November

Upcoming events:

Meeting Wednesday Nov 4, 6 to 7pm at the lodge (cont to work on outdoor progression)
Please sign Gentle Barn release forms if you are planning on attending November 21

Saturday November 7   Los Cerritos Wetlands Restoration
   10:30 to noon
meet at 1st street and PCH, please don't be late
Closed toe shoes required, Camp Fire t-shirt (not polo) for example camp shiwaka or camp wasewagan would be nice so people know we are Camp Fire kids
This event fulfills the requirement for a service project for our end of year Discovery patch.

Friday Nov 13  Discovery Club at the council 6 to 8pm

Wed  Nov 18  meeting at the lodge 6 to 7pm

Saturday Nov 21  Gentle Barn visit 11am (meet at McDonalds near the council at 8:30 for quick breakfast) I need drivers, let me know if you can help drive, it's approx a one hour drive to the farm.
This event will fulfill the service project requirement for the end of year Discovery patch.

Monday Nov 30  Discovery level gift wrap party at the lodge/council 6pm


December 5  Belmont Shore parade 6pm

Regarding Service Projects: You must participate in either the Los Cerritos Wetlands Restoration event OR the Gentle Barn visit to fulfill the requirements for our end of year Discovery patch/award. If you cannot make either event, there is one more Los Cerritos Wetlands restoration scheduled on Dec 5th (same day as the Belmont Shore parade) you can go to, let me know what event you attended.

Sept 2015

We get new blue uniform polos this year and some of you ordered jackets that should be in soon.

First event of the year is Friday, September 11 Patriots day at the airplane park: Del Valle in Lakewood on woodruff. Lisa will be coordinating a meet up at McDonalds prior to the 5pm check in at the park.  Kids need to be in uniform: we will have new blue polo shirts to wear this year. More details to come for this event. Please RSVP to Lisa G if you can attend ASAP.

The kids are now in Discovery Level, you should have received info from the council with sign up sheets. the first Discovery club meeting is Friday September 18 from 6 to 8pm at the council. please bring the signed paperwork, club dues are $60 (this is separate from our wakin yolo gidi club dues) and be in uniform. there is a calendar in the packet that was sent out that has all the Discovery Club events for the year. we will continue to meet monthly but will add these DC meetings to our calendar.

Kiniya is early this year, Thursday Sept 24 7pm. Please wear your ceremonial collars to this event. we will be making a wakin yolo gidi symbol patch for the back of the collar this year, so leave the middle of the collar free from patches/beads.

First meeting for our group is Wednesday October 7 at the council from 6 to 7pm. Please bring your wakin yolo gidi book bag, pen/pencil and be in uniform. We will hand out hard copies of the yearly calendar for you to take home. We will be working on an Outdoor Progression Patch this year, it is very important to be at all meetings, council events, service project event (wetlands restoration in the spring) and the Discovery Club meetings. My older group really enjoyed this new chapter in their camp fire experience, the kids will become friends with other kids their age in other groups and take on more responsibility in the council. As they move through Discovery level and on to Horizon Club, they will be prepared to run events and serve as officers in the club. These are skills that will help them in high school, college and future careers. Please bring a check of $75 for our group dues (this money pays for our deposit to all council events, supplies, patches and beads) Remember, you can purchase beads at the council (for example the bead list kids bring back from Camp Wintaka) anytime. Your child can also earn beads from the bead book, available at the council store.

October 17 is the Fall Halloween Carnival

October 19 Bingo Night Neighborhood Association get together

May/June update

Meeting this week Wednesday May 20 hosted by Emily and Aliyah, 6 to 7pm at the council

Please turn in pancake breakfast ticket money on Wednesday so we can turn everything in ASAP, hope you all enjoyed your pancakes today.

We have fall registration packets, please come in at the next meeting and fill out your paperwork, it get's easier each year as you just update any new info on the forms. Registration fee is due and this year we get a new blue polo shirt for our uniform. Make sure you have your check book with you so we can get it all done quickly.

I have an order form for new Hoodie sweatshirts and crew neck sweatshirts if anyone is interested, I highly recommend getting one as they come in handy as a "uniform" top in a pinch, we literally wore out our three red jackets. I will have the form at the next meeting, we only have until June 5 to get the order in and i don't know when they will be ordering another round.

Camp Shiwaka is session 1 this year, June 22 - 26, please sign up soon so we have a final head count. We are assigned fire ring 7.

Our end of year swim/ice cream party will be Friday June 26 after Camp Shiwaka the time will be either 3 to 7 or 4 to 8, still finalizing this event. After a fun week at camp together it will be great to end the year with a party, thanks to the Kirchhoffs for hosting!!

A few plans for next year: we will be Discovery level starting in the fall which means the council will host some events to get all the Discovery level kids together for some training and fun. We will have new dark blue polo shirts for our uniform and they will have their collars to wear at all ceremonial events (kiniya, grand council fire, thursday night shiwaka sleep over etc). You can decorate the collars but please leave a spot in the very middle of the back for our group symbol. We will be making our group symbol patch next year with our new name Wakin Yolo Gidi's, yay!

As we move into a new level we will continue to earn beads and patches along the 5 trails (family, self, community, outdoors, creativity and future). I am excited for us to start on an "Outdoor Progression" patch called "Fire Tender" which is one of the original Indian patches that look so great on the leather collars. There are 7 activities to complete including taking a hike, learning about knots, learning about proper camping techniques, fire building and fire safety, using a pocket knife, compass training and a few more things. The kids learn much of this at Camp Shiwaka but we will go over in a little more detail at some of our meetings. We will plan and go on a hike to complete the progression. The next outdoor progression is called "High Adventure" which is another beautiful patch and will be more advanced techniques in hiking, compass, camping etc. We may start this progression next year, maybe at camp shiwaka or the following year. My plan is to work on outdoor progressions along with our "business meeting" format (the kids will continue to rotate through president, vp, etc) at our meetings and finally, we will continue to have "kid run" meetings as well. I am so excited to include more outdoor hiking events and a visit to Los Cerritos Wetlands will be on our calendar as well, we need to see what happened to all the seed bombs we through a few years back!

I hope everyone will continue with us to the next level and please let me know if you have any programming suggestions (outings, field trip ideas, special guest speakers you may know etc) I welcome any and all suggestions from you guys, thanks so much for hanging in there with us!

Spring events 2015, new name!!

We have our new Indian name!! Wakin yo lo gidi  (which means Flying fire wild cats) perfect!!

Monday March 23 Cake auction and potluck at Millikan High School cafeteria 5:30 start
Please bring a side dish or main course to share.
Cake theme is TOYS

Thursday March 26, Cerritos Flag Salute 18125 Bloomfield Ave, Cerritos, 90703  6:45 to 7:15

Wednesday April 22 Rocket Cat meeting hosted by Alyssa 6 to 7pm at the council
  We will rehearse the fire maker desire for grand council fire

As fuel is brought to the fire
so I promise to bring
My strength, my sensitivity
My heart's desire
My joy, my sorrow
To the fire of human kindness
For I will tend
As my fore bearer's have tended since time began
That fire that is called
The love of one for another
The love of all towards God



Grand Council Fire is Sunday May 3,  7pm Please wear your new ceremonial collars, bring a sit upon, flashlight, closed toe shoes

Saturday May 9  Los Cerritos Wetlands restoration and nature walk  10am to noonLos Cerritos Wetlands

Friday May 15  Spring Camp out, Saturday May 16 Pancake breakfast

Wednesday May 20 rocket cat meeting, hosted by Aliyah

Wednesday May 27 rocket cat meeting hosted by Emily

Wednesday June 10 last rocket cat meeting of the year

Collar Workshop

Our ceremonial collar making workshop will be Wednesday March 4 at 6pm at the council.

The cost is $70 per member for the cost of the leather, $35 is due when we order the leather and the balance is due at the workshop. Be prepared to make the deposit at our next meeting (or get together) so we can order the leather ASAP.

A parent or adult must accompany each child at the workshop, the parent will help their child draw and cut out the collar shape.

Typically the workshop is 2 hours in length.

We will have a leather sample to choose from prior to the workshop so you can choose the color you want. There are only a few choices to pick from, earth colors basically.

November 2014

Meetings will be Wednesday Dec 3 (previously we had a meeting on the 10th)  and our Xmas party will be on Wednesday Dec 17th tentatively at Lisa G's house. This year we will have a cookie exchange, each child brings two dozen cookies and then we share them with each other so everyone gets a nice mixed tray to take home.

Belmont shore parade is Saturday December 6, meet on Quincy Ave to line up at 6pm, parade starts at 7pm. Please wear uniform, comfortable shoes, red/white or blue sweatshirt under vest. I will have santa hats for the everyone to wear. You can wear Xmas gloves, necklaces and hold jingly bells to shake while we are walking. I need a few parent volunteers to walk with the kids, anyone interested?

We are planning a caroling event for Saturday December 13 at 2pm in a nursing home in the Bixby Knolls area. I will send out a confirmation email once it is officially set up. There is a fire station near the retirement home we thought we could sing some carols for the firemen and give out cookies. This event will be hosted by Natalie and count as her meeting for the year. Stay tuned for more info on this event. Pencil it in your calendar.

See you on December 3rd, 6pm at the council. Please have your workbook in a 3 ring binder and bring it to the meeting, we will be decorating brand new canvas bags to hold our new workbook and other camp fire items gathered throughout the year.

I am working on the meeting assignments for the kids, these will be handed out early January and start the end of January, beginning of Feb. I am also working on getting some guest speakers to come to a future meeting as well as planning a wetlands event in the Spring.

November/December 2014

Hello Rocket Cats!

Hope everyone had a great time at our pumpkin carving party, we can make this event our new fall tradition to get us into the Halloween spirit!

Next meeting is Wednesday November 5, 6pm at the lodge.  PLEASE BE IN UNIFORM, we are taking our photo for a Kiniya poster. We will continue with our "formal business meeting"at the start and I really need everyone to be on time, 6pm sharp. I am expecting the kids to take their roles seriously (president, vp, secretary etc) and if we are missing a person they cannot read their part or fulfill their assigned job. From now on the first 15 minutes of our meetings will be formal with kids discussing group business, we will rotate officers so it is important each child gets a turn being president. If your child is a historian, they are allowed to take photos at our meetings and events, they can print up and share photos with fellow members. We will continue through the next few years rotating kids through so everyone gets a feel of what each office is like. Thanks for understanding we need to start on time each meeting.

Wasewagan bead fair is Saturday November 15-16. You should receive info in the mail about what to bring, we will meet at 8am at Mcdonalds by the council for a quick breakfast and be on the road by 8:30. So far we have Art, Chris and myself driving up which will be enough drivers for the number of kids going. 

I have collected dues from Aliyah, Alissa, Natalie, Carly, Conner, Lizzie and Nicolas. Still need dues from Nate M, Nate N, Scott and Emily: dues are $75.00 checks made out to Camp Fire. Please bring a check to the next meeting, November 5.

Kiniya is Thursday November 20 at 7pm (arrive by 6:30 at the flagpole at Shiwaka) Our service project was to donate gently used jackets and coats to charity. Please drop of your coats to Lisa G by Wed Nov 5 at the latest (our next meeting). Remember to BE IN UNIFORM at our next meeting so we can take a photo of all the kids in their uniform with all the collected jackets. 

December meetings are Wed Dec 3 at the lodge and Dec 17 is our cookie exchange Christmas party. 

Belmont shore parade is Saturday Dec 6, more info to come

Starting in January, each child will be responsible for one 30 minute lesson plan for a future meeting. I will hand out a packet of meeting ideas next Wednesday, you and your child will choose your first,second and third choice. Once I assign you a meeting, I will give you the full lesson plan you can use to plan your meeting. Remember, we are working on lesson plans throughout the year on five trails (trail to knowing me, community, future, creativity, environment) Each trail represents a colored bead, each lesson plan earns that bead. When looking over the lesson plans, you can modify them somewhat but you need to get the over all idea across. If you have another idea you would rather do (such as have a special guest come and talk to the kids, teach the kids something or take a field trip) please let me know so we can make sure we have a good balance of topics covered during the year. The kids LOVE special guests and field trips, we haven't had as many as I would like. Discuss with your child what skill they have or talents, something that inspires them and see if you can get a lesson plan that fits. We can be creative.

 I will assign each child a lesson plan and meeting date so you will know exactly how much time you have to plan it. In the past I have had kids cook/bake at their house, special guest Game Warden came and did a talk, one child had a party to celebrate her mexican heritage with a pinada at the park, one child shared her family traditions for birthdays which included making a special bread from the country they were from etc etc... The sky's the limit! Remember you can just follow the chosen lesson plan as well, I will give you guidelines. 

Basically the 30 minute meeting will be 15 minutes lesson (teaching something) 15 minutes craft or activity. This can be modified however you need but this is the basic format. The kids run the meeting, you would be surprised how much the kids LOVE to run their own special meeting. This has been very successful in the past.

Thank you ! I look forward to seeing everyone on Wednesday!