heard from inspiring speakers, like Katie Couric (who spoke in vintage Girl Scout uniform!), Soledad O’Brien, Maya Angelou, and Robin Roberts. A favorite for many of us, were the presentations by the 10 Young Women of Distinction, who were honored for their outstanding Gold Award projects. I shared a brief summary on my
The Convention also marked the retirement of Kathy Cloninger, the GSUSA CEO who led Girl Scouts through the past 8 years of remarkable change – realignment and the new program model. Kathy passed the torch to GSUSA’s new CEO, Anna Maria Chavez, who is the former CEO of Girl Scouts of Southwest Texas. Anna Maria - shown at right with 
The fall sale is happening now! Oct. 1-Nov. 20. The public sale takes place starting today – Friday, Nov. 4 through Sunday, Nov. 20. The fall sale is an important learning opportunity for girls and an important fundraiser for troops and for our council – an average of 50% of each product sold goes to Girl Scouts, 19% to the troop, and 30% to Girl Scouts of Northern California (the balance pays for the cost of the goods sold). 
School is back in session for most of our members, and we are heading into Girl Scouts’ 100th year! We look forward to celebrating this milestone with each of you, while also building a strong foundation for the next 100 years of Girl Scouting in Northern California.
Thanks to a generous donation, all Service Unit leaders met in one place for the first time since our fall 2007 merger. Leaders from 80 of our 97 Service Units were able to attend. This was a wonderful opportunity to share ideas about our goals and how best to work together to achieve them. Among the topics, we discussed:
A huge effort goes into getting all these camps up and running each summer – a true partnership of staff and volunteers – setting the camp program schedule, registering girls, getting seasonal staff hired, trained and paid, walking horses up the long road to Skylark Ranch (the trailer can’t make it up that road), recruiting volunteers and campers, loading and unloading buses, and dealing with all the inevitable emergencies that arise when 33 mini towns spring up for summer. Camp is incredibly rewarding and exhausting for the volunteers and staff who make it happen for the girls. Thank you so much for all the love and care you put into making sure that 



Congratulations and thank you to all the girls, volunteers and parents who helped Girl Scouts of Northern California achieve its best cookies sale ever. Girls sold a record 4,133,402 boxes! And, while they were at it, learned about making plans, reaching goals and connecting with the public.