| Feature
Celebrating 100 years of Girl Scouting in the U.S.A.,
by Leslie Bek
In 1912, women were on the move. They were working for emancipation from Victorian restraints, which dictated that a woman’s only place was in the home. Getting outside was literally an objective. Women were taking a leap and beginning to swim instead of merely dipping and wading. And Girl Scouting was founded in the USA. The goal of the Girl Scout movement would be to bring girls out of isolated home environments and into community service and open air. Girls not only started to swim, they took off running. One hundred years later, the movement and girls are thriving.
The founder of Girl Scouts USA was a socialite from Savannah (Georgia); Juliette Gordon Low. She was an athlete and an artist. She was a strong swimmer, captained her rowing team and was an avid tennis player. She wrote poetry, sketched, wrote and acted in plays and was a skilled painter and sculptor.
While rich with personal attributes, she spent several years searching for something useful to do with her life. In her early fifties, her search ended in 1911. During a trip to Europe, she met and became friends with Sir Robert Baden-Powell, founder of the Boy Scouts and Girl Guides. She became interested in the new youth movement.
Less than a y ear later, she returned home and made her historic telephone call to a friend saying, “I’ve got something for the girls of Savannah, and all of America, and all of the world, and we’re going to start tonight!” On March 12, 1912, Juliette Gordon Low gathered eighteen girls to register the first troop of American Girl Guides. The name of the organization was changed to Girl Scouts the following year. She believed that all girls should be given the opportunity to develop physically, mentally and spiritually.
Juliette was a true trailblazer, and her visionary leadership created a strong foundation for the organization it would become. She brought girls of all backgrounds into the outdoors, giving them the opportunity to develop self-reliance and resourcefulness. She encouraged girls to prepare not only for traditional homemaking, but also for possible future roles as professional women in the arts, science and business and for active community service and citizenship outside the home.
Within five years of its inception, the number of Girl Scout members would grow from the original eighteen to 5,000 across the country. Initially the troops that formed and flourished across the states were called “lone” troops. As the organization of the Girl Scout movement grew, lone troops would join their neighbor troops to form a Girl Scout Council. In 2012, there are fifty million alumnae and more than three million current Girl Scout members in the U.S.
The first lone troop in Marquette County was established in Ishpeming in 19 15. The Upper Peninsula as a whole was enthusiastically responsive to the new Girl Scout program as troops and councils began to proliferate around the region. The first U.P.-wide council, Peninsula Waters Girl Scout Council, was established in 1969. Since 2008, the Girl Scouts of the Northwestern Great Lakes (GSNWGL) has combined the fifteen U.P. counties with forty-three counties in northern Wisconsin. The current council provides local Girl Scouts with increased opportunities and options in travel, camps, events and programs.
In the first Girl Scout handbook, How Girls Can Help Their Country (1913), girls learned how to start fires, rescue someone from drowning, communicate with Morse code, fire a gun, and tie up a burglar with eight inches of cord. The importance of environmental stewardship was evident even in 1921; Juliette Gordon Low organized a Girl Scout camp ten years before she purchased an office building.
Being a Girl Scout was synonymous with community service. Young Girl Scouts volunteered in hospitals, grew ve getables, sold bonds and collected peach pits for use in gas mask filters during World War I and have risen to support causes in every era.
Today, Girl Scouts across the nation annually provide more than seventy-five million hours of direct service to their communities. Each year across the U.P., Girl Scouts contribute more than 9,000 hours in community service, like activities to clean and protect the environment, improve camp facilities, visit the elderly, purchase and provide basic-needs items to vulnerable children, and numerous community enhancements through leadership projects. They also spend a countless amount of time learning, training, traveling or just having fun.
Since its inception Girl Scouts have learned new skills, earne d badges, gone on hikes and experienced the Promise and Law in their daily lives. While the core values of the program remain the same, the delivery methods of the program and its components have evolved over time. Today, there is a focus on leadership development and girl-led decision making. Pathways to participation have been expanded beyond the traditional troop structure to include: program series, virtual, events, travel and camp.
Girl Scouts of today also introduces girls of every age to science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) activities that are relevant to everyday life. Girls have opportunities to discover how a car’s engine runs, opportunities to make math knowledge fun, design Web sites or learn about careers in STEM fields. Girls are moving forward into the future prepared to lead.
The Uniform
“It gives a certain prestige in the community. When a girl is seen in uniform people recognize her as a girl who is courteous and obliging (for her duty is at all times to help others). The uniform puts every girl on the same footing; no finery may be worn by one girl which will excite the envy of another, it saves the girl’s good clothes and makes a useful dress for her to work and play in at the meetings.” – Girl Scout Leader’s Manual, circa 1917
Wearing the uniform also makes Girl Scouts easily identifiable to each other and to the public as members of Girl Scouting, fosters a feeling of unity among members and reinforces the sense of belonging to the Girl Scout movement. Throughout the decades, the Girl Scout uniform has seen several changes. Since 2008, the uniform requirements now reflect the needs of girls today and the continued transformation of the Girl Scout Movement.
Badges & Awards
In 1913, the first Girl Scout proficiency badge, Child Nurse, was awarded. Badges were embroidered by hand by Girl Scout officials until manufactured badges could be produced. There are seven Legacy Badges from the early days that remain today: Artist – Painting; Athlete - Fair Play; Citizen - Celebrating Community; Cook – Snacks; First Aid - Brownie First Aid; Girl Scout Way - Brownie Girl Scout Way; and Naturalist – Bugs.
The insignia on a girl’s uniform remains a record of her adventures and accomplishments as a Girl Scout. The badges and patches reflect the times and the interests of girls.
Examples include: Economist, Journalist, Digital Photographer, Staying Fit, Entertainment Technology, Jeweler, Gardener, Camper, Independence, Geocacher, Animal Habitats, Product Designer, Computer Fun, Aerospace, Cookie CEO, and Business Owner. The Girl Scout Gold Award, Girl Scout Silver Award, and Girl Scout Bronze Award are the highest achievements. They are earned at completion of an approved course of action at corresponding age and level of the Girl Scout’s attainment.
Volunteers & Camp
The Girl Scout program works because people volunteer. They plan meetings, keep records, manage a troop bank account, organize events and schedule travel experiences, coordinate the cookie program and make camp happen. Girl Scout volunteers, both men and women, often begin their service with their daughters; then, they find themselves back with their granddaughters. Others never leave. They grow just like the girls and expand their roles.
Throughout its history Girl Scouts can be defined in part by camping experiences. Ask a Girl Scout about her own story and most likely you will hear at least one camp remembrance.
In the early 1940s, local Girl Scouts attended Camp Timber Trail in Alger County. The camp was situated on Skeels Lake. By the 1960s, Timber Trail was no longer sustainable and a new camp, Pow-Low, was established on Mehl Lake in Little Lake. The name was created from the names of the founders of both Boy Scouts; Lord Baden-Powell, and Girl Scouts; Juliette Gordon Low.
Camp is a place for ceremonies, trainings, family outings, boating, canoeing and kayaking, campfires and unforgettable life-changing experiences.
Girl Scout Cookies®
Girl Scout Cookies® had their earliest beginnings in the kitchens and ovens of girl members, with mothers volunteering as technical advisers. The sale of cookies was viewed as a way to finance troop activities. The earliest mention of a cookie sale was that of the Mistletoe Troop in Muskogee (Oklahoma), which baked cookies and sold them in its high school cafeteria as a service project in December 1917.
In July 1922, the national Girl Scout magazine, The American Girl, published Florence Neil’s cookie recipe that was given to the council’s 2,000 Girl Scouts. She estimated the approximate cost of ingredients for six to seven dozen cookies to be twenty-six to thirty-six cents. The cookies, she suggested, could be sold by troops for twenty-five or thirty cents per dozen.
Throughout the 1920s and 1930s, Girl Scouts in different parts of the country continued to bake their own simple sugar cookies with their mothers. These cookies were packaged in wax paper bags, sealed with a sticker, and sold door to door for twenty-five to thirty-five cents per dozen.
Cookies and Girl Scouts were proving to be a perfect match, and together they were on the move. In 1936, the national Girl Scout organization began the process to license the first commercial baker to produce cookies that would be sold by girls in Girl Scout councils. Enthusiasm for Girl Scout Cookies spread nationwide. In 1937, more than 125 Girl Scout councils reported holding cookie sales.
In the early 1990s, two licensed bakers supplied local Girl Scout councils with cookies for girls to sell. Eight varieties are now available. The 2012 Cookie Program remains a financial literacy program for every Girl Scout. Through the Cookie Program each girl learns goal setting, decision making, money management, people skills and business ethics. All are important ingredients in the Girl Scout Leadership Experience.
All proceeds from the Girl Scout Cookie Program go to support Girl Scouting locally. Funds support troop activities, community service projects and supplies for troop use. A portion of the proceeds also helps fund program development, volunteer training, summer camp and financial assistance as well as maintaining affordable fees for girls and their families.
Today, every cookie has a mission and that is to help girls do great things. The $700 million Girl Scout Cookie Program is the largest girl-led business in the country. Cookies are now on sale locally through individual girl and troop sales. To connect with the Girl Scout Cookie Program in your area, call 888-747-6945, or enter your ZIP code into a cookie locator online at www.gsnwgl.org
Meet Troop 5101
Troop 5101 meets at Prince of Peace Church in Harvey. It is a combined Junior (fourth and fifth grades) and Cadette (sixth to eighth grades) troop. Tonight the room is abuzz with chatter. The thirteen Juniors sit in a circle and discuss their cookie selling plans and what they will do with the profit. A question about the Gift of Caring is posed, “Which charity will we ask buyers to donate their cookies to this year?” Planning for a trip to the 100th Anniversary of Girl Scouts Expo in Green Bay this June is in the works. Hands enthusiastically fly up as girls are eager to share their ideas and options.
Volunteer Mary Armstrong awaits as soon the group splits off to make a paper bag scrapbook, sew a piece of wearable art, and watercolor postcards. The postcards are part of an international project that will share a glimpse of life here with girls in different countries. A few of the Cadettes work steadfastly on their Silver Award project plans.
Troop coleader Deb Reider says, “I like seeing the growth in the girls. They are maturing, bursting with confidence and connecting through friendships. The Girl Scout program provides the girls with so many opportunities in programs, events and trips.”
Junior Katie LaBreche is twelve years old. She says, “I like Girl Scouts because of the arts and crafts and I get to hang out with a bunch of amazing people.” Both Katie and fellow Junior, eleven-year-old Courtney Reider, agree going to camp is great. Why? “Because we get to go swimming.” Courtney also says, “Selling cookies is fun.”
Stefane Preston is a twenty-two-year-old NMU student. She has been a Girl Scout member since kindergarten and serves as a coleader with the 5101 Cadettes.
“I enjoy watching the girls develop into leaders. That is what the Cadette program is all about,” she says.
A troop coleader for more than six years, Sandy Sheltrow volunteered for the reason stated by most in Girl Scouting; she wanted to get her two girls involved. She started out as a quiet parent and then realized she had skills to share. According to Sandy, “I enjoy being a positive mentor with my kids, their friends and other adults. I have observed the Girl Scout program prepare our girls to be thoughtful and considerate. I have seen them transition from fun things to community service.”
Mary Vertanen has been involved in Girl Scouts for more than thirty years. She is the service area manager for several troops in Marquette as well as the leader of Troop 5101. Mary is in the same category as Juliette Gordon Low for dedication and service to the Girl Scout movement. She has mentored nearly 2,000 girls with her volunteer leadership. According to Mary, “I like seeing girls do their “firsts” like the first time they light a campfire with one match. Girl Scouting has also given me opportunities that I would not have had as well as lifelong friends.”
In the past 100 years, Girl Scouts have blazed trails in countless ways—from doing charity work during wartime to spearheading earth-friendly initiatives to creating the largest girl-led business in the world. For 100 years, Girl Scouts has done more than any other organization to provide leadership opportunities for girls.
Today the GSNWGL promise to girls is: to provide opportunities for girls to discover their strengths, connect with others, and take action to improve their communities.
With fifty million alumnae and more than three million current Girl Scout members, each girl from every decade has her own story to tell. Here is just one example:
“I was a Brownie Girl Scout getting ready for my first cookie sale. I was proud of my uniform, all pressed by Mom; a skirt, belt, shirt and tie. My older sister was a Junior Girl Scout and I was finally getting my turn. Together we divided up our neighborhood. I had the side of the street with the scary house. It was big with a very long porch leading back to the door. Inside I was sure was the scary man all the kids talked about. No one ever trick-or-treated here. So what was I doing here? I was on a mission. He answered the door, listened and took my order card. He bought cookies. I left knowing I’d have to come back to deliver the cookies. I wouldn’t be scared. I might just come back to visit him sometime anyway. I was proud and I couldn’t wait to tell the other kids I had sold cookies at the scary house to the guy who really wasn’t scary.” ––LJW 1965
To Girl Scouts—the nation’s premier leadership development organization for girls, building girls of courage, confidence, and character, who make the world a better place–Happy 100th Anniversary and all the best as you continue your journey.
––Leslie Bek
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