Meet the Green Machine

The Green Machine Team is a team of Girl Scouts who are competing for the First® Lego® League Global Innovation Award (http://fllinnovationaward.firstlegoleague.org/) which grants funding to bring inventions to market. The prize is awarded based on review of the innovation and popular vote. If we can get our team into the top 10, which is won by popular vote, we will be guaranteed consideration from the FLL judges. We are proud to represent Girl Scouts in this competition. We would like all Girl Scouts and their families to vote. Everyone can vote once every 24 hours.  Here's the direct voting link: http://fllinnovationaward.firstlegoleague.org/%E2%80%9Cwachastabb%E2%80%9D-wax-covered-hybrid-seed-tomato-turns-blue-when-infected-salmonella

Team Description: 

Our team comes from 6 different Girl Scout troops, 5 different schools and grades! Our ages are 9-14years old.  The team is called "Green Machine" and we are Girl Scouts from the West Windsor–Plainsboro Service unit.  Even though we still sell cookies our motto is "We are not just about cookies anymore!"  We compete in the FIRST® (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) Lego® League Robotics games and this year we won the first place Champions Prize at our regional qualifier. This means that our team received high marks in each of 4 judging categories: Core values, Robot design, Research, and Robot games!  Our robot is an autonomous (no remote control) machine, built to score points by performing mission tasks. We call her Miss Cookie Crusher. We are proud to be Girl Scouts and will represent Girl Scouts once again at the FLL Championship Games  at the University of Pennsylvania on January 28.  

Team Research: 

Every year the FLL games has a special theme and teams must do research to come up with a novel way to solve problems that are related to the theme. We use our creativity to design or modify an existing solution to a real world problem.  This year the theme was ‘FOOD FACTOR’ and the challenge was to invent a novel way to keep food safe. Teams from all over the world came up with many ideas such as ultraviolet light lunch boxes and automatic sanitizing counter tops. Our idea is called ‘Wachasttab’ or wax covered hybrid seed tomato that turns blue when infected with Salmonella.

Brief Submission Description: 

We started our research on our project by visiting and interviewing growers at the local farmers markets to learn about problems they faced with food safety. Everyone knew about the contamination of raw foods with Salmonella, but they agreed that it is very difficult to detect until someone gets sick. Besides potatoes, people eat tomatoes more than any other fruit or vegetable.  In this country almost all tomatoes come from large farms that are supplied with seeds from 3 companies; Monsanto, Heinz and Dupont. We researched outbreaks of Salmonella and read papers about new discoveries for detecting Salmonella  in tomatoes. We talked with experts at two universities and came up with our own solution. We examined data from some preliminary experiments and realized that it is possible to genetically modify vegetables so that they change color in the presence of Salmonella.

Wachasttab is a patent pending form of genetically modified plant to prevent the spread of disease from Salmonella. The process can be applied to any plant, but our project specifically targets tomatoes. Salmonella can colonize tomatoes at any stage of the food chain, from seed to marketplace. Wachasttab is a method to protect seeds with probiotics  and genetically modify tomatoes so that they can be identified if contaminated with Salmonella. The contaminated tomatoes are not meant to be eaten-they are meant to be destroyed. Because the modified genes are not actually activated unless the plant is exposed to Salmonella, consumers who object to eating genetically modified produce should not be concerned. We hope that one of the large tomato seed companies (Monsanto, Heinz, or Dupont) will use our idea to help improve the safety of raw tomatoes. 

The B.I.G. Celebration (Believe in Girls)

The B.I.G. Celebration
(Believe in Girls)
Saturday, June 23, 2012

Start: 1:00 pm
End: Conclusion of evening fireworks
(approximately 10:30pm)

Cost: $89.50 per ticket (girl or adult) which includes the cost of entry, the evening concert, 100 activities, an event t-shirt, a commemorative B.I.G Celebration patch, off-site parking and shuttle service to the event site from the parking lot.

Join thousands of Girl Scouts from around the nation!

Register now for The “Believe In Girls” (B.I.G.) Celebration, a day-long event culminating in an evening concert and fireworks spectacular featuring Grammy nominated artist and celebrity judge on NBC’s “The Sing Off,” Sara Bareilles, and another soon to be announced A-list artist.

The event will also include daytime performances by a variety of talented artists to be announced later this month.

The day-long event will include 100 activities taking place at the scenic Liberty State Park, which features 1,122 acres of open space and panoramic views of The Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island and the New York Harbor. The activities will include:

– Join the National Wildlife Federation in planting native flower beds to attract the endangered North American Songbirds to Liberty State Park

– Perform in the highly-anticipated B.I.G. Celebration Flash Mob Dance

– Learning to rock climb in our B.I.G. RockwallZone

– Take fun pictures with your friends in a B.I.G. photo booth

– Creating SWAPS and other crafts at the A.C. Moore CraftZone

– Check out the B.I.G. Cooking Pavilion, where you will learn about “Living Healthy and Leading Healthy,” see a variety of exciting cooking demos, roll up your sleeves at one of the hands-on workshops and much more.

– Tackle the B.I.G. Obstacle Course

– Experience Living Liberty, the amazing “living Statue of Liberty”

– Visit the Port Authority of NY & NJ’s booth and meet George Washington Bridge Senior Resident Engineer, Andrea Giorgi Bocker, and learn about how a bridge is built and what an engineer does(and she is a Girl Scout!)

– Bounce in one of more than a dozen bounce houses at the B.I.G. BounceZone

– Shop at a Girl Scout Councils of New Jersey 100th Anniversary Shop (where you can pick up your FREE 100th B.I.G. Celebration patch!)

– Play a game of hoops with the WNBA and meet legends of women’s basketball

– Experience the Girl Scouts: Past, Present, Future Exhibit, where they’ll see vintage uniforms and artifacts

– Take a hip-hop dancing class

– Learn about WAGGS (World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts)

– Experience Zumbatonic®, the popular aerobic-dance workout designed for kids

– Wear a FREE B.I.G. temporary tattoo

– Learn about the wonders of the Hudson River at the Hudson River Museum booth

– Join in the ALL-DAY dance party with our very own DJ

– Add some Hair Flair to your look at the B.I.G. Hair Studio (additional fees apply)

– View the magic of the stars with an evening astronomy experience

– Snap your pic with the Journey Book characters

– Learn a cheer from one of New Jersey’s premier squads

– Take a short cruises on New York Harbor from the nearby marina (additional fees apply)

– Enter the onsite B.I.G. Photo Contest for a chance to win a fun prize and have your photos displayed for all to see on the jumbotron during the event!

– Take a soccer clinic on the picturesque fields of Liberty State Park

– Take a photo in front of Juliette Low’s Savannah, Georgia home! How? The wonders of technology!

– And this is just the beginning…

Special Promotions:
Participants who purchase tickets before February 29, 2012, will receive an early access pass granting them entry to the event one hour early.

The first 15,000 people to purchase tickets will receive a free cinch sack bag.

About Sara Bareilles
Sara Bareilles is a Grammy-nominated singer-songwriter and pianist. She has sold over one million records in the United States and served as a celebrity judge for the third season of NBC's “The Sing-Off.” She has topped the Billboard music charts with hit singles including “Love Song” and “King of Anything.” For more on Sara and her music, please visit www.sarabmusic.com.

One Million Mile Challenge

One Million is a pretty BIG number when you think about it.  It has six zeros!!  If someone challenged me to walk one millions miles…I would think…that’s insane!  Now, one hundred…that’s a reasonable number.  There are only two zeros.  I can walk one hundred miles.  That is doable…even challenging. 

The One Million Mile Challenge is a program that was developed as a signature event for our council to celebrate the 100th Anniversary of Girl Scouting this year.  Girls and adults are challenged to walk 100 miles for the 100th!  They would do this using a pedometer to track their steps and convert the number of steps into miles.  By registering for the program, participants receive a pedometer, commemorative patch, and tracking sheet.  These are distributed to the Service Unit Managers who bring them to their local monthly Leader’s Meeting to give out.  

The purpose of this program?  To brings awareness to the girls, their troops, and their families about healthy living and staying active.  Until you put on that pedometer and really track your steps, you do not know how active or inactive you really are in a day.  Participants are encouraged to set goals for the number of steps they want to achieve in a day or week.  If an entire troop is participating they can ask members to bring their logs to a meeting to look at how much the troop has accomplished together.  The same is true for a family.  They can talk about it over dinner and track their progress weekly.  Maybe the troop/family can set a goal to walk to another state….New York City…or even Disney World!  By adding up the miles troops can track this on a large map.   The best part of the program is there really is NO ending date.  That’s right.  Participants can register at any time to start walking.  I think once you start wearing the pedometer, it becomes so much FUN you don’t want to stop. 

So where do you sign-up?  Registration can be done online via our eBIZ system.  You can log on to our website at www.gscsnj.org and look under programs/events to find the link to register.  Registration will remain open until we reach 10,000 people or the end of the Girl Scout year, whichever comes first.

We are hoping to have 10,000 people participate in the program – each walking 100 miles – helping us achieve our goal of One Million Miles!  There is even a virtual pedometer on our website where participants can track the progress for the entire council.  Participants are encouraged to click on the pedometer and fill out the submission form to add their steps to our total.

With us each walking at least 100 miles, together we will reach our goal of One Million Miles!

Let us know about your steps! Share your stories, walking events and photos on our blog! Submit to socialmedia@gscsnj.org, subject line Million Mile Challenge. 

Click here to register.

Click here to log your steps for our online pedometer!

Bridging Into the Next Century

Over the week thousands of NJ Girl Scouts bridged across the George Washington Bridge as part of a kick off celebration of the Girl Scouts 100th Anniversary. Below is a sample of the media coverage about this historic event.

The Record

http://www.northjersey.com/news/North_Jersey_Girl_Scouts_help_mark_groups_anniversary_with_march.html

The Star-Ledger

http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2011/11/2500_nj_girl_scouts_storm_geor.html

CBSLocal.com

http://newyork.cbslocal.com/2011/11/13/girl-scouts-celebrate-100-years-with-gwb-bridging-event/

The Courier Post

http://newyork.cbslocal.com/2011/11/13/girl-scouts-celebrate-100-years-with-gwb-bridging-event/

New York 1 (video included)

http://manhattan.ny1.com/content/top_stories/150700/gw-bridge-walk-kicks-off-centenary-celebration-for-girl-scouts

Teaneck Patch

http://teaneck.patch.com/articles/mary-pat-christie-to-speak-in-fort-lee-after-girl-scouts-gwb-crossing

Event Consolidation to GW Bridge

Event Consolidation to GW Bridge

You Spoke, We Listened!

The Girl Scout Councils of New Jersey have exciting news about the November 13, 2011, Centennial Bridging Event. Due to the overwhelming response from our members to cross the iconic George Washington Bridge we’ll be merging all of our bridging activities to this single site. This will allow us to not only meet the demands of members but also enable us to better utilize our resources and make it an even bigger event and celebration.

We understand that moving the event to only the George Washington Bridge has the potential to inconvenience some of our members and we are committed to making this transition as smooth as possible. Any members that registered to participate in the Ben Franklin Bridging event on or before 5 p.m. on October 24, 2011, will be offered free transportation to and from the George Washington Bridge on the day of the event from the following sites:

·       Girl Scouts’ Cherry Hill Service Center

40 Brace Road
Cherry Hill, NJ 08034

·       Girl Scouts’ East Brunswick Service Center
108 Church Lane
East Brunswick, NJ 08816

·       Monmouth Service Area – Garden State Parkway

Milepost: 100, Center median between exits 98 and 100, Monmouth County

We hope you join in our excitement as we get closer to this once-in-a lifetime experience of bridging into the next century of Girl Scouting at the historic George Washington Bridge. There is still time to register. To learn more visit www.girlscouts100nj.org. If you are eligible for transportation to the George Washington Bridge and have any questions or concerns please call 201-232-6001.

We thank you for your continued support and look forward to sharing this special day with you and thousands of sister Girl Scouts across the state.

Questions or concerns? Please email info@girlscouts100nj.org.

Sponsored By:

Princeton Girl Scouts Help Try to Break World Record

Local Girl Scouts did one minute of jumping jacks in Princeton on Tuesday, part of an effort to get 20,000 nationwide to do the same.

By Greta Cuyler - Princeton Packet
http://princeton.patch.com/articles/princeton-girl-scouts-help-try-to-break-world-record
October 12, 2011

It’s about getting fit and having fun.

And 35 Princeton Girl Scouts did just that on Tuesday afternoon in the courtyard of the Princeton Shopping Center, joining a nationwide effort to break the Guinness World Record title for the most people performing jumping jacks in a 24-hour period.

The Girl Scouts did one minute of uninterrupted jumping jacks.


The goal is to have 20,000 people participate between Tuesday at 3 p.m. and Wednesday at 3 p.m., east coast time.

“I thought it would be fun for the girls to be involved with trying to break at Guinness World Record and to show the community some of the fun things Girl Scouts get to do,” Karen Freundlich, the volunteer service unit manager for the Princeton Girl Scouts, an umbrella organization for 25 different scout troops in town.

A timekeeper armed with a stopwatch timed the girls’ participation and the results will be gathered nationally to determine if the record was broken, although it will probably take a few weeks for the national results to be announced.

The “Let’s Jump!” effort is spearheaded by National Geographic Kids magazine.

To break the record, more than 20,000 people must complete one minute of jumping jacks in events occurring between 3 p.m. on Tuesday and 3 p.m. on Wednesday, east coast time.

First Lady Michelle Obama kicked things off in Washington D.C. on Tuesday with one minute of jumping jacks, supporting her "Let’s Move!" campaign, which encourages kids and families to get healthy and active.

First Lady Mary Pat Christie Named Honorary Chair for the 100th Anniversary Announced

Trenton, NJ - First Lady Mary Pat Christie has been named the Honorary Chair of the Girl Scouts 100th Anniversary year-long celebration in New Jersey. Founded by Juliette Gordon-Low, who coordinated the first Girl Scout Troop in Savannah, Georgia, the organization will mark its 100-year milestone on March 12, 2012
.

“For 100 years, the Girl Scouts have empowered, challenged and inspired young girls in New Jersey, across the nation and around the globe,” said Mrs. Christie. “As a former member and current Girl Scout mom, I recognize the important role the organization provides in helping each scout find and develop her individual potential and learn important life skills through leadership and service activities. Girl Scouts instill a sense of personal pride and achievement for participants and I am honored to be part of this centennial commemoration.”

Approximately 145,000 girls and adults are current members of the Girl Scouts in New Jersey. Alumnae of the program total in the hundreds of thousands in the Garden State and total over 50 million in the United States.

"We are delighted that Mrs. Christie will be celebrating the 100th Anniversary of the Girl Scouts with us. As First Lady, as a Girl Scout parent, and as a successful businesswoman, Mrs. Christie sets a tremendously positive example for more than 100,000 active Girl Scouts who proudly call New Jersey home,” said Helen Wronski, CEO, Girl Scouts of Northern New Jersey.

The 100th anniversary of Girl Scouting provides an opportunity to celebrate with current members, reconnect with former members, and recruit new members while reaching out to past, present, and future donors and volunteers and the community at large.

New Jersey’s four Girl Scout councils, which consist of Girl Scouts Heart of New Jersey, Girl Scouts of Central & Southern New Jersey, Girl Scouts of Northern New Jersey and Girl Scouts of the Jersey Shore, have joined forces to plan three signature events for the occasion: a bridging ceremony over the George Washington Bridge in Fort Lee, a bridging ceremony over the Ben Franklin Bridge in Camden, both on November 13, 2011, and a Girl Scout Jamboree/Camporee called The B.I.G. (Believe in Girls) Celebration:100 Years from June 22 – 24, 2012 at Liberty State Park in Jersey City.

As part of the year-long festivities, the Girl Scout Councils of New Jersey have launched their 100th anniversary website at www.girlscouts100nj.org to provide new networking opportunities for Girl Scouts past and present and also will serve as an important tool in recruiting new members to join the Girl Scout community.

Girl Scouts is the world’s preeminent organization dedicated solely to girls that affords an accepting and nurturing environment to help girls build character and skills for success in the real world.