March 12 – Girl Scouting's Birthday

nPostednon March 12, 2014

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Onnthis date in 1912, the organization that is now Girl Scouts of thenUSA was born as Juliette Gordon Low officially registered the itsnfirst 18 girls in Savannah, Georgia.

nScoutingnstarted in 1907 when a British man named Robert Baden-Powell set upnBoy Scouts in the U.K., in order to help boys develop physically,nmentally, and spiritually. His idea caught on in a big way, andnwithin three at least 14 nations had Boy Scouts!

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nInn1910 Baden-Powell and his sister, Agnes Baden-Powell, introduced GirlnGuides in the U.K., a “sister organization for the Boy Scouts.nDuring the same year, a group of adults in Vermont (in the US.)nrealized that their daughters were missing out; while the boys hadnBoy Scout troops and meetings, the girls had no similar organization.nSo Camp Fire Girls was started as the sister organization of the BoynScouts of America—with an official start date of March 17, 1912. n

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nInnthe meantime, however, Juliette Low had met the Baden-Powells whilenshe was living in the U.K., and she had caught Scout fever. When shenreturned to her home in Savannah, Low called up a cousin andnannounced, “I’ve got something for the girls of Savannah, and all of America, and all the world, and we’re going to start it tonight!”

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nIsn’tnit interesting that Low started working on her idea later than thenCamp Fire Girls people started on theirs, but she managed tonofficially start her organization five days earlier!

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nWhennLow first started her organization, she called it Girl Guides ofnAmerica, after the girls’ organization in the U.K. Later in 1912, shenapproached the leaders of Camp Fire Girls to see if they wanted tonmerge. At the time, Camp Fire Girls were larger, and they said no,nthanks. Low approached another girls’ organization, called GirlnScouts of America, which had been founded in Iowa. Low asked if theyncould merge, but the GSA founder was upset at Low, thinking she was ancopycat trying to steal members away from her group; instead ofnmerging with Low, she sued her!

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n(Inwonder how the founder of GSA felt when, the next year, Low changednher name from “Guides” to “Scouts,” ending up with GirlsnScouts of the United States of America, or GSUSA. Now their namesnwere even more similar!)

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nItnended up that Juliette Low’s organization was the one that steadilyngrew and grew. It now has more than 2 million girls and close to anmillion adults on its membership rolls. GSA eventually died out, andnCamp Fire Girls, now a co-ed group called Camp Fire, has aboutn750,000 members. Do you suppose that the founders of thosengroups ever wished that they had merged with Low’snorganization?

I bet you already know that
Girl Scouts sell cookies!

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nGirlnScouts USA is a secular, inclusive group. I would like to think thatnits “we take all girls, from any background” attitude is onenreason it has grown so large. Polls show that Girl Scouts USA is onenof the most popular and respected charities in America, and somenwould claim that Girl Scouts and Girl Guides are the world’s mostnimportant organizations solely for women and girls.

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nWhat’snin a name?

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JuliettenGordon Low’s nickname was Daisy, and she was born in Savannah andnstarted her first troop there. Now we call the youngest Girl Scoutsn“Daisies,” and two names for Girl Scout cookies are Savannahs andnJuliettesn(although thenlatter has been discontinued).

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nThese photos show Juliette Gordon Low as a young woman (left) and as an middle-aged woman (right).n

nDidnyou know?

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nJapanesen American girls who were wrongfully confined in internment campsn during World War II often organized Girl Scout troops in the camps.

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nInn 1956 Martin Luther King, Jr., called the Girl Scouts a “force forn desegregation” because the Scouts in many locales were formingn racially integrated troops.

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