Monday, March 12, 2012

Happy Birthday Girl Scouts of America

March 12th is the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Girl Scouts of America.

This wonderful organization for girls was founded in 1912 by Juliet ‘Daisy’ Gordon Low in Savannah, Georgia. Ms. Low believed that all girls should be given the opportunity to develop physically, mentally and spiritually, and to experience community service. She originally started with 18 girls and today the organization has close to 3.4 million members. It wasn’t until 1919 that the executive board inaugurated a fund raising plan to relieve Ms. Low of the financial obligation she incurred for the organization. From the beginning she had paid for all expenses by selling her extremely valuable necklace of rare and matched pearls.


During the First World War, the girls learned about food production, conservation, sold war bonds, worked in hospitals and collected peach pits for use in gas mask filters. In the 1940s, during the Second World War, they collected 1.5 million articles of clothing that were then shipped to children and adult victims of the war.

Girl Scouts have been changing the world for 100 years.

In addition, who can forget those wonderful Girl Scout cookies. It all began in 1917 when the girls baked cookies and sold them in the high school cafeteria as a service project.

I was never a Girl Scout, but my blog partner, daughter, and best friend, Jan Shoop, was a scout for many years and I did serve as her scout leader in the 1960s. I wish the girls at StarShine could follow in her footsteps.

By Lois Jamieson

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