Happy Birthday Honors Goes To The Girl Scouts

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Today is the 98th birthday of The Girl Scouts, the day in 1912 when girl scout founder Juliette Gordon Low officially registered the organization's first 18 girl members in Savannah, Georgia. Each year, scouts around the world celebrate this auspicious occasion with an entire week dedicated to scouting.  

 

My eldest daughter is a Daisy Scout and my youngest is eagerly awaiting her turn at the uniform.  As a girl scout troop leader, I thoroughly enjoy the message and the diversity of girl scouts...it's all about teaching girls to trust themselves and trust each other...and giving them the knowledge to make decisions about everything from camping to cooking to computers. What could be better than that for the next generation of women?

 

Here are some great activities to share with your favorite scouts:

 

Host a tea party:

Next week, my girls will enjoy a teddy bear tea party with other kindergarten and first grade troops in the area.  They will dress up, make name tags for themselves and their teddy bears, and enjoy crafts, snacks, and of course (herbal) tea with their friends.  Older girls might like something a little less formal like a gathering at a coffee shop to chat about community events.

 

Volunteer: From the moment they enter the scouts, girls are taught the "Girl Scout Pledge," through which they promise to help people at all times.  So it's no surprise that girl scouts are well-known for volunteerism. Volunteering for a worthy cause in the community, like collecting food for the local food pantry, walking dogs for the animal shelter, or teaching crafts to kids at the library, is a great way to celebrate the birthday of girl scouting.  

 

Go green: Girl scouts are all about environmentalism, with lots of projects and badges designed around protecting the planet and its resource.  Celebrate the Girl Scouts' birthday by making a difference your local community with a day of tree planting or trash collection or hold a recycling drive at a local school or community center.

 

Go retro:

Birthdays are a great time to look back remember the good old days -and the Girl Scouts as an organization has a lot of good old days to remember.  Take your girls on a trip down memory lane and talk about the early years of Girl Scouting.  

 

Eat a cookie:
That's right, girl scout cookie season is here and no doubt you have already had your fill of the delectable treats.  But today is a great day to open up a box of Thin Mints or (my favorite) Samoas and say Happy Birthday to your favorite scouts.  All out of cookies?  Don't worry.  MNN food blogger Robin Shreeves dug up some great homemade recipes for girl scout cookies that are sure to fit the bill.

Full Story : http://www.mnn.com/family/education-activities/blogs/happy-birthday-girl-scouts#

 Recommended Girl Scout Products from Amazon
 

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Older Birthdays Offer Extra Reasons to Rejoice old age

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Older Birthdays Offer Extra Reasons to Rejoice old age

Even if the candles don't all fit on the cake, there's extra reason to celebrate some key older birthdays in the post-meltdown economy.

Hitting certain milestones can provide financial and health-related security that those with their eye on retirement long took for granted but don't any more.

Since the bottom fell out of retirement portfolios in 2008 and early 2009, government entitlements and other protections earned with age have become more essential for the over-50 crowd.

Social Security and Medicare were almost an afterthought in the retirement planning process for many people a couple of years ago, according to Paul Lebouef, a Houston-based financial consultant for Charles Schwab & Co. Inc. With the stock market booming, his clients weren't concerned with when they qualified for either program. They felt they had saved and planned sufficiently enough that they wouldn't need to rely on government money.

Since then, attitudes have changed because of the increased uncertainty and the entitlements are an underpinning of many retirement plans. Many of his clients are now thankful for the programs and even excited about becoming eligible, Leboeuf says.

''That's not to say that everyone is living off Social Security, but from a right-brain emotional state it's a security blanket,'' he says. ''They often sleep better knowing it's there.''

Harry Lutz, 64, an actuary from Dunwoody, Ga., remembers long ago dreading the time when he would be in his senior years. But he is looking forward to his birthday in June for one reason in particular: becoming eligible for Medicare.

''I'm not necessarily eager to turn 65, but I'll enjoy it when it happens,'' he says. ''My out-of-pocket expenditures for health care will go down.''

That used to be his target age for retirement, too, like a lot of other people. But now he'd like to work until he's 69, the year his wife, Rosanne, also is old enough to get into Medicare.

Financial benefits from getting older are first triggered at age 50. That's when workers who are behind in their retirement savings become eligible to make catch-up contributions to their workplace savings plans, such as a 401(k) or 403(b), or individual retirement accounts. In 2010, that's as much as $5,500 extra. Added to a base contribution limit of $16,500, that's a maximum $22,000.

That's only noteworthy if you can afford to set aside the extra income. Just read more

Need a good birthday gift idea for a man in your life? Why not try Mens Jewelry Rings

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Tiger Woods Celebrates Birthday while Losing 12 Billion

Tiger Woods, who fell from grace this month, today celebrates his 34th birthday amid scandal. In the meantime, a new study from UC Davis estimates Woods' scandal cost the shareholders and the economy 12 billion dollars.

The golfer's life took an unexpected turn since the discovery of his many infidelities. Thus, this year Tiger Woods' birthday will not be so happy. He disappointed so many people, not only from his family but also shareholders of sponsoring companies that one university study says cost them 12 billion dollars.

Two researchers Victor Stango and Christopher Knittel from the University of California, Davis, released a study on Monday where they show the economic negative effect of Tiger Woods' infidelity on the shareholder value of the companies that have sponsored Woods. The study, which is published on UC Davis' website, claims that the companies, endorsed by Tiger Woods, may have lost from 5 to 12 billion dollars after the car accident revealed the alleged extramarital affairs.

The loses are big because all of these endorsment companies are very large, publicly traded companies. The researchers conducted an event study, which led to their conclusions and are commonly used in economic and financial settings to measure company's stock performance in relation to an event.

"The 'event study' method that we employ measures losses relative to both the stock market as a whole and a set of competitor rms - in other words, relative to all rms that do not use Mr. Woods as an endorser. For example, we measure the losses for Nike shareholders considering both changes in the broader stock market, and changes in the value of Reebok," explain Stango and Knittel.

Researchers say that the losses that they measured "are distinct" from any personal financial losses suffered by Tiger Woods in the form of "lower current and future endorsement income." The finding also show that Woods' sports-related sponsors seem to suffer more than his other sponsors.

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