Event Director: Dorothy Chen
Date: May 15
Click here for 2016 Daisy Bridging Documents
Summary
The Daisy Bridging ceremony was held on Sunday, May 15, 2016 at 3pm at Glenola
Park. We had all seven Daisy troops and 68 girls in attendance at the ceremony.
Permit
The City of La Canada requires that a permit be obtained to use the park. An application
was completed and submitted to the City and I had to attend a parks meeting to get it
approved. Get this done in January/February.
Registration
After reading through the previous years’ notes, we decided to charge $10 per girl to
cover all the expenses. We ended up with about $77 extra. The flier was approved by
council in February and distributed to troops at the February meeting. Registration was
due March 15th and info was sent to leaders shortly after. Fliers were also sent to the
SUM to post on the website.
Insurance
GSGLA requires insurance for non-registered attendees. There is an application and a
check sent to Mutual of Omaha for the cost. It was $7.48.
Ceremony
It turned out to be a beautiful day. There were about 150 in attendance. There are no
restrooms at Glenola. Attendees brought their own chairs and blankets. Our troop
arrived at 2:00pm for set up and a brief run through of the skit. We had 5 out of 7 girls
from our troop doing the emcee and skit. Moms were asked to help with serving
refreshments and keeping the Daisy troops organized. We lined each troop up by
numerical order and then alphabetically by last name (as listed in the program)
We began with a welcome and intro, pledge of allegiance and the GS promise and law.
The girls did a “bake a brownie” ceremony. The girls had made a cardboard oven in a
previous meeting with an open door for the Daisies to crawl through (see script). After
the skit was over, we called each Daisy girl to crawl through the oven on the bridge.
Their leaders received them on the other side of the bridge and gave them a certificate,
patch, new Brownie vest and a Brownie necklace. We concluded with the Brownie
Smile song, Make New Friends and Taps. Our girls presented the leaders with a calla
lily bouquet.
Refreshments
Each Daisy troop was asked to donate two dozen brownies. Our troop provided two
sheet cakes (one Daisy one and one Brownie one) from Costco. One was vanilla with
flowers that said “Once a Daisy”. The other was chocolate with rainbows and said “Now
a Brownie”. The cakes cost $37 and fed 100 so it was a great deal! We used a bridge
decoration to put in between the cakes to symbolize the transition from Daisy to
Brownie. We also had bottled water and ice donated from Sprouts. It was well received.
Plates and napkins were donated from the Brownie Fly Up hosting troop who had
leftovers. I would ask around to see who you can borrow things from!
Decorations
The girls put rainbow streamers and paper flowers along the bridge. The skit was a hit
and all the Daisies had fun getting “baked”.
Program
A half page program was created for the attendees and listed the troop members and
leaders as well as the order of the ceremony and the songs.
Suggestions:
It costs $75 to use the electricity at the park. We ended up
borrowing a block rocker from a boy scout troop- a microphone is a MUST. Please keep
in mind the SU also takes a $1 fee for each registrant- I was not aware of this and had
to find other ways to stay within our budget. Sprouts and Trader Joe’s are likely to help
donate water and ice.
It is much cheaper to buy patches from Snappy Logos then to buy them from the GS
store. I would invest in getting high quality paper for the certificates. We gave each
troop leader a packet with the blank certificates to complete, patches and the necklaces
(bottle cap ones from Etsy). The necklaces were a big chunk of the expenses but they
were well received as it is a keepsake they can wear for the next two years.
I would make a point to acknowledge the leaders and save money in the budget for a
small gift for each leader. It cost $4 for each bouquet of lilies at TJ’s and the leaders
were very appreciative. After all, they did all the work to get the Daisies prepared for the
ceremony!
Our troop had a fun time planning and hosting this event. They all wanted the chance to
speak in the microphone and enjoyed helping our younger scouts.