Daisy Troop #420
Chapel Hill, North Carolina

Hello! You have found the home page for Daisy Troop #420 located in beautiful Chapel Hill, North Carolina. Our troop was established in October 1999 and included sixteen Daisy Girl Scouts. Our troop leader was Tricia Clemens. We were a very busy troop.

At our first meeting, we learned about the Girl Scout Promise and the Girl Scout Law. We discussed what it means to make a promise and talked about how we could try to live by the Girl Scout Law each and every day. We also learned some of the basic Girl Scout customs: the Friendship Circle, the Quiet Sign, the Girl Scout handshake. There's so much to learn about Girl Scouting!

To recognize National Young Reader's Day, we had a special meeting with our school librarian. She gave us a tour of the library and taught us about the proper care of books. We made our own bookmarks - no more dog-eared pages for us!

At our November meeting, one of our parents helped us to do some fabric stamping to design our own sweatshirts or aprons with daisies.

A group of us went to see a theater production of Cinderella. We were able to meet the actors and actresses afterwards. The wicked step-sisters were really funny and, believe it or not, they were played by men!

In December, we strung popcorn and cranberries to put out for our feathered neighbors since food becomes scare for them during the winter months. We also made reindeer pins. We learned how to use a hot glue gun. We learned about the various celebrations that occur during the winter months and shared the traditions and customs and celebrations each of our own families has. We also had a troop pizza party and watched New Year's videos, just for fun.

In January, we learned about health, exercises, and sports from our school physical education coach. There are so many fun ways to stay healthy! We then made our own books based on what we learned. Our school had these books on display so everyone could learn what we now know.

Some of us went to see a production of How the Gimquat Found Her Song featuring Platypus Theatre. The Gimquat is a bird that doesn't have a song. We traveled "through space and time" with the Gimquat and the magician to experience all kinds of different music from Gregorian chants to rap, from Vivaldi to Ellington.

Our school counselor - a former Girl Scout leader! - talked to us about diversity. We discovered what diversity means and why it is important in our lives. We encouraged our families, friends, and school mates to participate in Different Shoe Day, our Girl Scout Council's celebration of diversity.

At our meeting on Thinking Day, one of our parents introduced us to birthday customs from around the world. We made tissue paper flowers like they use to decorate for birthdays in Brazil, learned how to "sing" the birthday song in sign language, and played birthday party games from Nigeria and Israel.

For our community service project, we made bird houses to hang along a neighborhood nature trail. As we walked along the trail to locate the "ideal sites" to hang the bird houses, we also learned how to become nature observers. We saw the damage that had been done by the heavy snows earlier in the year, looked for signs of recovery, and saw nature's way of recycling. The exposed roots of fallen trees create burrows for some animals; the broken trees become homes for insects and are especially inviting to the woodpeckers. We looked for signs of spring such as new buds on trees and sprouting plants on the ground. All kinds of animals were "out and about" then. Birds were preparing to make their nests so it wasn't long before our bird houses had occupants!

One of our Daisy Moms showed us how to make garden stepping stones at our meeting in March. Each of us had our own mold and created designs from a variety of glass pieces. We mixed some mortar to spread in-between the pieces and then poured cement to form the stone. Afterwards, we learned some new songs so, when it comes time to go camping, we'll be ready for the campfire sing-along.

A Brownie Girl Scout troop visited us in April to help us prepare for our bridging to Brownie Girl Scouts. They told us about the activities Brownie Girl Scouts do, how a Brownie Girl Scout troop is run, what some of their favorite activities and outings were, and taught us some new songs. We enjoyed learning about older Girl Scouts and are excited about continuing in scouting programs. We also learned about Earth Day, made Earth Buddy key chains, and received coloring books that teach about recycling, water conservation, and other ways to be friends to our planet.

At our last official meeting for the year, we completed our bridging requirements and earned our very first Brownie Girl Scout Try-It, Girl Scout Ways. We made sit-upons, which will certainly come in handy when we go camping as Brownies, and made s'mores for our snack.

We completed the Be A Reader, Connections, and Read to Lead patch programs as a troop and many of us completed the Girls Are Great patch program as well. We also started working our way through the Media Know-How program. Boy, our tunics sure did get filled up!

At the end of our Daisy year, we held our Bridging Ceremony at a nearby nature trail with our families in attendance. Each of us received our Daisy Girl Scout scrapbook, the Ending Certificate, attendance star, Daisy disc, and a special millennium disc before crossing a bridge to be welcomed into Brownie Girl Scouts and receiving the Brownie membership pin, the Bridge to Brownie Girl Scouts emblem, and the Girl Scout Ways Try-It. Daisy Girl Scouting has been lots of fun and we had a great time. To read about our futher adventures as Brownie Girl Scouts, you can visit our Brownie Troop #420 web page. We hope other Daisy Girl Scouts are also having great experiences and that other girls will become excited about Girl Scouting.

This page was last updated on 15 August 2001.