Ceremonies
I love traditional FORMAL ceremonies. Our troop has 3 formal ceremonies a year, a fall Investiture/Rededication/Awards ceremony, a spring Awards ceremony and a large multi-troop Bridging ceremony.
In my troop at any ceremony all girls and leaders dress in full uniform.
For girls - solid white top, tan bottoms, pin tab with vest/sash/tunic AND CLOSED SHOES.
For leaders - solid color blouse, slacks/skirt and their pin tab. I also wear a GS scarf and a few award pins I have received over the years.
We also all wear name badges to all events and ceremonies with our campnames on them (this will be a tomorrows post).
Our FALL ceremony:
Usually in late October or early November at the church where we meet. All parents and siblings are invited.
Practice- we do this 45 minutes prior to the start of the ceremony. A sign is on the door telling parents to please wait outside of the room until 6pm when we will start. I ask for volunteers for the flag ceremony and run through what the girls should expect and have girls who will speak practice their parts.
Entrance of the troop- all girls who are not participating in the flag ceremony file in by age level and procedure to their chairs but remain standing.
Flag Ceremony- 1 Cadette or older carries the American flag, 1 Cadette or older is the caller, 4 girls are the color guard (I try to pick one of each vest color). I give a patch to all who volunteer to be in the flag ceremony.
Welcome - thank parents for attending and for supporting their daughter in girl scouts.
Rededication- this part with start with me asking all girl scouts, past and present, to stand and recite with us the girl scout promise. Then the returning girls come up and recite the girl scout law and as they should ALL girls in my troop recite it by heart because we say it at every meeting.
Investiture- all new girls are invested into girl scouts. They come up together and stand facing their parents. Recite the girls scout law together and are pinned with their level girl scout pin tab.
Induction- new girls remain up front and are inducted into our troop. The campname poem is read by one of the older girls (I always cry so I can't make it through reading it). I present them each with a campname selected by the leadership team and clip on their name badge.
Awards- we call up girls by level and present any badges or patches they earned over the summer or in the first 2 months of meetings. While the whole level is up there we get a age level picture.
Announcements- Any event and reminders I need to tell parents.
Troop picture- Right before we go we line all girls up and with oldest/tallest in the back down to our little daisies in the front.
SPRING Ceremony
Usually 2 days or a week before bridging
Entrance
Flag ceremony
Awards
Announcements
Troop picture
May BRIDGING
The third Sunday in May at our local Naval Air Station Museum, which is on the far west of my council.
Months ahead I advertise this to all troops in our council who want to the event. Only bridging girls pay to attend, $5 each which pays for programs, flowers and decor. Troops are responsible for their own patches and new vests. Each participating troop sends several people to help set up chairs before the event or they stay after to take them down. All families are invited and non-bridging girls are welcome to come and support their sister scouts.
I get another troop to volunteer to be the flag corp to do the flag ceremony for this event. Our councils choir comes to sing the national anthem.
I welcome parents and recognize anyone from council who attended.
The bridging daisies are invited up, given a daisy (in honor of JGL), gathered at the right end of the stage where they read a portion of the bridging ceremony. They are then called one at a time by troop and first name, they cross the bridge and head to the left side of the stage where their leaders are waiting. One leader takes off her old vest and puts on her new one.
We continue the same with pattern with each level.
If we have any girls bridging to adult they get a half dozen white roses (JGL favorite flower). When they get to the end we remove the old vest and a certificate.
If any of them are being presented the lifetime membership we call up the girl and her mother and they are presented the lifetime membership pin and the adult tab.
The flags are retired and troops are invited to take troop pics on stage.
This is very popular in our area, although some troops like to do it on their own in September. We had 100 girls bridge at the 100th celebration and average about 75 at most bridging ceremonies. The littles get to see older girls who are still active that they can look up to AND for leaders it is an easy ceremony because they don't have to do anything but send in their registration on time. These are pictures from our May 2015 ceremony.
I have decided to add my script for a multi-level bridging ceremony to the files. These pics are from my 2017 and 2018 bridging ceremonies.
