Girl scouts 100th birthday
Girl scouts 100th birthday_However well-placed you may be now, times may come when you will have to know how to milk, cook, cut wood, wash clothes, act as a nurse, or even defend your own life. Many things which are now done for you will have to be done without any assistance from others. All these things you can learn as a Girl Scout.For a young girl in the moment, a Girl Scout merit badge is motivation.
When a Girl Scout becomes a woman, those badges represent memories and still-useful skills.
Lifelong Scout Maeve Van Hoorde, a Carmel resident who was a senior Scout in the early 1980s, said the Camping badge was her favorite. To earn it, she had to learn how to build a campfire, pitch a tent, cook meals over a fire, tie a knot and survive outdoors.
"They were definitely skills that I remember today," said Van Hoorde, 48. "Not that I camp a lot anymore, but I certainly know how to."
Today, women nationwide will celebrate the 100th birthday of the Girl Scouts, the organization in which they learned values, leadership and practical skills, often by earning those iconic badges. Since 1912, about 50 million girls have joined the Girl Scouts. About 3.2 million are currently involved, including 90,000 in Indiana. Local celebrations include luncheons, a ceremonial flag collection at the Indiana War Memorial and flash mobs reciting the Girl Scout promise.
Beyond serving as colorful insignia affixed proudly to sashes, vests and tunics, Girl Scout badges give a snapshot of women's ambitions -- as well as their societal status and the spirit of the times -- over the past century.
"You knew what was important to you, what society thought was important at the time," said former Indiana first lady Judy O'Bannon, a Girl Scout in the 1940s, when some of the most popular badges in Indiana included Hostess, Outdoor Cook, Dancer and International Friendship. "You could track what society expected good, proper girls should be taught."
Jane Pfaffenberger, 62, Avon, was a Girl Scout who attended Camp Dellwood, then a leader. She is now a volunteer archivist for Girl Scouts of Central Indiana and a member of the 100th anniversary committee. In "The Guide's Promise," published in 1912, 11 subjects were listed for badges: Sick Nurse, Cook, Seamstress, Gardening, Cycling, Laundress, Musician, Artist, Clerk, Stalker (nature study) and Farmer.
But those early badges also gave girls a chance to explore nontraditional areas. In addition to Needlewoman and Laundress badges, there were badges for Electrician, Horsemanship and Signaling (both with flags and Morse code).
The oldest living Girl Scout in Central Indiana, 100-year-old Muriel Caldwell Reuter, who lives in Gnaw Bone, became a Girl Scout in 1923, at age 12. She earned all or nearly all of the available merit badges, for "cooking, sewing and care of little children," said her son Dan Reuter, 77, Nashville. During that decade, the Girl Scouts also introduced the badges of Economist, Interpreter, Journalist and Motorist.
Indiana Fever coach Lin Dunn, 65, remembers swimming, canoeing and collecting leaves for badges. She collected 15 different leaves and preserved them.
"I think I have a unique knowledge of trees that a lot of people don't have, because I worked so diligently on that badge in Girl Scouts," she said. She turned every experience into earning a badge, even a train trip to the planetarium in Memphis, Tenn.
In the early days, girls were tested before they could get their badge; the community assisted in those efforts. In 1924, the Accident Prevention Bureau of the Indianapolis Traffic Department helped to develop tests for the Motorist badge, and the Marion County Tuberculosis Society worked with girls on the Nutrition badge. Archive reports and newspaper clippings talk about involvement from Butler University faculty, Indianapolis Museum of Art staff and even employees from L.S. Ayres and Blocks.
To earn badges, Girl Scouts have to complete a series of tasks, and those tasks have changed over the decades. For example, to earn the early Flyer badge, requirements included passing tests "in knowledge of air currents, weather lore" and making "an aeroplane to fly 25 yards," according to Indiana state government archives. By the 1980s, when the Aerospace badge became available, women had to talk to "older people in your community about what it was like to fly in the first half of the 20th century," as well as visit an airport, control tower, space center, aerospace museum or air show.
Today, Girl Scouts can earn 136 subject-specific badges, plus Make Your Own badges. Last year, badges at every level received their first major update since 1987, the year of the Fashion, Fitness and Makeup badge, USA Today reported. Girl Scout focus groups told leaders they wanted more challenging and creative subjects. Now, those badges include website design, public policy and even the Science of Happiness. Still, many of the earliest, more traditional badges, including First Aid, cooking and camping, remain popular.
This year, more new Girl Scout badges became available. They include Count It Up Leaf (which deals with financial literacy); Cookie CEO; New Cuisines; Car Care; and Dinner Party. As part of the 100th birthday celebration, Girl Scouts declared 2012 the Year of the Girl with a commemorative badge.
There's also a patch, which can be purchased. Patches, unlike badges, are not earned and are displayed on the back of uniforms.
Van Hoorde's daughter, Anna, a fifth-grader, just earned her Bronze Award, the highest achievable as a Junior Girl Scout. It was an individual award for her troop's project to benefit the Humane Society for Hamilton County and included educating the public on the importance of pet microchipping.
Pet Care was the 10-year-old's favorite Scouting badge, earned by visiting a veterinary clinic and learning about taking care of her pet cat.
Another favorite badge was Camera Shots, for which Anna learned how to use a digital camera and the basics of a video camera. She created a photo book and a scrapbook telling her life story from her birth in China, to getting adopted, to her family's recent visit to her homeland. Architecture, Computer Fun and Healthy Habits are among the 49 badges she's earned in Scouting.
"She did some badges I would never have had the opportunity to do," said her mom, who completed badges in Basketweaving and Puppetry.
Despite the evolution of the skill areas over the past 100 years, the result remains the same: "It's meaningful to you and a sense of accomplishment," Van Hoorde said. "Usually when you do a badge, you've done enough things to earn that badge that you're going to remember it."
— “How Girls Can Help Their Country: Handbook for Girl Scouts,” published 1913.
It might be an overstatement to say that the Girl Scouts shaped American girlhood. Social movements collide and entwine — Title IX, Barbie, Susan B. Anthony, Miley Cyrus — and it’s nearly impossible to measure the cause and effect of each one. But it would be fair to say that the Girl Scouts have reflected American girlhood, that they have charted the history of what it has meant to be young and female, especially young and female and industrious and outdoorsy.
They are turning 100 this month. There will be a singalong on the Mall this summer, which 200,000 Girl Scouts are expected to attend. Across the world, girls glued to YouTube instructional videos are already practicing the jazz hands that accompany the official theme song of the event, “Ignite.” Guinness record keepers will be on hand for a head count; the Scouts are trying for the largest flash mob in history.
In recent weeks, conservative groups have accused the nonpartisan organization of being a “radicalizing” force, promoting abortion and homosexuality. A teenage California Girl Scout identifying herself as Taylor spoke out angrily after learning that a Colorado troop had decided to admit a transgender child who self-identified as female.
She called for a ban on the cookies.
Girl Scouts are often reduced to their cookies in ways that Boy Scouts are never reduced to their popcorn. The Girl Scouts must walk the tightrope of being too old-fashioned for some and too progressive for others. Debates and discussions have less to do with what a troop is doing in Colorado and more with the bigger things we are always discussing, the issues we are always worrying about: What do we want our girls to be? How will they affect the nation they will inherit?
Underlying discussions of just what the Girl Scouts are up to is surely this realization: 10 million girls from 145 countries — the total number of Girl Scouts worldwide — have a really loud voice.
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HOW TO SECURE A BURGLAR WITH EIGHT INCHES OF CORD: Make a slipknot at each end of your cord. Tie the burglar’s hands behind him by passing each loop over his little fingers. Place him face downwards, and bend his knees. Pass both feet under the string and he will not be able to get away.
— “How Girls Can Help Their Country,” 1913.
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“In 1912, women didn’t even have the right to vote,” says Lidia Soto-Harmon, the chief executive of the Girl Scout Council of the Nation’s Capital. “And here the Girl Scouts were saying that girls needed to learn how to camp.”
She shares a few historical tidbits.
The Girl Scouts were the first women to march in an inaugural parade, for Woodrow Wilson.
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