Bringing Baltimore Girls and Their Moms Together

The Girl Scouts Beyond Bars Van is a vehicle for change in every sense of the word.  Through your generous donations, the girls in the Beyond Bars Program have been transported for 18 trips to see their moms, or to participate in  "once-in-a-lifetime opportunity" field trips.  

• Visits early in 2016 to the Maryland Correctional Institution for Women (MCIW) included sessions with girls and their mothers on healthy living, family traditions and making exercise fun.  
• "World Thinking Day" (WTD) a longstanding Girl Scout tradition, was the focus of activity in February where the girls chose their country of focus (Switzerland, Ghana, Mexico, United Kingdom and India were selected this year) and planned activities based on traditions, food and culture of those countries.  WTD was held at the MCIW.
• In March, visits to MCIW celebrated National Women's Month, and activities that honored the birthday of the Founder of Girl Scouts.  
• College Tours were also accomplished in March, with visits by the GSBB girls to Howard University and Trinity Washington University.  
• In April, girls and moms planned their Annual Sleepover, which  this year had a luau theme.  In Mid-April, the Annual sleepover at the MCIW was held, so all girls were transported yet again using this wonderful new van.
• In May, Scout Day is celebrated at Six Flags.  The Girl Scouts Beyond Bars girls met girls from other troops and got a behind-the-scenes tour of one of the shows at this park.  
• Later that month, GSBB girls attended a first aid training program at Girl Scouts of Central Maryland (GSCM) facilities, and went to GSCM's rustic camp, Camp Woodlands, for a weekend of camping. Several young ladies achieved many great accomplishments at camp, from mastering swimming to getting "up close" with animal life.  
• In June, as is tradition nationwide, girls from the GSBB program received the badges they earned during the year, received their next-level uniforms (for bridging from Brownie to Junior, or Junior to Cadette, etc.) and new girls were given their first year uniforms and supplies.  All of this is done in the presence of their mothers, who cheered them on during this investiture/rededication ceremony.  
• Meetings at MCIW in July and August focused on Girl Scouts 101, Back-to-School activities and welcomed them back to a new year of Girl Scouting.  
• Girls again travelled to MCIW to focus on earning a "Performance Badge."  This exciting new Journey will introduce girls to all aspects of the performance arts from production to technology to artistic expression.  The culminating event of this badge activity will be the attendance at a live play in Baltimore, funded with the support of a local Bar Association.  
• Eleven GSBB troop girls visited the Maryland Women’s Heritage Center in Baltimore on October 1 to have fun learning about famous Maryland women in the fields of art, literature, STEM and much more. They tried on child-sized lab coats and astronaut suits and created drawings honoring women in the museum.  

GSBB used this new van to transport these girls and young women to places in which amazing experiences left lasting impressions.    Without your support, the positive impact on these families would not have been possible.