Girl Scouts Eastern Washington & Northern Idaho

Congratulations to our 40th Gold Girl Scout Julia Costello (and 12th in the 2024-25) Julia's project helps protect pollinating insects during business development. She worked with Washington State Legislator Mik Padden of Spokane Valley to help pass a bill that protected pollinating insect. Our Govenor was so impressed with her achievement that he made her Washingtonian of the Day in early April. Congratulations Julia for helping make our world a better place. Go Gold!

Wishing you a happy Labor Day from Girl Scouts of Eastern Washington and Northern Idaho. Thank you to all that help make our world a better place!💚

Our Tri-Cities Retail Store will be closed this Saturday, and our Spokane Retail Store will be closed this Saturday and Monday for the Labor Day Weekend.

Have a wonderful weekend with your family and friends and we will see you Tuesday.💚

Camp season 2024 is in the books—over 1400 camp experiences for our Girl Scouts provided by Council and another 500 provided by our amazing volunteers and service units from Yakima to Sandpoint to Tri-Cities. Camp is one of the most cherished memories of a Girl Scouts’ journey, and we are delighted that so many staff members, volunteers, and parents have contributed to 10 percent more campers experiencing camp this summer than ever before. That deserves a huge S’mores cheer of fun, fun, fun! We know camp is fun, but the best part is the adventures build one thing—confidence! It seems like yesterday that Girl Scout Mary Kate jumped for joy on the first day of camp! This week, a Go Getter troop closed out camp on Thursday, and one camper helped the CEO put up a proclamation celebrating Girl Scouts and the outdoors! We uplift everyone who made 2024 a summer of happy memories and building leaders of today and tomorrow!

Girl Scouts of EWNI thanks Global Credit Union Foundation Fairway Friends Golf Tournament and all its sponsors, supporters, and golfers for their generosity and support to our movement. We are able to do what we do with the amazing support of all of you!

Girl Scouts of EWNI team at beautiful Coeur d’Alene Resort Golf Course as part of the Global Credit Union Foundation Fairway Friends Golf Tournament with their President & CEO Geoff Lundfelt at the Marshmallow Drive! Stay tuned as we announce the winner this afternoon. Thank you Global Credit Union for all your support. You make the world a better place.

Our Council of Distinction celebrates all the Girl Scouts who experienced camp with us this summer—resident camp and day camp. Between Camp Four Echoes, Camp Ashwell, and Go Getter Camp, our incredible staff delivered over 1,500 camp experiences over ten weeks this summer. If you include all the volunteers who stepped up to run their own Service Unit camps, another 500 camp experiences occurred. In total, over 2,000 camp experiences for the Council of Eastern Washington and Northern Idaho, a 10% increase from last year! We celebrate the over 60 counselors who gave adventure to our Girl Scouts. It was a grand summer where fun was the name of the game. And one other thing—confidence! Our Girl Scouts head back to school more confident, carrying a lifetime memory and knowing they make the world a better place!

SMILE OF THE WEEK!
Our Girl Scouts are Rock Stars!!!!!💚

Girl Scouts celebrates Women’s Equality Day! At the behest of Rep. Bella Abzug (D-NY), in 1971 and passed in 1973, the U.S. Congress designated August 26 as “Women’s Equality Day.” The date was selected to commemorate the 1920 certification of the 19th Amendment to the Constitution, granting women the right to vote. This was the culmination of a massive, peaceful civil rights movement by women that had its formal beginnings in 1848 at the world’s first women’s rights convention in Seneca Falls, New York. The observance of Women’s Equality Day not only commemorates the passage of the 19th Amendment but also calls attention to women’s continuing efforts toward full equality. Girl Scouts joined the march in 1912! And we continue forward!

Our Spokane Retail Store will be closed today for inventory.

Just a reminder that our Spokane Retail Store will be closed tomorrow, Saturday, August 24 for inventory.

Today was our last day of Camp Ashwell day camp, and we are sorry to see all our wonderful campers go, as well as our amazing Camp Staff. It has been an incredible camp season in 2024 with record attendance. This week, our campers were Broadway Bound, and they spent their last day of camp at Spokane Children's Theater for their final show. 💚

Today was our last day of Camp Ashwell day camp, and we are sorry to see all our wonderful campers go, as well as our amazing Camp Staff. It has been an incredible camp season in 2024 with record attendance. This week, our campers were Broadway Bound, and they spent their last day of camp at Spokane Children's Theater for their final show. 💚

Our Spokane Retail Store will be closed this Saturday, August 24th for inventory.

Girl Scouts of Eastern Washington and Northern Idaho received Honorable Mention for the Innovia 2024 "Celebrating Community" Photo Contest with our "We Got This" cookie rally photo send in by our CEO, Brian Newberry. Check out all the other amazing photos/photographers in our community at https://innovia.org/news/2024-celebrating-community-photography-contest-winners/?fbclid=IwY2xjawE0saRleHRuA2FlbQIxMAABHStfx06SiBPIbVHHWastCbDnGVk1585RbOLqNNsi7POBMyckTpxXeaqodw_aem_i58-XsPaFvDAq-9sSqFlOQ

Our campers are Broadway Bound this week spending their time preparing for the big show this Friday for our camp finale as we end the 2024 camp season. They are making costumes and getting into character for the big show. Stay tuned for more updates on this theatrical week.

SMILE OF THE WEEK!
35th Annual National Lentil Festival, Pullman, WA

Girl Scouts love a parade, and we love our communities. Thus, it was special for the Girl Scouts of the Pullman community to march in the beloved Lentil parade celebrating the fall harvest and all that makes the Palouse city special, including Washington State University and the start of football season. It is a chance to have a community booth to welcome prospective new Girl Scouts to join us. Thank you to volunteers Deanna and Laura for organizing the festive short march and to staff member Tirzah for representing our organization. A few enjoyed meeting the Mayor and thanked him for his service to the community. Girl Scouts love a parade!

Gold salutes to Rotary 21 for all they do for the community and youth and for supporting a Gold Girl Scout, Julia, who worked with local State Senator Padden this legislative session to introduce a bill that protects pollinating insects in Washinton. In April, the bill was signed into law by the Governor. To celebrate this achievement, Spokane Rotary 21 and our Council partnered to send Julia to the Rotary Youth Leadership in Action Camp in July. This camp, located in Moscow, Idaho, was spectacular this year, and Julia made life-long friends, learned more about leadership, and just had fun! Thursday, Julia, accompanied by our CEO, visited Rotary 21 to express her gratitude for the gift of camp. Thank you, Rotary 21, for making our world a better place! Go GOLD!

This week at Camp Ashwell we have so much creativity going on. It's OOODLES OF DOODLES week, and our campers are channeling their inner artist selves with so many fun activities. Chalk art, tie-dye, pottery, baking, drawing, a 21st-century renaissance is happening here at camp! Of course, we must throw in some super fun camp favorites, such as swimming and laser tag! 💚💚💚💚💚

SMILE OF THE WEEK

Girl Scouts from Lewiston, Tri-Cities, and Spokane spent three days and two nights learning to primitive camp. They gained valuable skills by learning how to camp in remote areas and use primitive tools to survive. They learned how to identify edible plants, build a natural shelter, tie knots, cook outdoors and spent a lot of time in the creek exploring while braving swarms of yellow jackets in this hot weather. Our Girl Scouts are ready and more confident for their next outing.

It was CSI: Camp Scene Investigation this week at Camp Ashwell and our campers spend the week finding hidden messages, secret maps, dusting for fingerprints and learning to communicate in code. They ended the week with an All-Camp game of Clue!

What a Sweet night! Seriously! 1,800 citizens of Walla Walla decided on the Walla Walla stadium to see the final Sweets amateur baseball game of the season, and our Girl Scouts were there! The CEO traveled to see our mighty Girl Scouts and celebrate with ice cream and maybe a little junk food. The Walla Walla Sweets baseball team won the game handedly and fireworks finished the night. Thank you to all the Girl Scouts who attended and it was a high honor to meet the Finch family who are a third generation Girl Scout family! A grand slam night and the mascot, the Sweet Onion, was the star of the show after our Girl Scouts of course!

Congratulations to our Camp Director Meg, all our counselors, all 36 strong, and nearly 500 campers who had a summer of adventure at our iconic camp, Camp Four Echoes, named one of the best camps in America this summer by Newsweek. We also appreciate all that staff member Zane does to keep the camp strong, as well as our staff, Renee, and her team, for all the planning that started in the winter of the new year while the snow was on the ground. It was a good year, and the Girls celebrated it. I am always amazed seeing the Brownies adventuring forth for their first overnight camp. The CEO routinely gives Superhero of the Month to a Girl Scout with exceptional courage, confidence, and character. As he drove out Tuesday to say goodbye at the final campfire and thank the counselors, he thought it right to celebrate our 500 Girl Scouts who had a lifetime experience this summer. So he opted to give a Girl Scout at camp a superhero award to represent all 500 that went to camp this summer. To randomly select one, since all our Girl Scouts are superheroes, he decided to choose the last in the alphabet. It was a Girl Scout with a “W” in the last name—little did he know there would be eight! Our council needs to go buy more capes. So congrats to Sawyer, Marion, Adalynn, Natalie, Karina (holding the cape), Matilda, Yuki, and Theo for representing the adventuresome Girl Scout in 2024. Our superheroes make the world a better place.

Our Council of Eastern Washington and Northern Idaho sends a Disney thank you to Best of Broadway and of downtown Spokane for a magical night last Friday when they made it possible for several dozen Girl Scouts to celebrate a cookie reward from the 2024 Own your Magic Cookie Sale. What could be a better Broadway play for Girl Scouts than Frozen?!? Right!!! Let it Go, Girl Scouts! Many dressed up, and it was plain fun—it was truly Disney magic to see the Girls have the biggest smiles on their face as Elsa did her thing on stage. And oh, many Girl Scouts were singing, too! Thank you to the Best of Broadway series made possible by West Coast Entertainment for working with Girl Scouts to make this event possible, and cheers to Chili’s and their amazing serving team for serving an outstanding dinner in a quick fashion so we can make the Broadway play. Cheers to the staff for helping out as well! It was a Disney night, and the Girl Scouts, costumes and all, had FUN!

Congrats to Volunteer Christine Bateman and Spokane Troop 2293 for being awarded their Bronze award for an advocacy project to encourage the movement to switch from khaki to black pants. The Girl Scouts became informed of the issues, advocated for them, and ran petitions. Juliette Gordon Lowe, our founder, believed in the Girl voice, and this Bronze Project exemplified it. We appreciate the whole troop rallying on the project and their passion for supporting it. Special shout out to Lifetime Girl Scout Ursula, now at WSU, who advised on the project. Also, many thanks to Inland OBGYN for stepping up to provide support. They were recently awarded a community award by our Council. Bronze radiance!

SMILE OF THE WEEK!

Bridging is such a joyous time, but on occasion, it is bittersweet when a troop of 11 years, Spokane’s Troop 4317, has its last act of bridging two lifetime Girl Scouts to adulthood—Maggie and Tailynn. Congratulations to our COO Renee, who founded this Troop, which included her daughter. Once she joined our Council, Renee’s husband, Kyle, continued as the Troop Leader. The Troop went on to be one of our Council’s most famous all-girl robotics teams for many years, known as the RoboGirls. The CEO was honored to visit the bridging and see parents pin their final bridging pins on their Girl Scouts. Many graduated Girl Scouts returned to celebrate. Thank you to Kyle and Renee and all the parents of Troop 4317 for showing the full Girl Experience. Our Council happily celebrates their commitment. Troop 4317 and their Girl Scouts will always be revered like the 86 Girl Scout graduates this year.