More than 50 million American women were members
of the Girl Scouts, an organization that began
100 years ago in the United States.
Photo of Girl Scouts U.S. Postage Stamp courtesy of U.S. Post Office Dept.
Singing campfire songs has always been a big
part of Girl Scouts. It is a key component of
the outdoor activities, like camping and hiking
that are central to scouting.
Those are activities that Girl Scout Cassidy Lee
Brookes, 10, of New Orleans likes.
"We go canoeing, we go camping, we do sing-alongs,
we do all kinds of stuff," Brookes said.
Like all the scouts, Brookes wears a vest that
is covered in badges she has earned by learning
new skills. One she earned for going on a
camping trip.
"If you do camping you get badges and all kinds
of stuff for cooking and cleaning, because you
have to do everything on your own," Brookes
added. "You have to cook the food, you have to
serve it. So it is really fun."
The scouting focus on the outdoors has remained
for 100 years, but as women's role in society
has changed, so too have the Girl Scouts.
Mania Gaver, 15, says scouting helps her get on
the career ladder.
"It is giving us all of these different job
options," said Gaver." To get patches you have
to interview different people in different jobs,
you can shadow like museum curators and stuff
like that. There are a lot of trips you can go
on, service-wise and a lot of volunteer
opportunities."
Juliette Gordon Low founded Girl Scouts in the
U.S. in 1912, a few years after the Boy Scouts
and Girl Guides organizations began in
England. Her goal was to help girls develop
physically, mentally, and spiritually by
bringing them out of isolated home environments
and into community service and the open air.
Girl Scout Council chief executive Lidia
Soto-Harmon says the founder faced many
challenges.
"There were people that did not believe that
girls should do anything more than learn how to
bake and be at home, and here she was taking
girls camping," noted Soto-Harmon." We have
pictures of her with girls and machetes because
when they would go camping, they really went out
into the wilderness."
Soto-Harman says the development of Girl Scouts
has not been easy, but she says despite the
odds, the movement has survived and thrived.
Today more than 10 million girls participate in
145 countries from Argentina to Zambia. There
are 3 million girls and adult volunteers
involved in Girl Scouts in the United States.
As Girl Scouts in the U.S. mark their 100th
year, she says it is time to celebrate the past
and look to the future.
"As we approach this 100th anniversary we are
just bursting at the opportunity we have to
really inspire a new generation of girls with
the message of leadership, with the message of
caring for the environment, with the message of
being kind to others, respecting country. These
are values that we all share and that we need to
celebrate," Soto-Harmon added.
She says there is a whole new century of Girl
Scouts on its way.
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