Much to my surprise, this week I discovered that volunteers can be as young as six years old! That's right, we received a request from a very generous six year old who wanted to do something nice for the children who come to our dinner club program. She gave it a great deal of thought and decided she would like to have a very different kind of birthday party. She invited her friends to come to Café Lauren with her, have dinner with the children in our program and make new friends. And, instead of giving her gifts, she asked her friends to bring a game, a toy or art supplies to leave at the center for all the children to use. This small volunteer has a very big heart!

A very special news story will air this coming Monday during the 5 pm News on WMUR-TV.  It will be the third and final news piece as part of our Champions in Action Award from Citizens Bank New Hampshire and WMUR TV.  The girls at our Concord Center are the stars this time and what a show they put on!  They demonstrated their skills from parachute play and basketball to trying their hands at scientific experiments. The best part, for me, was listening to their responses when the reporter asked what they like about coming to Girls Inc.  They said they had so many friends, they loved the staff, they had so much fun, but the one that summed it up the best was the young girl who had been there for three days and said, "I love it here because even if I come in sad from school, when I get here they put a big smile on my face!"

Each year, when we gear up for the auction, I make a phone call that is critical to the success of this great event.  That call is to our friends at Postal Center USA.  Each year I ask the owner, Bob Walker, "Will you be able to ship our items again this year?"  Each year he responds, "I would be happy to!"  Even in this challenging economic climate, this generous man agreed once again to provide FREE shipping for all the items we sell. Of course that left me with a big smile on my face!

 

I thought you'd enjoy this story from one of our programs in So. Berwick, Maine, where we have been running an after-school program for 4th and 5th grade girls since the start of the school year. The girls have decided to analyze the history of "Barbie" in honor of her 50th birthday this month.  On Monday, they will be discussing the impact Barbie has had on body image and self-esteem in American culture.  They will be measuring Barbie to see what she would look like as a life-size woman and will compare the distorted image of her body to our conception of "real" women.  Did you know: if Barbie were real, she would wear a size three shoe, have to crawl to support her top-heavy frame, and only have room for either a trachea or esophagus in her neck?  She could either eat or breath, but not both!

In case you missed it - Girls Inc. of New Hampshire has a lot to smile about!