Each year our Pathfinders choose a charity for
year-long initiatives. Last year they picked the local Women's
Shelter. A representative came out to discuss violence against
women etc and help them decide on things to do that would help.
At Christmas the Pathfinders assisted with the Christmas party
the shelter puts on for the children in residence. Later in the
year the Pathfinders organized a district wide food drive for the
shelter. They attended every unit in the district and explained
the need, then arranged to return about three weeks later and
collect the food and deliver it to the shelter on behalf of our
district.
Interestingly, this year they chose the local
animal shelter for their year long service project. One meeting
they made toys for the cats and blankets for the dogs cages. At
Christmas they assisted with "Paws for Claus" a
fundraiser organized by the shelter (people bring their pets to
get their pictures taken with Santa - I'm not lying!). The girls
were a bit disappointed because you have to be 18 to actually be
involved with the animals so their job was to sell raffle
tickets. Still Santa's elves but not really the same.
It has been interesting to see the girls'
reaction to their year long initiatives. A big piece of this is
their group decision-making process of choosing the charity and
activities to go with it. Speaking for my daughter, initially she
was very excited about the animal shelter idea, but now she feels
that their time would have been better put towards helping
people, not animals, and the work they did with the Women's
Shelter was much more satisfying.