15 Ways Your Troop Can Help With Hurricane Harvey Relief

When something as devastating as Hurricane Harvey hits land and it affects so many people it touches us all. The after effects of this storm are going to be felt for a very long time and as Girl Scouts we are all taught to be friendly and helpful, care for others, make the world a better place, and step up and help where you can.

Since the storm began we have been seeing piles of post and articles out there of how you can help. I thought I gather as many as I can and put it in this post with links so your troop can decide how you want to volunteer and make a impact in someones life.

If you know of other ways to help add them in the comments below.

First off Girl Scouts offers a great resource to get your troop started in thinking about how you can step up in a time of crisis. There are two program resources one for girls and one for leaders that have tips and examples of how you can get your girls engaged in helping in a time of disaster. Click here to read more

• Diapers are needed for families with babies that were affected by storm. Click here for Texa Diaper bank
• Contact your local red cross or salvation army and find out how you can send collected items to people in need. Then girls can do some type of collection, putting together packages to send. Girls can write and draw pictures to send with their packages letting them know they are thinking of them.
  • Put together simple packets of art supplies or picture books that can help children regain a sense of normalcy.
  • Do a drive for card games, or games that won’t take up lots of room for the children while in shelters to do.
  • Do a animal food drive for displaced animals. Check with Salvation army for places to send your donations.
  • Collect cleaning supplies, garbage bags, toilet paper, hygiene products
  • Check with your local animal APL to determine if they are accepting animals from Texas. If so and girls are allowed possibly adopt a pet or do a adopt a pet campaign to help find homes for current animals in APL to make room for more to come from Texas.
• Contact your local food market, find out if they are sending food, or donations or willing to let you set up in front of a grocery store to collect food to send to Texas.
• Check with your local council to determine what you are allowed to do with troop. If allowed create flyers and pass around asking people to donate blood to the red cross. If your girls are older contact the red cross and organize a blood drive yourself.
• Vote to donate some of your money to the red cross. But check with council because REMEMBER UNLESS council or GIRL SCOUT USA Approves you cannot collect or raise funds for this type of crisis.
• If you have other ideas to help the United Way has some contact emails that you can reach to them to see what other ways you can help click here for more details
• Both Houston Food Bank and the Food Bank of Corpus Christi are asking for donations both great places to donate food too.
• Donate directly to shelters in need – Here is a list to all the Texas shelters

Hurricane Harvey Relief patch in which Advantage Emblem will donate proceeds from the sale of this patch to the Salvation Army to aid with hurricane relief. Click here to get yours

Patch Also Available Through Girl Scout Texas Council

This is the patch from the Texas council which is also available for troops outside of state. It comes with a nice patch program that will not only help encourage girls to participate in the relief efforts for Hurricane Harvey but also will help girls become more aware and prepared for natural disasters in the future. Click here for more information

Your heart is in the right place, but not everyone is the same way. I came across the Federal Trade Commission website which offers these tips to ensure your giving goes to the right people and not fraudsters. Click here for list

I encourage each and every troop that reads this to do something, big or small everything helps and together we will make a difference in the lives of those who were impacted.