Never underestimate the power of young girls to make Alabaster a better place.
Who are the Daisies?
The Daisies are a group of Kindergarten and 1st-grade girls in Alabaster Girl Scout Troop 28212. There are about 20 this year, and they are proof that dynamite comes in small packages. Mary Emily Yancey and Katie Sparks-Chirinos are two of their mom leaders, and with lots of help, the girls have earned a ton of badges and patches and learned so much this year.
What is a Little Free Library (LFL)?
This year, as part of their community service project, the Daisies chose the Little Free Library as their Take Action service project associated with a badge called Think like an Engineer. This badge challenges scouts to look at how engineers use design thinking to solve problems. So that’s exactly what they did. If you have ever driven or walked by a large looking bird house in the front yard of someone’s home and seen a set of books inside a glass window, then you have seen a Little Free Library. A worldwide nonprofit organization, the Little Free Library helps inspire readers and reading by expanding book access for all through a network of volunteer-led Little Free Library book-exchange boxes. These boxes are built, maintained, and stocked with books by volunteers. One cool things about these little libraries is you can look up the location of every box in the world on their website littlefreelibrary.org/map/. The Daisy location is 176934.
Daisy’s Little Free Leaves
With help and supervision, the girls purchased all the materials they needed, designed, and assembled the LFL box, and collected books to fill it. They named it Daisy’s Little Free Leaves after the founder of the Girl Scouts Juliette Gordon Low whose nickname was Daisy. And Leaves was a clever addition because both daisies and books have leaves. Another leader and scout mom Katy Grier offered her front yard to host the library as she lives in a neighborhood with lots of foot traffic, and her neighbors were very enthusiastic about having a LFL. Mary Emily and her daughter Amy as well as Katy and her daughter Rylie have volunteered to serve as stewards who will be responsible for the LFL maintenance and upkeep.
Where do the books come from?
Books came from the scouts and more were donated by the Friends of the Library after their last book sale in the fall. People are free to take a book and can either bring it back or keep it. People can also leave books whenever they’d like. Rylie checks the box daily to keep the books neat. And for anyone who wants to help, there is an Instagram account @daisies_lfl to check for updates and see calls for book donations.
Don’t forget about the cookies
Alabaster Girl Scout Troop 28212 troop participates in the national Girl Scout cookie fundraiser every spring. Girls sell individually and also at booths in places like the Walmart Neighborhood Market, Brooklere Pharmacy, and Taziki’s. Rylie Grier makes marketing videos to share with friends and family, works troop cookie booths around the area, and spends every weekend of cookie season knocking on neighbors’ doors and working a front yard cookie booth with her sister. The troop sold over 30,000 boxes of cookies this year, which funds badges, camping trips, service projects, and other supplies and activities. “We are so fortunate to have so many supporters in Alabaster and the surrounding areas who have purchased cookies from our troop,” Mary Emily says, “It makes a big difference in the types of experiences we get to give our scouts.”