Girl Scout Troop 711 is Bringing Gaga Ball to JBN
Lady Gaga is not coming to J.B. Nelson Elementary School, but “Gaga Ball” is thanks to JBN’s Girl Scout Troop 711.
What in the world is Gaga Ball?
Gaga Ball is probably best described as a gentler form of dodgeball that’s played in an indoor or outdoor pit. The game has been around since the 1960s, mostly played in summer camps, and even has its own Wikipedia page. If you’ve never heard of it, though, you’re not alone. The game really just started taking off nationwide with pit installations in schools.
The girls in Troop 711, all JBN fourth-graders, learned about Gaga Ball after they went to Camp Dean in Big Rock, Ill. There was a Gaga Ball pit at the campground and the girls were immediately hooked.
J.B. Nelson Troop 711 is working hard to earn the Girl Scouts’ “Agent of Change” badge.
As luck would have it, the girls were starting an “Agent of Change Journey” through the Girl Scouts that centered around examining their roles in the community and world, and coming up with ways to become forces of change. Gaga Ball was a perfect change maker!
The girls rolled up their sleeves and used their Girl Scout meeting times to draft persuasion letters to JBN Principal Nicole Prentiss (each Scout had to write one) and create a Google Slides presentation (each Scout had to create a slide) for the JBN PTO, P.E. teacher, and BPS101 operations team to approve the install of an ADA compliant Gaga pit at JBN. They got in front of the adults and earned a stamp of approval. Rock stars!
In a letter that the girls drafted for parents and potential donors, they explained the “why” and “how” quite clearly. Here’s an excerpt:
“We wanted to create a service project that could improve our school community, and came up with the idea to build a Gaga Ball pit on our playground for all kids to enjoy. Next we created a presentation on Gaga Ball, including figures on how much it would cost to order a kit, and brought our idea to our principal, Mrs. Prentiss, and the JB Nelson PTO.
We were so excited to get approval and support from our principal, our P.E. teacher, Mr. Albrecht, and the Batavia School District. The JB Nelson PTO was kind enough to provide a portion of the funds for the project. We hope to order supplies, and install the Gaga Ball pit with the help of our families this summer. We would love for the pit to be ready to use when we go back to school in August.
We would greatly appreciate your help in meeting our fundraising goal. This has been a rewarding project for us as a troop and we have learned many things. We have used our persuasive writing skills to create emails, practiced our public speaking while presenting to our PTO, researched costs of supplies, and compiled a budget. We have been working hard and we hope that our hard work will end with a super fun game of Gaga Ball with our friends in our new pit! You can donate to our Gaga Ball project on our Go Fund Me Page.”
Within a matter of days, Troop 711 got $915 in donations! (If you are able to help the girls get to their $2,300 goal, they would greatly appreciate it.)
When some of the girls from the troop were asked what surprised them most about talking to the adults, they said it was that the adults were listening and taking them seriously.
“It was fun that we got to show our idea to the PTO,” said Margaret Hirschauer, JBN fourth-grade Scout. “The grown-ups were listening and asked a lot of questions like, ‘How much money will it cost?’, ‘Who will build it?’, ‘What are the rules of the game?’, and ‘How safe is it?’ We got to answer them all!”
Mission accomplished for Troop 711. The Scouts are proven change agents. Can’t wait for community Gaga Ball in the fall!
