Extra, Extra Read All About It

She’s hit it ‘BIG’! In our local paper today, an article has been written about our wonderful Girl Scout troop 228 and Baylee has been quoted. Confidence is bursting out of her. I love it! She and her Brownie sisters are living out their Girl Scout law by “making the world a better place” all the way across the globe and the writers of the Republic paper caught wind of it.

Weeks prior, our troop learned of a small village in Malawi, Africa, and how girls there are constantly infected with intestinal worms from simply playing in their natural environment mostly because they don’t wear or even own panties for that matter. The solution in the minds of our troop…buy 100% cotton panties of all sizes for these girls in need and have them hand delivered by missionaries. My troop of fifteen is calling it, “The Panty Project!”

Here’s how Baylee explained it to the press, “The panty project is important because girls in Africa need our help! They are getting sick from the dirt ground and in their homes made of mud. There aren’t places the girls can buy panties, and they don’t have much money at all!”

Our girls have been gathering and purchasing all kinds of packaged panties and is running a “Panty drive” throughout the school year during other Girl Scout events we are hosting as well as the hopes to set up booths outside stores like Kohl’s, Walmart, Old Navy, and Justice. There is such vigor in their plan to get the community involved and make a huge difference in lives of these girls in Africa.

We’ve been promised that upon distribution of the panties, photos will be taken in Africa and sent back to us so we can see the faces of the lives we’ve changed. It gives me goosebumps just thinking about it.

For those interested, ‘drop your panties’ off at my house for a good cause any time. Whether they are hot pink, polka-dot, frilly, bikini, or plain Jane’s, they will be the perfect “fit’.

Miracle in the Desert

Each troop meeting, our amazing Brownie girls sacrificially drop money in a small bucket for charity. In November, the girls ran our circle time to decide what they wanted to do with our money. So many wonderful ideas were thrown out from adopting a family in need, taking care of soldiers from afar, an animal rescue, and much more. The girls voted, which they thought was really cool and chose this semester’s donations to go to Sunshine Acres, a children’s home here just minutes away in north Mesa. After calling the place and finding their needs (since we can’t give money), Baylee, Abigail, and Alyssa went shopping with the money from the troop and our Kempiak Party of Five’s extra donations. We were able to purchase $99 worth of batteries (for the kids’ toys they got for Christmas) and Mc Donald’s gift certificates for a fun treat out.
Today we dropped off our donations and to our surprise, we were blessed with a tour that took several hours which included meeting some of the sweet boys and girls that call this place ‘home’. Sunshine Acres is such a beautiful, sacrificial place to be. We all left motivated to help more, encouraged in fellow ‘man’, humbled, and very touched. We can’t wait to partner with them again and hopefully bring the rest of our Brownie family. ☻
Here's the girls on the "tour cart"...can you see their playground in the background?

We Made Great Strides!

(This huge group is "Team Asher")

Before early November, the disease Cystic Fibrosis could have been said to me and I wouldn’t have been able to grasp it, nor understand what effects it had on people. Now, I do to some extent and that ‘disease’ has a face and name…sweet baby Asher Olimb!

Our lovely friend's, Rachel and Jeremy Olimb have a beautiful baby named Asher who graced our world in October. Quickly after the typical blood tests were complete on Asher (like any baby born in Arizona); he was diagnosed with Cystic Fibrosis (a progressive disease that effects the production of mucus in the body). We were all in shock and had a lot of learning and praying to do. The three Arizona Olimb’s are amazing, making huge lifestyle changes/sacrifices, and trusting in God all the way for little Asher’s life. God’s using this to grow them closer to Him and others who are watching!

Today, the city of Tempe hosted a 5k…Great Strides walk to collect money for research. Our Party of Five was eager to join in on a good "cause," joining Rachel and Jeremy’s group, “Team Asher.” Unfortunately, today Nathan has a fever…so it was up to Baylee and me to represent our whole family at Kiwanis Park. We were up for the challenge! We walked side by side with our dearest friends, the Kellers which really helped the time pass.

Team Asher was a huge team full of friends that love the Olimb’s so much and Jeremy designed cool shirts for the team and photo buttons to wear. The row of Team Asher went on forever! Today’s walk consisted of 1,000 walkers, raising lot of money (no total in yet). And Team Asher raised more money than the team's “goal”…well over $7,700 I believe (total not in yet either)! Even the kids on our team got involved having garage sales, bake sales, lemonade stands, and golf ball sales across the valley the week’s prior!

Asher, it was a privilege and blessing to walk in your honor/name. You are going to be a strong, active little boy that will be a total joy to watch grow up. We pray for you and your family often!

We can't wait for next year's walk again!

(Coming through the "finish line," Baylee and Mommy)

(After the event...Baylee and her "friend" Daniel)
(Some of the kids on Team Asher)

An Answer to Prayer!

Today we got hold of a non profit organization here in Phoenix that will ship every box of Girl Scout cookies we collected for the soldiers in Iraq absolutely FREE! Praise God. We’re so excited to get these into the hands of our hard working Americans that fight each day for our freedom and protection. Check out this generous organization that is making Baylee’s prayers come true.

http://www.packagesfromhome.org/

We’ll be shipping these out in the next few weeks. If anyone wants us to send to a loved one you know fighting in Iraq, I’d love his/her contact information.

Operation Cookie (can you help?)

Sitting in my living room are the generous donations of Girl Scout Cookies just sitting here waiting to be “deployed” to Iraq for the men and women fighting for our freedom and protection. As I’ve mentioned, Baylee’s heart has been to collect donations of money to purchase cookies for the soldiers…that part is done (over 26 cases which equals 312 boxes of yummy cookies). We have a few names/addresses of soldiers from Arizona (we need more) that are over there, which even includes a police officer from our hometown here in Gilbert. Now we have one more step to go (or so we think). We need a way to get them out there for free. If anyone knows of companies and or organizations that will ship these perishable packages for us, we’d love to hear from you. Please help me track down a solution quickly (names/addresses of Arizona connections of soldiers and free shipping).

America's Generosity Continues

Today was the "cookie booth" kickoff and our troop hosted 4. Placed on top of the table of cookies, we posted a sign asking for donations for the soldiers in Iraq and customer's generosity continued. In one weekend alone, approximately $242 dollars was graciously tossed into our container. Two people even handed us $20 dollar bills without purchasing any cookies for themselves. Americans do support and thank the men and women fighting to keep our freedom alive. God bless America.

Got Milk?

Ever wonder what nearly 4,000 boxes of Girl Scout cookies would look like in one spot? Come on over! This morning after 2 large semi trucks and countless troops galore, our first year Girl Scout Brownie troop 228 of 18 beautiful gals got to pick up our cookies and sort them in my garage. Now the fun begins...distribution and money collection...YIKES!

With dedication like a mother bear in protecting her cubs, Baylee had a goal in selling and nothing was going to stop her. In fact, she reached her goal in one day, so as the days increased and she continued to hit the pavement, so did her goals (and to top it off, she's still trying to sell). She is so very proud of her perseverance and so are we. Our once "timid" girl has come out of her shell while approaching strangers to say, "Would you like to buy some Girl Scout Cookies?" And with her charm, she's sold nearly 600 boxes! Amazing!

Baylee's mission continues..she's trying to get donations for cases of GS cookies to send over to U.S. Military in Iraq. So anyone with a heart for soldiers, we've got an idea for you. And for those who know soldiers...let them know cookies are on the way!