Great Leaders means Great Volunteers

Great Leaders of Yesterday

Hi Girl Scouts!

I mentioned that there were many little groups of Girl Scouts started in local areas but eventually, most of them joined Juliette Low's Girl Scouts soon after they began in 1912. The reason for this is that Juliette Low thought BIG! Nationally! That's why she asked Edith Johnston, our National Secretary at the time, to leave Savannah, Georgia and move the Girl Scout headquarters to Washington, DC...and then on to New York. She meant to recruit girls and volunteers nationally and the best place to start was in our nation's capitol.

Most of us think of Juliette Low as a great organizer but do you know what I think her greatest talent was? It was recruiting great volunteers. Juliette Low was the very best at this... She was able to recruit and inspire women who thought about how to empower girls and committed themselves to making it happen.

Though all the women Juliette Low recruited at first said they were way too busy. In truth, they were all in great demand by many charitable organizations but  Juliette Low had a way of not taking 'No' for an answer. Soon, the women she recruited were not just helping with Girl Scouts...they became Girl Scouts themselves!

With respect to great volunteers, some things never change! The organization continues to muster the best volunteers and our volunteers bring out the best in Girl Scouting to this day. Even better, we encourage our girls to grow up into leaders and volunteers themselves!

Some of Juliette Low's most important recruits included:

Edith Johnston, our first Executive Secretary who helped supervised our Girl Scout headquarters' move to Washington, DC, where it was able to grow into a nationally minded organization.

Helen Storrow, our first trainer and the benefactor of Our Chalet.

Jane Deeter Rippen, one of our first National Directors and great philanthropist. 

Ann Hyde Choate, second National President and who, with Jane Deeter Rippen and Lou Hoover oversaw the transition of Juliette Low's Girl Scouts into the modern national organization we are today.

Lou Henry Hoover, a First Lady (wife of President Herbert Hoover) and a very active  National President of the Girl Scouts who promoted volunteerism in a weekly radio broadcast.

Lou Hoover, First Lady and Girl Scout

Together, these volunteers gave Girl Scouts the firm foundation and philosophy that has sustained  our Movement through the first hundred years. Among us are the volunteers and girls who will keep Girl Scouts relevant for the next hundred years.

Ann Hyde Choate

Did you know? When Juliette Low stepped down as the Founding President, the team of Jane Deeter Rippen and Ann Hyde Choate led the second generation of Girl Scouts. They shaped our Girl Scouts into the forward thinking organization it is today while uniting all the small groups of Girl Scouts that started in 1910 into a single national Movement. They built a strong bond with the British and European Guides and Scouts, taking an active role in forming of World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts.

Our great leaders of today AND tomorrow...

YGGGS!

Dr D-

From many Girl Scout groups to one...

1910 illustration of American Girl Scouts by Adelia Beard.

Greetings Girl Scouts from Washington!

I'm visiting family in the lovely state of Washington on the northwest coast of the United States this week.

Washington state has a long history in Girl Scouting, too. As early as 1910, (yes, two years before Juliette Low returned to start her Savannah Girl Scouts!) there were Scouting groups for girls appearing all over the United States. Two of the earliest Scout groups for girls were formed by Presbyterian minister David Perry in Yakima and Spokane, Washington after he returned from a visit to England where he met the Girl Guides who impressed him greatly with their community service.

In another part of Washington, Aileen Miller organized girls into Scout groups without even realizing Reverend Perry was doing the same on the other side of the Cascade Mountains! Mrs Miller started her group of Girl Scouts after seeing the local Boy Scouts performing services to her community.

In fact, there were independent groups of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts forming all over the USA during the years of 1910-1912. Here are a few others we know about:

•        Miss Lena Beard, New York, along with her sister, Adelia, did a series of lectures in 1910 about her Girl Scouts of America.
•        Reverend E. C. Fintel, Des Moines, Iowa, organized the Ashbury Girl Scouts in 1910 after seeing the Girl Guides on his trip to England.
•        Clara Lisetor-Lane, also Des Moines, Iowa, inspired by Dr Perry Powell's Boy Scouts, started a group called Girl Scouts of America.

Did you know? The Beards were a family famous for work with young people in the early 20th Century. Lina and her sister Adelia Belle Beard wrote many good books for pioneering girls. Their brother, Dan Beard, played a key role in forming the Boy Scouts of America. The Beard sisters books have recently been republished in the years 2006-2009 (see American Girls Handy Book: How to Amuse Yourself and Others and On the Trail: An Outdoor Book for Girls) Both books are available as free ebooks  from Project Gutenberg. Check out On the Trail: An Outdoor Book for Girls.

So, from the very beginning, everyone thought it would be great to have Girl Scouts and so many groups started independently and locally. You may ask, how did Juliette Low's Girl Scouts that started two years later become the main organization? It is a good and important question. I'll see if I can answer that for you later today.