Secret Bookmarks: A World of Girls Take Action Project

One of my favorite things about Girl Scout badges is that the badge books always encourage the girls to use what they've learned to perform service. They're asked to think about how they can use their new skills and knowledge to do something for younger scouts, their schools, their communities, or the larger world. I love that emphasis on helping others with your own unique talents and skill set, love how it's integrated into everything that the children achieve.

It's an elegant and effective way to raise good, strong women.

Some of these service projects can be quite large--my two built a bookshelf and held a book drive for a local food pantry last year, and my troop has some big plans for a big moviemaking project with our local animal shelter later this year--but not all of them have to be epic. The badge books emphasize that even small acts of service count.

Syd's small act of service for her recently-completed World of Girls Journey was the creation of "secret bookmarks;" she handmade several bookmarks and sneaked them into library books. Here they are:

Syd's reasoning for this Take Action Project was that 1) children would really like to discover special, homemade bookmarks in books that they were reading; 2) having bookmarks of their own would encourage children to read more; and 3) having bookmarks of their own would encourage children to use them, thus keeping the library books in better repair.

For what it's worth, I think she's right on the money on all counts.

This project was also a great opportunity to have a brief discussion about archivally-safe materials and techniques--I'm finally getting some use out of my Master's of Library Science degree! When you're shopping for your own archivally-safe materials, look for the terms "acid-free" or "archival quality;" that will ensure that if a bookmark does happen to stay in the same spot in a book for, say, twenty years, it won't stain or pit the pages that it touches.

Syd didn't create many bookmarks, but the ones that she did create were thoughtfully designed and painstakingly drawn:

That one on the middle right is a zombie. To my knowledge, my child has never been exposed to any media containing a zombie. I *may* often speak about zombies, however...

I love the positive messages that she put in some of her bookmarks! I also need to reinforce "you're" vs. "your," clearly. 

... and capitalization at the beginning of a sentence. I'm impressed that she spelled "piece" correctly, however!

The book reads, "Once upon a time ther was a child who read a book whith these words "Once upon a time ther was a child."

After the kids get back from camp, we'll be having a bit of a "badge boot camp" instead of school for a few days, as at the beginning of the year they had picked out some specific badges that they had the goal of earning before they both Bridge to the next level, AND I bought those badges for them. Our Bridging Ceremony is early next month, but when your mother spends money on you as part of your goal, then you WILL reach that goal!