When most of us think about the Girl Scouts we think about cookies. The Girl
Scouts are famous for their annual cookie sale which raises money for their
organization but did you know that the Girl Scouts of America was founded right
here in Georgia?
Okay, ladies, go get your horses.
These eighth graders are Girl Scouts from Troop 266 in Augusta and they do
more than sell Girl Scout cookies. Today's activity is horseback riding,
which includes learning how to saddle up.
And go ahead and tighten it up because
as soon as we get done with this we're going out on the trail.
I like the way they look though,
I like riding them cuz I like animals a lot. I just like them
because they're really big.
I didn't really know much about horses until a
few years ago when we came out here the first time and then and then I learned a lot.
It makes you feel in control because you can decide where you want to go, what
you want to do, and everything.
Girls having adventures, acquiring new skills,
and most of all having fun that's just what the woman who created the Girl
Scouts had in mind.
Her name was Juliette Gordon Low and in 1912 she founded the Girl Scouts in her
hometown, Savannah. She was born in this house on Halloween
in 1860. The little girl everyone called Daisy. Her family was well-to-do so she
and her brothers and sisters had all the privileges of wealth, but a loving family,
wealth, and social status didn't protect Daisy from an unhappy life. Fran Powell
Harold is the director of the Girl Scout National Center in Savannah.
Daisy felt, in
her own life, that she had not been prepared for anything except the life of
a fine lady and through that life she had learned all the finer things, which
would help her be a Victorian wife and mother. Both of which, unfortunately for
her, she was unsuccessful in both of those attempts. She had a very unhappy
marriage to a husband who treated her badly and she had no children of her own,
which was a great disappointment in Daisy's life. And she felt that those
were the two things that she had been raised to do.
She was the wife of an English gentleman, she could speak French,
and had fine manners. She had even entertained the Prince of Wales but when
her marriage failed with no children, she didn't know what to do with her life.
At first she turned to art.
From the time that Daisy was a young girl she was
always interested in all the forms of the arts. She was a fair poet, she wrote
plays, she acted in them, she was very dramatic in her own life and very lively,
and she always drew, she painted, and probably her most accomplished art form
was sculpting.
Daisy studied sculpting in Paris and showed real talent. This is a
likeness of her godchild and this sculpture shows Daisy herself as a
little girl. She took a course in blacksmithing and made wrought iron
gates for her home with her own hands. She shaped the heavy iron into delicate
designs complete with daisies. In fact, Daisy was a remarkable woman with many
talents but still her life seemed empty. She needed a cause to fight for.
And one day she went to a party with a luncheon and there she met Sir Robert
Baden-Powell, who was the founder of the Boy Scouts. And when she told him that
she'd had a wasted life, he told her he had something for her, which, if she
followed it, a greater sphere of work would open up before her.
What Baden-Powell
had in mind was creating a girl's version of the Boy Scouts. At last Daisy
has found her cause. In March 1912, she founded the organization that soon
became the Girl Scouts of America.
I think in Daisy's mind the thing that she
wanted girls to get out of Girl Scouting was career opportunity. An opportunity
for their lives.
In the early 1900's, girls didn't compete in sports or go
camping or learn how to be strong and independent. Daisy wanted to change all
that. In a promotional film that Daisy produced in 1917, we see her goals for
the Girl Scouts. They're in good physical condition. They
can swim, which was unusual for girls at that time. They can even send a message
by telegraph in Morse code. These girls are self-reliant and they
have all the practical skills that Daisy's own education failed to give her.
*Instrumental Piano Music*
Girls all over the country loved the idea and wanted to join the Girl Scouts.
The organization began to grow like wildfire and in the 15 years that Daisy
devoted to the organization after she founded it, one hundred and sixty seven
thousand girls were members by the time of her death.
Daisy worked hard to make the Girl Scouts a success; raising money, making
speeches. She even made the wife of President Calvin Coolidge and honorary
Girl Scout. She did all this although she was almost completely deaf. She lost her
hearing when she was young because of ear infections but being deaf never held her back.
Daisy was absolutely an unstoppable woman. She was headstrong, she
was determined, she was stubborn, she was disorganized. And, though she was
disorganized herself, she was a great organizer. She was someone who could
inspire other people to carry her banner. I think that if Daisy were to come back
today she would be really delighted with the direction that Girl Scouting has
taken. It still has the same element of fun and educational learning and
opportunities for careers that she wanted so desperately for girls. And
today almost three and a half million girls and women
our members of the largest girl serving organization in the world.
What's good about being a Girl Scout is
it's just you have wide opportunities. You do more stuff
then you just do so sit home and doing nothing.
We want whitewater rafting, a
little while ago, pretty soon we're gonna go on a hike in Appalachian Trail and I
think that'll be fun. We go camping a lot.
By being a Girl Scout
I feel you know I've I learned lots of things and that kind of helps me to
become stronger I guess and be able to just kind of handle situations better.
Makes you feel like you can I really know how to do stuff, you know?
Like, you feel intelligent.
*Up beat piano music*
*End Screen Music*
Well, there are still lots of places left to see in this state. There are still
lots of people I'd like you to meet. This is Georgia Stories, I'm Colin sidor.
Thanks