2020 CitrusPeel Gold Edition

2020, The Year of the Pivot
Girl Scouts During Covid
For the last few years, Girl Scouts of Citrus
(GSC) looked forward to celebrating 2020.
The year kicked off in high gear as a new and
invigorated Board of Directors was inducted at
the 2020 Annual Meeting. And most importantly,
excitement was high as girls, volunteers and
staff jumped into the final planning for the much
anticipated G.I.R.L. 2020 Convention. The cookie
Mega drop was a great success as everyone
worked together to fulfill cookie order pickups in a
timely manner.
By early March, GSC’s summer camp program
was nearly filled and Council was celebrating
the birthday of Girl Scouting with a ceremonial
groundbreaking for the Women’s History & Cultural
Center 2020 was to be GSC’s year to shine.
Then everyone was suddenly faced with an
unprecedented event … COVID-19.
Immediately following the groundbreaking event
on March 12, the GSC leadership team made the
decision to close the Council Service Center and
Retail Shop to the public and promised to keep
a close eye on CDC and local health department
guidelines. It didn’t take long to reach the decision
to halt all in-person activities across council as
safety is always GSC’s number one priority.
From all outward appearances, Girl Scouting in
Central Florida had essentially come to a stop.
CITRUS RISES TO THE
CHALLENGE
Never deterred by a challenge, the Citrus team
immediately began creating innovative ways to
continue delivering a Girl Scout experience to
families who now found themselves isolated and
facing a whole new set of challenges themselves.
The pivot to virtual programming required staff
members and volunteers to learn new skills and
take risks. Staff who had previously shied away
from the camera spotlight, were now answering
the call to create tutorial badge videos for girls. A
series of Patch programs was developed giving
families fun activities they could work together to
accomplish while at home.
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