I was a Girl Scout for 5 years when I was growing up, and I enjoyed every minute of it. Camping, cookie sales, lock ins, you name it, I loved it! I dropped out of Girl Scouts when I started Junior High School, but I always looked fondly back upon my Girl Scout experience.
Fast forward 25 years, and my own daughter joined her first Girl Scout Troop, as a Brownie. I was not the leader, I was a cookie mom. Several years later, when the girls were teens, and scouting was hard, the old leaders dropped out, and we were left with a choice: Disband the troop or lead a troop?
I opted to lead.
So, now, here it is 2015, and I have finally made it to the birthplace of scouting's founder. Girl Scouts has always spent time honoring Juliette (Daisy), but I'd never really had a true appreciation for her, and her determination, until I visited her house.
In many ways, she reminds me of myself. Stubborn. Determined. Unfortunately for her, she was born in an era when women were expected to become devoted wives, and dedicate themselves solely to their husbands. There were very few opportunities for women to receive an education or make a difference in the world. Oh, if she had been born 100 years later, the things she would have done!
While touring the house, we were shown art work that she had done. When she and her husband were sent to England for several years, she wanted to take family portraits with her to hang, as was the custom at that time. Since there were none that the family was willing to take off of the walls to give to her, she took old cast off portraits from the attic and repainted the faces to look like her family. Honest to goodness, the portraits were very well done.
The china painting that she had on display was beautiful. Fine, full of detail, and of better quality than most I have seen from that era.
Sculpture. Oh my heavens, could that woman sculpt!
Wood Burning. She had several old, plain pieces of furniture that she wanted to dress up. She took a stencil and a wood burner and stenciled in a new design on the drawer fronts of a dresser that was on display in the house.
Daisy didn't begin the Girl Scouts until late in life. Her marriage had ended in divorce. She'd had no children, and there was nothing for her to do with her time or energy. Despondent, she sat at dinner one night and poured out her troubles to a man sitting next to her at a dinner party. His name was Baden Powell, and he had recently started a movement called the Boy Scouts. He told her of how he'd had girls attempt to join his group, and of the 2 girls who had managed to successfully infiltrate the boy scouts for over a year before being discovered. The need for an equivalent program for girls was pronounced.
Daisy went home, and called her friend and announced “Come right over!” “I've got something for the girls of Savannah and all America and all the world and we're going to start it tonight!”.
And the rest, as they say, is history.
Say what you will about the scouting movement, but at that time in history, a distinct organization that focused on educating women, and encouraging women to do more, learn more, and find out more, was a desperately needed jolt.
Determined to make a difference, Daisy began a movement which has continued on for over 100 years and encouraged young girls to grow, learn, explore, and reach out to their full potential.
Pretty awesome legacy, don't you think?
(Wish I could show you pictures of her art work, but photography was prohibited in the home itself, and I am unable to find any images that are freely available on the web.)
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