Need ideas to get girl scout troop to Disney PLEASE!

[ADisneyQueen]

I'm not sure if your council does this, but ours only allows one fundraiser per year and that's if you've done both fall product sales and cookies. I wouldn't want you to plan a fundraiser and then have it taken away.

Our cheer team has had really good luck with bake sales at Walmart.

 

[pannm]

I know you didn't ask for opinions, but I also have to ask--"Why" are you planning this trip? How does it fit in with the Girl Scout mission?

Many girl scout pages say: "In Girl Scouts, girls discover the fun, friendship, and power of girls together. Through a myriad of enriching experiences, such as extraordinary field trips, sports skill-building clinics, community service projects, cultural exchanges, and environmental stewardships, girls grow courageous and strong."

Going to Disney is not JUST a fun experiance, but a learning experiance as well. Where else can you learn ALL of the things that Disney can teach all in one place? Sure, there are great, fun activities/rides and extra times at Disney where people aren't learning...There would be a bunch of different badges and patches that could be earned there!!!

Epcot: Most of the park is a learning experiance...learn about conservation, about growing plants, different cultures, food from different cultures, science (innovations is FILLED with learning experiances!)

M.K. Take the kids to the hall of presidents, on the carousel of progress, there's things there that they can actually SEE and experiance instead of just reading a book or being told about it!

Animal kingdom has many learning options- so does H.Studios...they can go to musical performances and enjoy themselves WHILE LEARNING...

For those who say Disney World is only just for 'fun', there is MUCH MUCH more that it's about. My children have learned more there than they could in a months worth of school because of how visual and hands on everything is.

Disney is a great field trip for any scouting group.

 

[paysensmom]

Just stopping it to say thank you so much for those of you giving me ideas for fundraising! I truly appreciate it

 

[MichelleB]

I've been a leader for 8 years and am heavily involved in our service unit and council. Trips are allowed. We've gone to Disney, Marengo Caves, Savannah, etc. Others in our area have gone to Hawaii and on a cruise. We are currently looking at going to Washington DC in 2012 for the 100th anniversary of scouting sing-a-long. The girls as a whole are allowed to decide what they'd like to do with their proceeds from the council sales (nuts/candy and cookies) as well as money they earn fundraising. They are not allowed to receive cash from any of these projects but as a troop, the girls may opt to do an activity/trip. As the girls get older, having these things to work towards is crucial in keeping them involved and interested.

That being said, OP, check into the Disney YES program. The girls get to participate in a learning activity (we did Animation Magic) as part of their ticket purchase. These tickets are discountly heavily for the groups and include some free chaperone tickets as well.

When we went, our cost for the 5 nights, airfare from Cincinnati, tickets and all food cost each girl $800. We had intended to also volunteer a day at Give Kids the World but due to a change in personnel (our info got lost) and new age policies (the girls were only 10-12 at the time and the age for volunteering was changed), the girls were unable to do this. Both leaders and the girls were disappointed that this didn't work out but we didn't know until 2 weeks prior to leaving when I called to confirm.

So, work towards it.....it can be done!

 

[Shanna-like-Banana]

Our council is pretty strict about trips and fundraisers.

Before I would eve fathom requesting a fundraiser, I better have a seriously sound reason as to why I am requesting it. We are not allowed to raise money for the sake of earning it.

Our council wants us to provide so many points about how it exactly ties into a section of the Journey, or how many requirements of what IP it will fulfil. And if by the time the trip is taken, will you still be working on those points ?

Usually what happens is they write a statement back to you stating an alternative to accomplish the same out-come with out doing the fundraiser. ( They are generally bogus)

Also, something I've learned is before you even submit the request to you CDM, you better have the S/U leadership on your side about the fundraiser. Before you submit it, they want your S/U leadership to review it for changes, or suggestions first, then council and then it still gets denied.

We've been denied for simple easy fundraisers like pancake breakfasts. We were told it was "out of our scope" and they suggested things like " washing windows " instead. I'm sorry, I don't see how soliciting manual labor on private property followed Safety Wise.

 

[carebee21]

Many girl scout pages say: "In Girl Scouts, girls discover the fun, friendship, and power of girls together. Through a myriad of enriching experiences, such as extraordinary field trips, sports skill-building clinics, community service projects, cultural exchanges, and environmental stewardships, girls grow courageous and strong."

Going to Disney is not JUST a fun experiance, but a learning experiance as well. Where else can you learn ALL of the things that Disney can teach all in one place? Sure, there are great, fun activities/rides and extra times at Disney where people aren't learning...There would be a bunch of different badges and patches that could be earned there!!!

Epcot: Most of the park is a learning experiance...learn about conservation, about growing plants, different cultures, food from different cultures, science (innovations is FILLED with learning experiances!)

M.K. Take the kids to the hall of presidents, on the carousel of progress, there's things there that they can actually SEE and experiance instead of just reading a book or being told about it!

Animal kingdom has many learning options- so does H.Studios...they can go to musical performances and enjoy themselves WHILE LEARNING...

For those who say Disney World is only just for 'fun', there is MUCH MUCH more that it's about. My children have learned more there than they could in a months worth of school because of how visual and hands on everything is.

Disney is a great field trip for any scouting group.

Well, IMO, girl scouting is about teaching girls responsibility and one of their big mottos is caring for the community. Most of the opportunites to earn badges at Disney World are also available in some way or form within their own community and would be much more appreciated and useful to their own community than at Disney.

Say they were working on the gardening badge (completely made up badge, I just don't know the names of the badges) Sure, they could go to Disney and do the Living with the Land tour and maybe a special planting session with the gardeners, or they could work in their own community planting gardens for the elderly or at parks or schools. Which do you think is more in line with the Girl Scount way?

And as an individual who supports and donates to local charities and has a DH who has a business who contributes to local events, we would support and give to the community planting project but would not give to the Disney World trip. It's frivilous and a veiled excuse for a fun vacation. That's why it's so important to figure out where your donations are going. Just because a foundation is legit, doesn't mean the people running it are spending the money wisely!!!!

 

[LSchrow]

My aunt recently mentioned something her church youth group is doing to raise money that I thought was very clever. They are washing cars during mass. If you want a wash you leave your keys with the adult supervising and your car is clean when you leave church. If you had a church you can partner with that might work since all the girls could help.

i love this idea
i wish someone would do something like it at the mall - someone washes my jeep while i work would be wonderful with the limited time i have yay:. the only thing is i wouldn't leave my keys with anyone (i don't like valeting either - no one drives my baby unless i see a copy of their driving record ), but there are always tons of empty spots near the outskirts of a mall.
some great ideas - i do volunteer work with the elderly/handicapped (i only volunteer for groups where no one gets paid, btw), and find fundraising one of the most difficult things. we try to do only things where people won't feel like they are donating: mostly yard sales where the donated items are very reasonable.

good luck!

 

[stacielee]

Took my troop to Disney as 6th graders in 2008. It took us 3 years to earn the money but the stipulation was that they had to earn every dime. We went for 5 nights, flew on Delta, stayed at All Stars, and included all meals. We sold a ton of fall product and cookies. Our troop normally averages the highest in our service unit with 4,000-5,000 cookies with 9 girls. We literally eat, live, and breath it for 3 months and not only go door-to-door but also normally do 18-24 cookie shops. In addition to that, we do a garage sale at least once each year and normally make $600-700 dollars. Each family donates what they want and the girls work it. We also raked leaves for donations one year -- that was a LOT of work and required a parent per girl to help. We made about $500. It's hard work, but well worth it.

I did this with my 8th graders in June, 2001. We went to Savannah, GA, stayed at the military base and visited the Juliette Gordon Low Birthplace. We stayed there for 3 days, then went to WDW for 7 days. One of our girls had a father in the service so we were able to get the WDW tickets for the military price. There were 8 girls and 2 leaders. It was great! And I'm sure the girls will remember it forever!

Our troop was a high seller for cookies and did LOTS of cookie booths for the 3 years before the trip. Check with your council for funding. Back then, our council would let you apply for money based on your trip budget. The girls figured out the budget and applied and we were able to get 10% of the amount funded through the council. Not sure if they still do this.

Also, we have a timeshare so we used 2 separate rooms for that, which was MUCH cheaper than a 7-day hotel stay. And we had a full kitchen available so we were able to save on food as well. The girls did great, the leaders were exhausted, and we would definitely do it again, if we still had the troop. Now, the girls are 22 years old and they still talk about it!!

 

[Evi]

Sorry, but the more likely scenario this is just like all the posts that pop up here weekly asking for ways to fundraise for trips to Disney. My “favorite” are folks who come here and say my band/show chori/dance team, etc. was “chosen” to perform in WDW. This whole being “chosen” is a Disney racket! Disney invites thousands of these organizations to perform on some random stage and then in return these groups spend hundreds of thousands of dollars in the park/hotels/dining. Disney is a smart marketer. I do not agree with asking for donations for these trips. If the majority of your trip is for personal travel then you need to offer services/goods at market rate and not ask for donations.

If the purpose is to fulfill badge requirements there are plenty of less expensive options. Asking people to donate so kids can take a pleasure trip while doing a few token badge activities in this economy is not right.

What people choose to donate money to is not for you to judge as wrong or right, regardless of the economy. If they are being open about what they are going to be spending the money earned on then I don't see how its anyone elses place to decide if it is wrong or right. I dont' expect them to earn money to donate to another organization or couses. Granted the girl scouts are about learning social responsability, community and the like. But I don't think its anyones elses place to decide what is more afforable or not. I think its for the parents, the council of that particular troop and the leader to decide what is appropriate or not.

I don't think its anyones right to try to be the moral compass or budgetmaster for others. What one person values or finds to be more important trully is a matter of whats going on in the enviroment they are from. Regardless this is a Disney fan site and based on your logic no one should go to Disney because its socialy irrisponsable to spend money in this economy (NOT). I say take the girls to Disney. Every child deserves to go to Disney at least once.

 

[carebee21]

I say take the girls to Disney. Every child deserves to go to Disney at least once.

WRONG! This is where everyone's entitlement issues come into play. No one DESERVES to or is entitled to go to Disney. NO ONE! Every child deserves to be safe, loved, feed, clothed, shelted and educated. To think that everyone else should fork over their hard earned money in a charitable form because all kids "deserve" to go to Disney is a joke! If the parents feel that way, then they should pay for the trip themselves. And if they can't afford it, it's a good lesson to the children to live within their means or you can't have everything you want. That's the way the real world works. It's a much better lesson than hold your hand out and expect people to give to you because you "deserve" it.

 

[JamesMom]

I was a Girl Scout for 7 years (Silver & Gold Award) and a troop leader/consultant for 3 years. I am now involved with Cub Scouts because God chose to bless me with boys
I am midly surprised that a trip to WDW would fall under the domain of Girl Scouting. There are so many other Wider Ops sponsored at the council and National level that would be a (imho) a better use of their efforts.
I have noticed that girls have tons of event patches on their uniforms at the last Scout Sunday I attended - even Daisy's and Brownies going to Great Wolf and such. What? Scouting isn't supposed to be about exotic and expensive locals at that age. There are so many local sites to see that traveling that far seems unnecessary - parks, zoo, museums, momuments, libraries, skating rinks, bowling alleys, police & fire stations - and what happened to good old fashioned craft meetings and camping? Not every activity has to be an "event". The girls want to go to WDW or Great Wolf? Go as a family and not as a Scout event. By the time they get to Cadettes and Seniors/Ambassodors no wonder they quit because the bar has been set so high.
*off soapbox*

 

[stacieps]

My Cadette troop (5 girls) just returned from a five night trip to Disney World yesterday (8/30). This was our 5th "major" trip in the past 6 years (a ranch in NY, 2 cruises, and 2 trips to Disney). This year we took advantage of free dining and saved a lot of money. For this trip, we did the following money-earners:

1. Fall nuts/candy (Girl Scout) (profit approx $300)
2. Raked leaves (earned approx. $200)
3. Over night Holiday party (had 6 Christmas craft stations on a rotation), watched a movie, had a spaghetti dinner, popcorn, breakfast in morning - muffins and cereal), held at a local church hall (no cost for us to use) - charged $16 per person (girls and leaders/chaperones) - profit was about $740
4. Roller skating party. A local rink has 2 hour blocks you can book for private parties. We charged $9 per person to attend (skating or not), we provided snacks and drinks. Response was so great, we needed to book a second party slot on the same day to accomodate everyone. profit was $625
5. Dance and ice cream sundae making. Girls picked music on I-tunes, burned a CD, we used a stereo one of us had, and bought ice cream and toppings. Again, use of chruch halll was at not cost. Charged $7 per person (again, girls and adults) Profit was $236.
6. Girl Scout cookies - this year was not great for sales. I believe our profit was around $1200-1300 (including all individual sales and cookie booths that we held).

All of our "parties" were for Girl Scouts only (and we gave a patch to every participant). We invited troops from other Service Units - some traveled up to an hour to attend these events (the overnight and roller skating, the dance was shorter and we had mostly girls within a 20 minute drive). We have done these types of money-earners the past few years - troops really like to come to events that are more local than our council may have (our council is New Hampshire and Vermont).

I am pretty sure you would be able to invite others who are not Girl Scouts (I know that happens for pancake breakfasts and such that are advertised for the public). We just always had enough with Scouts, so didn't extend the invitatation any further. Our council was always very happy to approve our money-earner requests since so many were activities for other troops.

I have information and registration packets that we sent to troops. We always set a miniumum/maximum and a deadline for registering (payment due with registration, no refunds). If you are interested, I can send you a couple of the packets, just send me a PM with your e-mail.

 

[FLAngie]

We live in a very small place and our entire troop from Daisy on up is about 20 girls. What have you done as far as fund raising besides the nuts and cookies things? Any tips, tricks. Anything you can think of to help us make it happen.

Just curious, are you coming for the 100 years of Girl Scout Celebration and Bridging Ceremony at Epcot in May? That might help save some money.

 

[ceecee]

Our council prohibits ANY money makers besides the Nut and Cookie sales. You also have to get approved to take any girls out of the state (or certain miles) and the girl to adult ratio must be met. Sleeping arrangements are also in the Safety Wise book....many obsticles to cross. I was a leader for 8 years and had to do extra paper work to take the girls out of state (which was only 75 miles away!).
Check with your council before doing anything. A friend of mine held an American Girl Tea Party to raise $ for a trip (they sold raffle tickets to win a doll as well) She had to return all of the $ raised and it was a lot.

 

[stacieps]

In our council you must do BOTH the cookie and nut sales in order to be considered for additional money-earners. Then we have a form to fill out explaining what the money-earner activity will be, what the money will be used for, how much $$ you need, whether you are planning on doing more money-earners, etc. Once we have submitted a trip application, they are pretty good about approving money-earning requests (assuming they fit within the council guidelines of course).

There is quite a bit of paperwork, but it was worth it because it was what my troop wanted to do--I took them out of the state three times and out of the country twice. These girls have had experiences together that not many teenagers can say they've had with friends (Disney, dolphin encounter in Cozumel, Atlantis in Nassau, etc.). Girl Scouts is supposed to be about the girls - these are the things my girls wanted to experience and they did!

 

[clanmcculloch]

When I was attending a training class when preparing my girls to bridge from Brownies to Juniors, something that was stressed to me is that the troup activities should be what the girls want and they should make the decisions about what activities will be done. Our girls decided that they wanted to focus on travel. They've chosen badges that help with this and they also spend some of their meeting just planning trips. So far we've only gone as far as a couple nights camping in our own state, but they do the planning. They want to work towards a few nights maybe 4-6 hours away staying in hotels by the end of grade 6 or early grade 7 (we're just starting grade 6 now) with the idea of a WDW trip when they're in grade 8 or 9. They're learning a LOT by doing all this planning themselves. They all have to take responsibility for their own tasks, research, budgetting and fundraising not to mention negotiation skills since this is a group of preteens who all have their own ideas and interests who have to come to agreement on what will be done. This is a huge learning and growth opportunity. These are skills that the kids can use for the rest of their lives.

I also don't understand people who are knocking fundraising for travel. Nobody has suggested that they want people to just cut checks or buy seriously overpriced products. Our service unit actually has pretty strict rules for fundraising and the girls have to either make something to sell or perform some kind of service (the only premade items they're allowed to sell are fall product and cookie sales which are the standard annual GS fundraisers). They have to WORK for the money. This is also part of the learning opportunity. You don't get anything for nothing. If you work hard, plan and budget including planning for contingencies then you can work towards a goal and see that goal through to fruition.

 

[crisi]

That is only for older girls. Daisies do not have that option (at least not in PA).

And not all councils have that option at all.

 

[crisi]

On travel and fundraising

Make sure to understand your council's rules - they vary from council to council.

If you are going to fundraise, be clear in its function.

While having fun is one of the goals of Girl Scouts, so is Service. When people come knocking on my door for fundraisers, I want to know what they are doing with that money - I don't mind if the purpose is "our troop is going to go horseback riding!" (We did that), but I also want to hear "and we are filling the flowerboxes at the nursing home this Spring." If your girls can't articulate a service project, I'm not buying their cookies (nuts, wreaths, coupons).

On the other hand, if you are giving me a value (a movie party, a skating night, a badge day) then I really don't care what you are doing with the profit as long as I'm getting a good value. Although I'll admit that I find troops that just "have fun" without doing any service work rather offensive. In part because they endanger funding (we have to work hard to justify our United Way grant. That is a lot harder when the people making that decision have had exposure to troops that go to Disney World but never pick up trash on Earth Day.)

(Right now I have my own troop - so I'm not buying anyone's cookies since I buy all the case scrap for my own troop.)

 

[lisalis]

Good luck to you! I know our boy scouts here comb the neighborhoods for recyclable cans about twice a year, but it would only work if you lived in a state that has the deposit. We keep our cans/bottles in a large garbage can and dump it into their trash bag when they come.

I think travel is a good focus for the group. I am always surprised at how many children do not get to travel and see other places outside of their own states. It is something I was blessed to be able to do as a child, and try to do for my own children. I agree that not every child "deserves" a trip to WDW, but it is such a wonderful experience on so many levels. I would be happy to donate to a cause to help make that happen for girls who may not have had that chance. If people don't want to contribute to that, they have that choice.

 

[Disneyluvr]

I am in AZ and our council actually sponsors a trip to Disneyland. They also do a sleep over at Sea World. I think traveling and having new experiences that they might not otherwise get is a great thing for the girls.

My troop did well with car washes/bake sales. We also were servers for a dinner that our local Elk's Club had. At the end of the night all of the Elks members passed a hat and "tipped" the waitresses. They made a lot on that!