Girl Scouts (Group F)

Girl Scouts: Then and Now 

On page 71 of Cooper’s scrapbook, there is a newspaper clipping describing Doris Rough’s, the Southern Regional Director of Girl Scouts at the time, visit to the Florida State College for Women. The clipping details how Ms. Rough pointed out the ideals that the Girl Scouts stand for and encourages the young women at the college to get involved as they will derive great benefit and joy for themselves by doing so.

The ideals that the Girl Scouts stand for originate from its founding in 1912. Girl Scouts was founded March 12^th, 1912 by Juliette Gordon Low in Savannah, Georgia (“Our History”). Low was inspired by Robert Baden-Powell, who started the Boy Scouts and the Girl Guides (Rosen 48). Low wanted to inspire young girls and teach them leadership skills, but at the same help make the world a better place. Low’s goal was for girls to “meet their world with courage, confidence, and character” and at the same time provide a helping hand to those in need while working together to “improve their corner of the world” (“Our History”). Low started Girl Scouts with only eighteen girls, but today there are more than 2.6 million Girl Scouts across 92 countries and more than 50 million alumni (“Our History”).

The ideals Doris Rough spoke of are many of the same ideals Girl Scouts today share. In order to become a Girl Scout each girl must take the Girl Scout promise. The Girl Scout Promise is “On my honor, I will try: to serve God and my country, to help people at all times, and to live by the Girl Scout Law” (“Who We Are”). The girls who join are promising to uphold the ideals of Girl Scouts and help make the world a better place as Low had envisioned. The activities that members are a part of uphold the ideals of making the world a better place while growing as an individual at the same time. Activities such as cookie sales and camping help the girls learn life and leadership skills as well as connect with others (Dillard). Many troops also take part in service activities in their communities, which is upholding the ideal of making the world a better place and the Girl Scout promise to help people at all times. Girl Scouts has been the preeminent leadership development organization for girls since its founding; many members have gone on to become CEO’s of Fortune 500 companies, senators, and even astronauts (Dillard).

The newspaper clipping also mentions Camp Juliette Low located in Cloudland, Georgia, which is one way the members of Girl Scouts could find the enjoyment Ms. Rough spoke of at her visit to the college. This camp was established by the founder of Girl Scouts herself, Juliette Low in 1921 after she had purchased the ten acres of land from the Ledbetter brothers (“History”). This camp was a place meant to uphold the ideals of the Girl Scouts and a place where girls could develop their leadership skills and gain confidence. The camps original purpose was to train Girl Scout leaders while providing a wilderness camping experience for younger girls (“History”). Hundreds of campers attended each summer to learn these skills, but the camp became an independent nonprofit in the 1930’s (“History”). The original ten acres of the camp has grown to 330 acres, which includes a portion of the Little River and is still in operation today (“History”).

Girl Scouts still plays an important role in today’s Florida State University campus just as it did in the Florida State College for Women campus. FSU has an active Campus Girl Scouts organization that takes part in tutoring, mentoring, event planning, community service activities and much more. They take part in activities that uphold the ideals of the Girl Scouts that have been in place since its founding. The organization page states that as a part of Campus Girl Scouts you will learn new leadership skills, network, grow professionally and personally, and have many new experiences (Randeree). Girl Scouts continues to provides students at FSU with the same opportunity to grow and help make the world a better place as this organization has done since its founding.

FSU has also partnered with Girl Scouts in 2013 to help them achieve their STEM initiative, which aims to expose girls to this field and help get them involved in STEM. Students in the College of Communication and Information offered four different free classes to help girls from different age groups earn STEM related badges (Patronis). Girl Scouts want to help girls achieve their potential and become leaders and FSU was able to help them do that. Florida State is the only college or university that has partnered with Girl Scouts in the Florida Panhandle region to teach STEM classes (Patronis).

Girl Scouts also continues to play a role on FSU’s campus as the Kappa Delta sorority has a partnership with the Girl Scouts. In 1998 Kappa Delta started a national collaboration with the Girl Scouts and the became first and only National Panhellenic Conference group to adopt the Girl Scouts as a national philanthropy (“Kappa Delta”). Girl Scouts is able to provide Kappa Delta with volunteering opportunities, while the Kappa Delta members serve as role models to the scouts. Kappa Deltas across the country devote over 125,000 hours to working with Girl Scouts in their communities; this past semester Kappa Delta of FSU hosted Cookies & Confidence with the Girl Scouts, which helped sell cookies in record time and sisters gathered to tell each other why they look up to one another (“Kappa Delta”). FSU continues to help Girl Scouts achieve their goal of teaching girls leadership skills and helping others.

Girl Scout Traditions

The newspaper clipping discusses Girl Scout week and one of the many activities planned to celebrate it. Girl Scout week is a tradition within the organization that still continues today. Girl Scout week is celebrated each March and always includes the Girl Scout’s birthday, March 12^th (“Traditions”).  The week is filled with different activities each troop participates in to celebrate the birthday of Girl Scouts and spread the idea of what it means to be a girl scout to others. It always begins with Girl Scout Sunday and ends on Girl Scout Sabbath on a Saturday (“Traditions”). This is just one of the many traditions of the Girl Scouts.

Selling cookies each year is one of the biggest traditions the Girl Scouts have. The girls used to make the cookies themselves in order to sell and raise money for their troops (Dillard). Even today cookies are still sold by each troop in order to raise money for service projects and special trips. The cookie program is the worlds largest girl led business and 2017 marked the 100^th year of Girl Scouts selling cookies (Dillard). The tradition of selling cookies is another way that Girl Scouts is able to teach its members valuable leadership skills and personal skills that it aims to teach.