I know, the Girl Guide year is wrapping up, or has wrapped up for most Units and we are all pretty tired of thinking of crafts, program ideas and CWFF - that's Canadian World Friendship Fund for those of you who are wondering. This is the fund that all Girl Guides of Canada are encouraged to donate to and it helps Guides in other countries, as well as helps send Canadian members to special events world wide. In Alberta we try and encourage all members to raise a minimum of $5 per person, and are able to buy a special crest to celebrate the sucess.
As an International Adviser for Girl Guides I spend a lot of time thinking about the Canadian World Friendship Fund and how we can get girls to participate without putting too much pressure on the leaders and the families. Generally Guiders start taking about CWFF in late January or early February to coincide with Thinking Day (Feb 22, the big Girl Guides & Scout celebration day).
As a parent myself I know I am still recovering from the holiday season and all the extra funds that are required for that, the last thing I want to do is pay out more money! And as a leader I feel the same, we ask so much of the parents - dues, fees for camps and activities, there needs to be a better way. I also know that some leaders (and I have done this too!) bypass having the girls raise the funds and just use cookie money to donate to the CWFF. It gets the funds where they need to be but we lose a vaulable teaching tool. I think the grls need to know what they are donating to and that they should raise the money themselves.
So how do we do this? Start in September! Here are some simple ideas that get the girls using their creative skills, and allow them to collect change throughout the whole year. A nickle or dime at at time will help your Units reach their CWFF Fundraising goals with no problem! All of these crafts also use recyled materials which ties in nicely with Girl Guides of Canada's Operation Earth Action environmental service project as well (yay for multi program ideas!)
First - gather your materials. I have three different crafts that I collected crafts for: a small piggy bank, a bottle piggy bank, and a larger (group) bank.
(Materials: kleenex box, icing container (with lid), drink bottle, paper, stickers, glue and modge podge, old magazines, old maps. Please ignore the toilet paper roll. I had another craft idea but it was a DISASTER.)
The idea and instructions for the bottle I posted last summer. I need to fix the pictures on my blog so for a while there will just be a big blank box where the picture should be, but here is the link to that blog CWFF Drink Bottle Bank
So Step One - for the small bank. Cut out a coin slot in the lid. For smaller girls a leader should do this but Guides and up should have no problem. I used an icing container, but other small lidded containers would work really well to - Tetley Tea has the perfect size small round containers that would an excellent item to use as well.
Next step is to have the girls cut out pictures and paper designs to decorate the tub. Then the fun part! Make a collage on the container. For a plastic tub like I used, modge podge worked best, but for containers like the tetley tea one a regular glue stick would be just fine.
When the girls are done they can take the bank home and start collecting small change, perhaps issue a challenge to all the girls to see who has the most change by Thinking Day!
Next Craft - a Large Bank. I was thinking this could be a good Patrol or whole unit bank. Girls could bring change in to each unit and add it to the box at every meeting. I also really like this idea because of the map! As a Unit you could choose a WAGGGS country to learn about through the year. Head to your local AMA and find a map of that country!
It's pretty simple - trim your map to the right size and then wrap the box! Cut a small slot on the top of the box where the tissues come out and you are all set! I also added pictures of all four world centres to mine just because I had them! At the end of the year, or before Thinking Day, unwrap the box and count the change!
I know that starting to collect CWFF funds in September does work. Last year I put my CWFF drink bottle by the phone and dropped in pennies when I had them, by May I had collected over $5 in pennies and nickles! This year with the penny being phased out I will be collected nickles and dimes in the bottle. I think I should have at least $10 by next Thinking Day!
Recent Comments