Planting prairie plants

This was a long awaited event for which the girls had voted in the December meeting and had been growing their seedlings since March. The seeds they used to grow their prairie plants were generously donated by Mr. Fred Maier from the Environmental Services department of the Village of Itasca. We gathered at the Springbrook Nature Center to plant them and some other prairie flowers. Mr. Fred Maier greeted us and explained why we need to preserve our prairies and the procedure for planting. Everyone did a great job planting in a special patch that was set aside just for us. Special thanks to the fathers who made our job a lot easier by digging big holes. Mr. Maier was amazed at our speed. Afterwards we went in the nature center to say our girl scout vows and eat some healthy snacks. Since we still had some time left, we made a flower craft out of craft paper and pipe cleaners. It was a lot of fun!!!

Mr. Fred explaining the rules



Getting to work

All done

Huma making the girls read the law

Aroob taking Brownies attendance

Craft time

Feed My Starving Children event

ASAK all,

This is one event we all should be proud of. We all did a good deed, together with our fellow Muslim brothers and sisters and learned a lot of new facts about starving children around the globe. We managed to pack more than 4000 packets of food to be delivered to children in some of the poorest countries in the world.

The event started with an introductory video about how the Feed My Starving Children organization is transforming lives of children in countries like Kenya, Haiti and Afghanistan etc. It was very impressive to see kids at their death bed come back to life with just a few weeks of the Manna food packs.

After that we started with the exciting task of packing rice, soy, dehydrated veggies and vitamins and minerals in plastic bags. With the loud music and the company of eager children, time flew so fast and in what seemed like a blink of an eye all the boxes were packed. Everybody lined up for another exciting task of washing the dishes.

Next came the best part, we all gathered together to pray for the kids who would receive the food. Our fellow leader Kulsum Saleem recited Surah-al-Fatiha and prayed while we all raised our hands for dua'. The Brownies gave the donation from the cookie sale and we all gathered to hear parting words from our host. Our host thanked us by displaying the boxes packed and the children saved because of that. That number was 11 - alhamdolillah. Remember the word of Allah saying that if you say one life, it's as if you've saved the whole humanity. Our host gave us a certificate of thanks as well.

One good deed well done. Next one is coming up shortly. Get ready to have you hands dirty in the mud. See you all on May 14th.

Best Regards,
Asra
Brownies leader

More Info:

To end hunger inside US, work with "The Great American Bake Sale": www.greatamericanbakesale.org

Countries where FMSC send food (yes it includes India, Pak and Afghanistan as well): http://www.fmsc.org/page.aspx?pid=260

Nutrition facts about the food: http://www.fmsc.org/page.aspx?pid=427 and http://www.fmsc.org/page.aspx?pid=429

Ready for work

Working          

Still Working    

Wow look at all

                                                                                             the packets packed

More work       

Prayer Time      

Kulsum praying 

Donation           

All girl  scouts    

All girls              

We saved 11 lives - yay!        

Recycling and planting event

ASAK all,
Busy busy, that's what this event was. There was so much to be recycled. We first started with making bird feeder out of juice cartons. Then they had their hot dogs and fruit+veggie juice that our co-leader Salma had brought. After that we divided the girls into two groups, one making pop tab bracelets and one making caterpillar cress planter out of eggs shells. Lastly we planted native seeds which need to be taken care of till the end of May when we'll be planting them at the Itasca Nature center. The girls got badges for their snow journals and recycling activities. Girls who had earned more than $8/- for cookies also received their gifts worth the extra money earned. The gift receipts are attached to the gifts in case you want to exchange.The girls also received a handout on recycling in nature prepared by our co-leader Rabia Kashif. I'm attaching it here as well in case somebody lost it:  Recycling in Nature

Girls busy painting the bird feeder

Finished Products

Items to bring in the next meeting

ASAK parents,
Our next meeting is about recycling and planting seeds of native plants. We would appreciate if each girl can bring the following:

1. A juice carton like this one:

2. About 10 pop tops:

3. snow journal handed at the library event

4. cookie sale money if not already handed over

Regards,
Asra

Behind the scenes library event

ASAK all parents,

We had a lovely time at the Schaumburg library going behind the scenes and seeing the journey of the books from the drop box back to the shelves. It was funny standing on the other side of the drop box and seeing all the returned books popping out behind the curtains as if by magic. Our dear librarian also took us around the youth section and gave us interesting information about Chicago's past and different artifacts around the library.

As part of learning to be thankful, the the girl signed up a thankyou card and presented it to the librarian. This reminds me of a nice article to share with your girl scouts since they will be doing a similar activity in April: http://www.yourhoustonnews.com/champions/living/article_ee1ed67e-2cc5-584a-a352-7d4faa48de03.html

After the tour, the girls sat in the cozy cafeteria and had pizza and later worked on painting their Girl Scout T-shirts if they were absent from the first meeting and made a snowman craft stick. They need to stick those in their backyards and note down the snow fallen each day and fill up the conclusion page at the end and bring it in the next meeting to get a badge.

Hope to see all the girls in the March event
Regards,
Asra