To the editor:
March 12, 2007 marked the 95th anniversary of the result of Juliette Low’s famous telephone call to her cousin, Nina Pape, in which she announced “I’ve got something for the girls of Savannah, and all America, and all the world and we’re going to start it tonight.” That ‘something’ was the first Girl Guide troop in the U.S. which shortly thereafter became known as Girls Scouts. As we turn 95 years old, Girl Scouting has grown from those original 18 girls to a membership of 3.7 million girls and adult volunteers, and is the pre-eminent leadership development program for girls in the United Sates.
As we celebrate our 95th year of our founding, many changes are taking place in the Girl Scout organization. Nationally we are reducing the number of councils from 312 to 109 high performance councils. A new program model is emerging which will help each member develop her leadership potential. Locally, we will become the Girl Scouts of Maine when the realignment process brings together Abnaki Girl Scout Council and the Girl Scouts of Kennebec Council in the fall of 2007. And Daisy Low would approve. In a birthday message to Girl Scouts written by Daisy in 1925 (just fourteen months before her death) and responding to a question of what Girl Scouting had meant to her, she expressed her feelings that the organization should change over time. She wrote “I realize that each year it has changed and grown until I know that, a decade from now, even a year from now, what I might say of it would seem like an echo of what has been instead of what is.”
Through all the change process, however, Girl Scouting remains true to its roots of developing leadership in its members and giving service to the community. To mark the 95th anniversary in 2007, Girl Scouts will celebrate Make the World a Better Place Week. Girl Scouts, individually or as troops, in family groups or as alumnae, will be encouraged to design and carry out a project that will address a community need during Girl Scout Week, March 11-17, 2007. Over 200 Abnaki Council Girl Scouts and family members will join Girl Scouts from all over the nation at the 95th anniversary Sing Along on the Mall in Washington, DC in June.
Other 95th anniversary events include a poster contest, open to all Girl Scouts, highlighting how Girl Scouts ‘make the world a better place’, local troop and community-wide birthday celebrations and observance of Girl Scout Sabbath and Girl Scout Sunday.
I am constantly amazed at what the power of girls and women, working together, can accomplish. After Hurricanes Rita and Katrina, girls and troops in our council rallied to provide many forms of relief – a troop in Aroostook County filled over 300 backpacks with age-appropriate school supplies and shipped them south, girls provided gift cards to give to fellow Girl Scouts in storm ravaged areas, to buy personal items, and gently used handbooks were sent to Girl Scouts who had lost everything. In communities throughout Abnaki Girl Scout Council troops of all ages give service to humane societies, nursing homes, homeless shelters, food banks, soup kitchens, day care centers, churches and community recreation programs.
Please join me in wishing all Girl Scouts, past, present and future a happy 95th birthday.
Lucy Eaton Hawkins, CEO
Abnaki Girl Scout Council
