The Davis Girl Scouts Climate Action Day event Saturday, May 20, 2023, was an opportunity for young girls to earn a climate badge by doing activities in three different categories: explore climate science, connect with your community, and share hope. After watching an exciting science demonstration, the girls made their way around a ring of stations to learn about what each had to offer.

Many of the Girl Scouts appeared to be enjoying themselves and the various activities that were laid out for them. Meghan, from Troop 292 said, “the program has been really fun, there’s a lot of amazing things and I’ve learned a lot.”

At the Cool Davis table, there was information on carbon emissions, a quiz on what makes the biggest impact on emissions, and a kidz pledge that the girls could take with simplified actions from the full Earth Day Pledge Challenge. The girls were curious and inquisitive, eager to try the quiz and see if they could get all the answers right. One Girl Scout stated, “I really liked how every single station taught me cool stuff. I liked learning about [Cool Davis’s] station, the science station, and I like learning about so [much] cool stuff in these stations.”

Download the Kidz Pledge for your kids!

Check out the photo album on Facebook.

There was clearly a lot of passion and care that went into organizing an event such as this, and the lead organizer, Lucia Kaiser, has exactly that. “My hope for this event is really to try to get the girls to engage more in climate action,” she said. “And I think it’s something that many of them want to do but sometimes when they think about projects they … just don’t know what’s out there. They’re thinking all they can do is some sort of drive or, you know, something for some group, but there’s so much more they can do.”

Education is something that was really emphasized, and why this event was a great opportunity to showcase for the girls what else is available to them. For example, there were girls working on their pollinator badge who were educating others on the importance of milkweed to pollinators such as the monarch butterfly.

Lucia also stated that it was wonderful that Cool Davis participated in the event, as we were able to introduce the girls to good resources available to them in their community. By exposing the Girl Scouts to climate action, Lucia hopes that they develop interest and, for some, “decide to go on in college and study careers that are related to environmental science.” Lucia went on to say, “So we’re trying to do a couple of things, help them get more meaning out of the program right now, take action now, but also think about what careers [they] could you go into that’ll really help our planet.”

Lucia pointed out that this event also connects to much of what the girls learn about when they go on outdoor trips such as camping or hiking. “Leave no trace” is something very important to remember when being in the wilderness, and they applied this same principle to the climate action day event by encouraging participants to come by bike to have minimal impact on the environment.

Climate action is not only something that’s important on a community level, but worldwide. According to Lucia, the world organization of Girl Scouts and Girl Guides recognizes that “climate change is one of the defining challenges of our age.” With that, it is essential that young girls and women get as many resources and as much education as possible on climate change and what they can do to help it. “It’s not just us here, it’s a big piece, because girls and women are among the groups that are more vulnerable. When you think about many other countries where there’s more inequity, gender inequity, than we see here it’s really important that we stand up for all those populations, but we also represent a group worldwide that’s more impacted by some of the climate changes that have already started happening. So that’s why it also makes sense for us to really be out there and really encourage our girls to take action.”

Opportunity to foster passion

Though many of the girls were quite young, the older girls clearly held a lot of passion and care for climate action, with some eager to share recent projects with Cool Davis. Events such as this hopefully will continue to foster this passion in these young girls and give them the skill set and encouragement to do great things in this field as they go on with their lives.

Davis Girl Scouts is affiliated with Heart of Central California Council of Girl Scouts of the U.S.A. and is open to girls from kindergarten through 12th grades (around ages 5 to 17). To join Davis Girl Scouts, please visit GSHCC Council website at www.girlscoutshcc.org or contact Lori Hansen at LmhansengsATgmail.com.

For more about Davis Girl Scouts, visit their site. http://groups.dcn.org/davisgirlscouts

Girl Scout National Climate Challenge in English (activity guides videos, and more to “unlock” the Climate Challenge patch)

Girl Scout National Climate Challenge in Spanish/en Espanol 

Girl Scouts of the USA Sustainability

The national organization of Girl Scouts recognizes the” importance of reducing the organization’s environmental footprint and know that true sustainability leaders use frameworks and set concrete goals. So, Girl Scout Merchandise and Properties teams have aligned operations with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), commonly used by organizations and government entities to frame their own sustainability goals. The SDGs address global challenges to sustainable international development and were set in 2015 by the United Nations General Assembly. The 17 goals and 169 targets span across social, economic, and environmental issues.

Girl Scout Merchandise and Properties teams set targets to advance Goals 7 – Affordable and Clean Energy, 8 – Decent Work and Economic Growth, 12 – Responsible Consumption and Production, and 13 – Climate Action over the coming years. Source: https://www.girlscouts.org/en/footer/sustainability.html