journey the world!

This past week was pure CRAZ-EEEE-NESS.
As you know, I started my job with Girl Scouts in November. Three days before I started, the rest of the Girl Scout Leadership Experience Managers (those in my position but at different locations - Cedar Rapids, Dubuque, Burlington and Waterloo) visited the venue of an event that is held every year with the Girl Scouts.
I started Monday, clueless. Next thing you know, I was told that I am the lead program manager for Journey the World - an annual event with 1,500+ people held in Davenport. 
After four months of hard work, numerous meetings, phone calls and brainstorming sessions, the event was YESTERDAY. It was amazing.
It all started on Friday morning when I had to go pick up the cargo van from Enterprise so I could load everything into it and take it to the RiverCenter. Let's just say I felt like a boss school bus driver, but I managed to back it into the loading dock. ON MY FIRST ATTEMPT. Success.
The other LEMs came down to the QC to help with set-up and we were all there from about 9am-7pm before it was time for dinner. We all enjoyed our dinner and finally getting a chance to sit down. It's safe to say we all had some tired and achy feet. My team is absolutely amazing. It's awesome because we are all young women and we just seem to get each other. It's a shame we don't all work in the same office... but if we did, we would probably be a bit less productive. :)
Saturday (yesterday) morning was pure chaos. I had to run into the office at 7am to print a few more things that we ran out of during set-up and of course the color printer wasn't working. So it all got printed in black and white (minor drawback). I then had to hurry to the RiverCenter because I had thought of stuff that needed to be done that had escaped our minds on Friday.
Since I was running around like crazy, two other staff members went to Panera to pick up our volunteer breakfast. Thank you Crystal and Korissa!
By 10:00, it was smooth sailing. Volunteers were arriving, Girl Scout troops were setting up, community partners were setting up, and it was all finally here.
Quick Break: So, what is this event? Journey the World is an event where Girl Scout troops can choose to host a country booth. If they host a booth, they do research on what that country is like and what the Girl Scouts are like in that country. They also learn about what they eat, what they do for fun, what they wear, etc. It's a huge cultural learning experience! And then hundreds and hundreds of girls come to the RiverCenter to see what other troops researched. It is all to celebrate World Thinking Day - A national movement by the Girl Scouts of USA (GSUSA). We also had a huge STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) element where girls could do so many fun activities. For example, making their own lip gloss, watching Dr. Wiggins throw a fireball, learn how to light up light bulbs by pedaling fast on a bicycle, and SO much more. There's also cultural dance groups performing and a bunch of other fun stuff happening. It's impossible for a girl to be bored. :)
After the event, we did clean up in 2 hours and had a celebratory supper at Chipotle. That guacamole always hits the spot. By 9:00 I was laying in bed watching TV. Pure bliss.
I didn't have time to take very many pictures... so I have 2. But I will be getting a lot from our GS Photographer!

This was part of it. I had a couple seconds to just stand on the second floor and watch over the balcony.
It was so great to see all the hard work pay off. Not to mention how awesome it is to watch girls
teaching other girls. :)

This lady has been collecting Girl Scout patches for 43 YEARS. FOUR. THREE. That's a long time.

 I was also interviewed by WQAD Channel 8. And then I gladly let two other LEMs do the interviews with KWQC Ch. 6 and WHBF Ch. 4. I had my fair share of interviews during my time at UNI doing Relay For Life so I'm all about giving other the opportunity to do them! :)
So for now, here's two news articles that have come out about the event.
QC Times Dispatch Argus
I will post the interviews once they're all posted online. :)