Twins Audrey and Virginia VanVee, along with the rest of Girl Scout Troop 558, want to make a difference in their community. This weekend, they will be part of an annual event that encourages reading.
On Saturday, April 22, the girls will host their third-annual book exchange at the Phinney Neighborhood Center, 6532 Phinney Ave. N., in Room 3, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
"It's a good way to promote reading and recycling," said Judith Wood, the twins' mother and Scout counselor.
Larger crowd expected
The book exchange welcomes people of all ages to trade or purchase books. There will also be a bake sale, which will offer chocolate cupcakes and muffins that the girls baked themselves and other goodies donated by local businesses.
For the last three years, the book exchange has been a group effort, with all 558 Girl Scout troops in the region contributing to benefit their community and achieve a goal.
The Scouts are raising money for international travel, Audrey explained. They hope to visit one of the four global Girl Scout World Centers, which are located in Mexico, Switzerland, London and India. They plan to raise enough money for a trip in 2008.
At the moment, they don't have a set goal for how much money they would like to raise, "but we want it to be successful," Wood said.
Most of the money will be made from the bake sale, she added.
The Scout troop anticipates more people attending this year, not only because attendance grew last year, but because this year's event falls on the same day as the Greenwood Garage Sale Day. The Phinney Neighborhood Center is the site for the event's flea market.
Making an impact
The book exchange started when Virginia was working on her Girl Scout Bronze award, the highest honor a Junior Girl Scout can earn. It requires her to learn the leadership and planning skills necessary to follow through on a project that "makes a positive impact on her community," according to the Girl Scouts of USA website. Virginia wanted to bring people together. "I wanted to organize something," she said.
The Phinney Neighborhood Center already sponsors an annual mystery-book exchange for adults who come and discuss their favorite mystery novels and eventually trade them for something new to read. Virginia decided it would be a great idea to have something similar for people of all ages that featured different book genres.
Virginia explained how the book exchange works. People receive one ticket for each paperback and two per hardback they contribute, and they use the tickets to "purchase" other used books. Each ticket costs 50 cents, and the books are organized by age group and genre.
Last year, the Scouts donated extra books to Children's Hospital & Medical Center, and this year, they plan on donating them to the Ryther Child Center, which provides social-health programs to youths and families.
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