This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of American Family Insurance. All opinions are 100% mine.
Recently I led my Girl Scout Juniors through a journey where they learned about the power of one, power of team, and power of community.
These lessons aren’t just important for Girl Scouts, they’re important for everyone to learn. Taking the time to identify your own talents and interests and how to put them to work can make a positive difference in someone’s life. Build a team, and you have even more talents and interests to build on to make an even bigger difference in the lives of others. Take it to the community, and get even more people involved, and the radius of kindness grows even more.
This year I had the girls create “I am” posters (the one shown is my own sample poster). They explored their own skills, interests, and talents to share a glimpse of who they are as a person.
Next the girls worked as a team to write a short story and solve a problem as a team, relying on each others special talents. For their detective badge, they used teamwork to solve a mystery at the library.
Finally, they worked with Humane Society to create dog treat dispensers as an enrichment toy for the bigger dogs. They worked with the community to learn more about the dogs needs, and solved a problem for the Humane Society. By creating tough toys the bigger dogs couldn’t destroy as easily the toys can be used over and over again which helps the dogs and saves the Humane Society money on replacement toys. Plus, it’s fun to watch the dogs interact with these toys, so hopefully they’ll be helping out with getting some of the dogs new homes by showing their playful side.
I’ve been working to teach my own girls many of these lessons outside of our scouting meetings. We spend time helping others when we see they are in need. We regularly go through our belongings to donate to local charities and people in need. Throughout the year my kids watch me spend hours crocheting blankets and scarves to donate to people in need. While we’re out we look for donation boxes so we know what organizations are in need of and can collect to drop off for them.
Now that my kids are older I’ve watched them take these lessons to heart. Their compassion and consideration for others has grown and I see them helping others on their own. They’ve taken part in helping out at food banks, raising money for different organizations, and taking care of public spaces.
DreamKeep Rewards
One of the biggest lessons my girls learn is that we aren’t doing these acts of kindness for a reward. We do good things because it’s the right thing to do. With that said, a sign of gratitude is always appreciated and well received.
I participate in American Family Insurance DreamKeep Rewards program. One of my favorite activity sections they offer is the Do Good Things section. Do Good Things falls in line with my life philosophy of kindness. Also, it’s filled with things I already do on a regular basis to make the world a better place. Since I’m doing these actions anyway I might as well get rewarded for them too.
If you’re doing things to help others in your community there are activities in the DreamKeep Rewards program to earn you points.
The activities on DreamKeep Rewards is perfect as an idea springboard for what I can do next to protect my home, family, and community. While I love the Do Good Things category, the other categories are just as important: All About You, Family Matters Most, On the Road, and Safe at Home.
For fun turn the DreamKeep Rewards into a family challenge. Have everyone go through the activities and choose one, then see who can complete their activity first. I still have a blank slate, so we’ll be working as a family to tackle our April activities here soon.
Our girls like to see how many fun patches they can collect on their Girl Scout vests. As we complete activities on DreamKeep Rewards, I can add even more patches to their vest related to the activities they learned about and participated in to share their accomplishments. We still have a lot of vest to cover!
Taking care of our communities and the people who live in them are just another way you can help make the world a better place, and protect your own dreams by keeping your community safe.
How will you be helping your community and the people who live in it?
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