![\"unnamed\"](\"http:\/\/com.bradley.edu\/newslab\/files\/2014\/02\/unnamed.jpg\")
<\/a>The vision for the Girl Scouts’ new building.<\/p><\/div>\n
<\/p>\n
Across the nation, it\u2019s that time of year when adorable little Girl Scouts guilt you in to buying boxes of overpriced cookies. For the Girl Scouts of Central Illinois<\/a>, however, this season\u2019s fundraising projects hold a much bigger weight. They\u2019re trying to raise $1.7 million to build a new facility for troop meetings, activities and offices.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n \u201cThe building has been here since 1968 and it\u2019s not really providing us with the space we need to help the girls,\u201d said Ashley Taylor, Fund Development Professional for Girl Scouts of Central Ill.<\/p>\n Taylor coordinates fundraising projects for the organization, including her latest endeavor, the \u2018Desserts First\u2019 event<\/a> happening on Feb. 27.<\/p>\n \u201cLocal area chefs are challenged to take our Girl Scout cookies and turn them into an elaborate dessert for a culinary competition,\u201d said Taylor. \u201cIt gives people a different way to see us. Everyone knows us by our cookies but this is something a little bit different. It\u2019s a nice, fun way to support the Girl Scouts.\u201d<\/p>\n The event is in its second year, and it gives community members a chance to donate money or time as a volunteer to help the organization. For a $40 ticket, attendees can sample all eight dessert creations, listen to live entertainment, bid on raffle baskets and more.<\/p>\n \u201cWe always need volunteers to work at the event and help with event planning,\u201d said Taylor. \u201cAnything from setting up raffle baskets to calling to ask for donations, there are lots of ways to help.\u201d<\/p>\n The Girl Scouts do raise quite a bit of money selling cookies every year, but the cold weather and snow this winter have impacted their cookie sales, which have been extended into April to give the girls more time to sell.<\/p>\n Despite the success of the cookie program, Girl Scouts rely on community volunteers and monetary donations to keep its doors open.<\/p>\n \u201cEven though we\u2019re celebrating cookies, a lot of people have the misconception that Girl Scouts don\u2019t need any funding because we\u2019ve got this huge, successful cookie program,\u201d said Taylor.\u00a0 \u201cIn reality, 100 percent of the proceeds go back to the girls in some way, shape, or form. The cookie box is helping the girl directly but there\u2019s so much more behind the scenes that the girls need.\u201d<\/p>\n Boxes of cookies stored in the Girl Scouts office.<\/p><\/div>\n Lisa Trimble, volunteer development specialist for Girl Scouts of Central Ill. knows the importance of the community to keeping the organization afloat. She is responsible for finding volunteers to support their programming and collaborating with the community to find the people necessary to make their events a success.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen people think of Girl Scout volunteers<\/a>, they think of volunteer troop leaders but we are so much more,\u201d said Trimble. \u201cThat\u2019s the message that I\u2019m trying to carry out into the community by talking to different organizations that we can possibly partner with.\u201d<\/p>\n From college students to corporate volunteers, anyone is welcome to help with the programming put on by Girl Scouts. In addition, Girl Scouts holds several membership drives and campaigns to help send girls to camp who otherwise couldn\u2019t afford it.<\/p>\n \u201cWe try to do whatever we can to create tomorrow\u2019s leaders today,\u201d said Taylor. \u201cWe serve over 5,000 girls here in the Peoria area. Most people don\u2019t know that there are 128 councils in the U.S. and we\u2019re in the top 15. That\u2019s really big for the entire United States. We\u2019re small but mighty.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Mapping out Girl Scout’s Events<\/strong><\/p>\n Explore this map<\/a> to find out where this spring’s events are being held in central Ill. and how you can get involved in their fundraising project. Volunteers are needed for various events throughout the spring, so visit the map<\/a> to find out when.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" by Kira Rysiewicz Girl Scouts of Central Illinois has several volunteer opportunities and fundraising options in hopes of building a $1.7 million new building. Find out how you can help with the effort and take a look at the map of events here.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":54,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[92,37,94,90,91,79,93],"class_list":["post-339","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general","tag-central-illinois","tag-com-425","tag-fundraising","tag-girl-scouts","tag-gsci","tag-imp","tag-volunteering"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/com.bradley.edu\/newslab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/339","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/com.bradley.edu\/newslab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/com.bradley.edu\/newslab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/com.bradley.edu\/newslab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/54"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/com.bradley.edu\/newslab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=339"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/com.bradley.edu\/newslab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/339\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":359,"href":"https:\/\/com.bradley.edu\/newslab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/339\/revisions\/359"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/com.bradley.edu\/newslab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=339"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/com.bradley.edu\/newslab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=339"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/com.bradley.edu\/newslab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=339"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/a>