Are you looking for a fun craft for one of your first troop meetings? This Girl Scout Law Learner Keychain Kit was created by two teens who loved their time in scouts.
Back in early May, I received a lovely email from a pair of sisters from Missouri. Elise is a 17 year old high school senior and former Girl Scout. She earned her Bronze Award and presently takes a rigourous course load in school, is invovled in her church, and sings in her school’s show choir.
Tess is 15 and a high school sophomore and a former scout. She plays the cello in symphonic orchestra, is on her high school tennis team, and was selected to be in her school’s competitive show choir.
Together, these busy young women created a product that they asked me to share with leaders. After looking over their website and Instagram accounts, I believed that this was a great item for leaders to use with their troops.
As a both a Girl Scout leader and educator, I am all for saving time and saving money. This craft kit saves both! This is a ready-to-go kit that saves time (leaders are not putting kits together) and money (no separate bags of beads to purchase). It is a win-win! In addition, leaders can order exactly how many they need. There is no minimum purchase. They come in 6mm and 10mm sizes, you get to choose.
I sent Elise and Tess a list of questions and their replies are what comprises this blog post.
Presenting the Creators of the Girl Scout Law Learner Keychain Kits
What were your favorite parts about being a Girl Scout?
Tess-My favorite part of Girl Scouts is the community with the other girls. I also loved helping out and trying to make the world a better place. When I was in scouts, we worked on several community service projects like canned food drives, cleaning up nature areas, and visiting people in nursing homes. We went bowling, sold (and ate!) lots of cookies, went horseback riding, earned badges, played lots of games, and had lock-ins. We also got to go camping a lot, which I liked — but the spiders I could live without!
Elise-My favorite part of being a girl scout was the built-in community you had with the other girls. Everyone wanted to make the world a better place and you knew there was always someone who would have your back. Looking back, we did so many fun things — camping, bowling, hiking, horseback riding, Thinking Day activities, sleeping with the penguins at the zoo, earning badges and completing journeys, and, of course, selling cookies! Yum!!
I will always remember our Bronze project, though – we developed a program at our school for kids new to the school after the start of the year. We used some of our cookie money to buy some school “swag” to give them, and designed a program where each classroom had a designated “Welcoming Wildcat” (the wildcat was our school mascot), wearing a badge on a lanyard that gave them special recognition/permission, when needed. This person would be ready to be a buddy for the new kid in class, sitting next to them, eating lunch with them, explaining how things work, making sure they were never alone on the playground, and introducing them to other kids and teachers. We learned that lots of times, everyone thinks “someone else will do it” – and we didn’t want the chance for new kids to feel ignored or left out in case this happened – we wanted to be intentional. We made a presentation to the principal of our school, and she adopted it for use during the next school year!
What inspired you to create the Girl Scout Law Learner Keychain Kit?
When we were Daisies/Brownies and needed to learn the law, our mom gathered the supplies for these bead kits that helped us learn the law quickly and effectively. Our mom had lots of extra supplies left over and we found them in the basement this spring. We thought we could put them together and get them to other scouts. Here we are, continuing what she started years earlier.
Who is this product for?
This product is for new/ newer Girl Scouts who need help learning the law, or for older girls who would like to keep it as a reminder of the law. It’s a great visual, as a constant reminder to keep the law in mind in our daily interactions with other people.
Where can leaders use the Girl Scout Law Learner Kits?
Leaders can use this product for helping aid the Girls learn the Girl Scout Law and to learn/remember it themselves.
What are you planning to do with the money you earn?
We are planning to use part of it to grow the business and for the rest of it to help save up for college. We will also donate some of the money we earn to good causes.
For us, it’s more than about money. We have learned so much about what it takes to run a small business like finding/ordering supplies (comparing costs – our mom made us do our research!), assembling the kits without mistakes (there’s bound to be a few, I guess, but we know it’s important to get it right), figuring out a way to take and process orders, getting the word out there, the mailing/shipping process, and then keeping track of all the numbers associated with inventory and “costs of doing business” — basic bookkeeping and using spreadsheets. We were really surprised how much work goes into this – it’s more than just sorting beads! In the end, though, we really like the idea of saving time (and money) for busy troop leaders for such a fun and colorful craft that can be useful for many years. Of course, our mom has helped us a lot, but we can now pretty much run it from start to finish.
Where can leaders buy the Girl Scout Law Learner Keychain Kits?
You can buy them at our website GS Law Learner. Simply fill out the form under the “Order Here” tab and you will be sent an invoice for payment.
You can also find the girls on Instagram and on Facebook.
Do you have any new products in the works?
We have a Scout Law Learner that is already out! It uses the letters from the (previously Boy) Scout Law: trustworthy, loyal, helpful… It is a simpler design and we’ve included a picture in the attachment.
Thank you Elise and Tess for using what you learned in your time in Girl Scouts to help leaders.
I’d like to order some of your keychains but when I hit the link that says 404 page not found. I also could not get through on the Facebook link.
I fixed the link for you.