The Family of God Brownie Girl Scout Award is one of our major projects for our troop this fall. So you may see less about “green” projects the girls are doing and more about how they’re integrating faith into scouting.

This award is traditionally earned by the third-graders at our church, and this is our fall to do it. We’re planning a retreat to meet many of the activities. Others will be done in the troop setting, and others (since it is “Family of God”) will be done with the girls’ families at home.

For those considering earning the award, there are 18 activities the girls are required to do to complete the award through the National Catholic Committee for Girl Scouts and Camp Fire. Brownies complete three activity choices under each of these six sections:

• I Am Special to My Family
• I Am Special to God’s Family
• I Belong to My Family
• I Belong to God’s Family
• I Can Help My Family
• I Can Help God’s Family

If that seems a bit daunting to you, many of these are smaller activities, like create a picture of your family. I thought at first it was a bit corny, but then I stumbled on an article in our diocesean newspaper this week: As part of the Pilgrimage of Families in October, children are invited to “present” their family to Pope Francis by sending a picture they have drawn electronically to the Pope. What an awesome way to tie into what might be an otherwise ho-hum activity!

Pinterest is also a great resource to find creative spins on these activities. One is an adorable family tree that I stumbled on through iMom.com. We printed off packets for the girls to work on at home, and we will add them to their Family of God books our pastor will review.

I love this idea for a prayer pail from Lu Birdy Baby for the girls’ activity to choose others to pray for. Much better than a check-off list!

We are also considering making Chemo Care Kits from Pennies of Time as a service project. It’s dear to us because of one of our Girl Scout dads has been fighting a battle with cancer.

Check out more ideas for the Family of God Award on my Pinterest board.

This post originally appeared on my retired blog, Going Green in Indy.