Girls Who Dare to Make a Difference

Did you think it was cold this morning when you stepped outside your warm home?  People are living outside all night in the cold 25-37 degree Sammamish weather.  Can you imagine what it would have been like living in a tent the night of the windstorm we had in November? 

With the placement of Tent City 4 at Mary, Queen of Peace in Sammamish, this gives our children and Blackwell's 4th grade Girl Scout Troop, the opportunity to learn more about homelessness in our community, and these are questions that they have pondered.

On December 6th, 2013, one of the coldest nights of the month, when it was 27 degrees out, the troop of six 9- and 10-year old girls, put in their time and talents to provide a hot dinner for Tent City 4.  Previously, they met with residents of Tent City 4 and developed a menu to feed approximately 100 people; with the idea that some of the food would be left over for future meals.  The girl scouts shopped and took two nights to prepare the food.  Plus, they enlisted four of their big brothers, from Boy Scouts Troop 751, who spent 4 hours outside on that same cold night, making a Dutch oven desserts.

In addition to preparing a meal, several of the girls helped setup Tent City 4 in October.  They noticed how worn the building materials were, especially the plywood that the tents are placed on.  With the impending Tent City 4 move in January, this troop decided to raise money for an effort they dubbed “Project Plywood”, to provide moving supplies to Tent City 4.  They met with residents and gathered a list of items that are necessary for a successful move.  Troop members made several attempts to find a location to setup a donation station.  With persistence, they found Lowe’s in Bellevue offered their store front for the troop to setup a “giving tree”; where patrons could either donate cash to Project Plywood or purchase items from tags taken off the tree. 

But because Tent City 4 is setup in Sammamish, the troop wanted to do something within the city.  Therefore, on the morning of December 14th this troop setup a neighborhood stand: “Hot Cocoa for the Homeless”.   For about 2 hours the girls served hot chocolate and cookies to people who donated money for "Project Plywood".  Between the two efforts of the Donation Station and Hot Cocoa stand, the troop raised $589.94.  With this money, they in turn purchased from Lowe's and delivered the following items to Tent City 4:

26 - pounds of nails

160 - 33-gallon trash bags

20 - 2x4s

10 - 1/2 inch sheets of plywood

32 - bottles of water

15 - rolls of duct tape

1500 - 11-inch zip ties

 5 - new tarps

1 - gently used tarp

$36 in cash that they were too tired to spend!

The residents were very appreciative of all of the girls and their achievements.   This troop has learned invaluable lessons from the Tent City 4 residents. 

The troop wants to thank all of their generous friends and neighbors for their support.