Girl Scouts of Southeastern Michigan hosted two volunteer mixer evenings as a small way to say Thank You to our volunteers.

“Our volunteers mean everything to us,” said Liz Bogner, Manager of Volunteer Experience for GSSEM. “We hope these volunteer mixers gave them a chance to relax, recharge and share ideas with each other.”

The evenings of bonding and self-care were attended by more than 50 volunteers, celebrating another successful year of Girl Scouts! During the events, GSSEM tried to focus on four dimensions of self-care: mental, physical, social, and emotional wellness.

A sense of community, not to mention humor, was established during the team trivia challenges, while the chair massages worked out any remaining cookie season stress.

Guests made and traded SWAPs and other ideas among themselves to take back to their troops. A photo station captured the relaxed smiles of our hardworking volunteers and GSSEM gave matching journal and pen sets as a small token of appreciation for everything they accomplished over the past year. The evening rounded out with a light dinner and celebration cake!

“It was great to relax with other Girl Scout volunteers, receive a wonderful massage and have a lighthearted trivia game with food and cake,” said Marlyn Caron, Troop 77200.

It wasn’t all play—the GSSEM Member Support team was on hand to help with spring renewal and answer any questions attendees might have for the next year. There was lots of sharing of ideas and best practice concepts throughout the evening.

“I loved seeing nearly all of our Troop leaders in attendance,” said Carolyn Attah, Troop 77091. “I was able to reconnect with leaders that I met at other Girl Scouts events, which are an invaluable source of knowledge.”

Thank you for an awesome evening. This was my first time attending and WOW! I was in for a treat!

Carolyn Attah