To market, to market

When planning our final 6 months of the year the Brownies created a list of all the activities they wanted to participate in. Let's just say that the list was.... a little overwhelming. Lemonade stands, helping animals, making craft, something for Christmas, raising money for charity, selling things and even more craft. It seemed to go on and on.

Eventually, I took a step back and looked at the list again with fresh eyes. There was a way we could combine all their ideas into one amazing activity that also happened to coincide with my own request that we clean out our craft cupboard which was full of leftover supplies from many years of crafting.

Solution: host a market stall and sell handmade goods to raise money.

I immediately booked the girls a professional market stall in our local area and explained that they were in charge of making the necessary decisions on how to run the stall and what to sell. The needed to decide what to make, how much items would cost, on the day they would be sales people and all the money raised could be donated to the charity of their choice.

First up was choosing a charity. The girls were given the task to go home and research any charity they wanted and then to come back the next week and present their findings to the unit, while trying to persuade the group to choose their charity. The information they needed to find out included the name of the charity, where money donated was allocated and why they thought their charity was worthwhile. We then held a silent anonymous marble vote with the winning organization being a supporters of hurt Australian wildlife. 

We spent one month making crafts using many of the strange supplies found in out craft cupboard. Many of the girls also used the opportunity to teach crafts and skills for their badges.

These included:

• Making healthy dog biscuits for the pets create-a-challenge badge. These were a HUGE hit on the day, with the Brownies cornering anybody that walked by with a dog and persuading them that their dog needed them desperately.
• Eco-friendly newspaper pots
• Pet rocks and creatures - very popular with the toddlers on the day, much to the dismay of parents who would have preferred a simple snowflake ornament
• Hanging paper flower balls

Below are some of the creations made by the Brownies.

A reindeer made from a cork, pipe cleaners and a painted rock

A dog rock pet

A reindeer made with cork, felt, pipe cleaners and goggly eyes

Angels made from wooden pegs, felt, pipe cleaners and LOTS of hot glue

Fairies on a stick. So grateful that these creepy babies are no longer in the craft cupboard!

Candy cane reindeer

Paddlepop stick snowflake

Paddlepop stick reindeer

As I mentioned, the girls were in charge of most facets of the organisation process which happened to include pricing their goods to the value they deemed appropriate. Fresh lemonade was the most expensive thing we sold at $4 a glass and cicada shells (yes, you are reading that correctly) were a bargain at just 10 cents each. Christmas ornaments went for about 20 - 50 cents depending on size and most cupcakes were $1.

On the day the Brownies were delightfully charming as they sold their crafts, fresh lemonade, baked goods, Guide biscuits and more. They raised over $300 for their chosen organisation. Their hard work definitely paid off!

It was a huge commitment to undertake such a large scale project which dominated over half of the term, but the Brownies thrived and I secretly hope that when we plan our program for next year that they want to do it again!

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How service projects does your unit participate in?