It sometimes seems everyone is, is related to or has bought cookies from a Girl Scout. That's not so far-fetched: Some 1.9 million girls are actively involved in Scouting in the U.S.
And it all began with one woman operating out of a Savannah carriage house.
It was 104 years ago this month that Juliette Gordon Low returned home from England to start up the Girl Guides — an offshoot of the Boy Scouts she'd first become involved with in Scotland, where her "patrol" had learned useful skills like first aid and map-reading. By the next year, the Americanized version had become the Girl Scouts (the name seemed more in keeping with the country's pioneering, adventurous spirit), and Low was working to spread the concept nationwide.
It wasn’t all a Do-si-do in the park. The head of the Boy Scouts of America, James E. West, felt the name change trivialized his organization and would lead to some boys quitting. There also existed a larger rival organization, the Camp Fire Girls (which West had helped to form).
Undaunted, Low traveled the country recruiting leaders and well-connected supporters like the wives of Thomas Edison and the U.S. House majority leader. During World War I, the Girl Scouts helped the Red Cross make surgical dressings, clothes and even trench candles for soldiers. Some troops grew and canned food, drawing thanks from then-U.S. Food Administration head and future President Herbert Hoover; his wife, Lou Henry Hoover, later became the Girl Scouts’ national vice president.
Low died of breast cancer in 1927 at age 66. In 2012, President Barack Obama honored her with the Presidential Medal of Freedom — a four-generations-later testament to her lasting, profound impact on millions of girls and the people they've helped.
Still, it’s hard to imagine Low feeling any honor could have surpassed the most poignant one her funeral provided:
She was buried in her Girl Scout uniform.
> On the web: Juliette Gordon Low Birthplace in Savannah
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