Diana S. (Past Girl Scout, Age 10 - ?)

Many years after Diana graduated from high school and got married, she took a trip to Georgia. While she was in Georgia she got to see something that reminded her of her time in Girl Scouts, she got to see the Wayne-Gordon House or the birthplace of Juliette Lowe.

When Diana was ten, the group of friends she hung out with decided to become a troop and that was the beginning of her Girl Scout career. Diana’s troop kept themselves together throughout the first few years of high school, and then they disbanded.

From that time, Diana remembers earning badges for sewing and cooking, as well as getting her green vest and selling cookies.

Like most people, her favorite Girl Scout cookie is the Thin Mint, but she still fondly remembers the cookies she sold when she was a scout. She recalls the chocolate cookie with white filling (Oxfords/Chalet Crèmes) that is now retired and the ever-popular Trefoil cookies. Compared to the cookies that existed when Diana was a Girl Scout, today’s cookies seem healthier in comparison, but lack the same amount of butter and sugar that Diana remembers in her cookies.

She also remembers that her troop went camping. They started out in someone’s back yard, cooking s’mores over the fire. Later, they began to travel to the Girl Scout House in Catalina. The Girl Scout house was large dorm with a cooking faculty. The dorm was like a classroom with bare bunks. They would spend a lot of their summer there.

None of her children were Scouts when they were young, but Diana still remembers the qualities of honor and truthfulness that Girl Scouts taught her.

Madison Z. (Girl Scout Adult)

At Madison’s school, joining Girl Scouts was like joining a club or sport. Girl Scouts was just one of many choices, at the time kids her age were participating in sports, art classes or Girl Scouts. It was some kind of event that involved other groups of children, so it became a social event with community service mixed in.

An example of some of the community service Madison did with Girl Scouts was visiting an old age home. At this home they did caroling and they also made rag dolls for the women at the home (earning their sewing badge in the process).

Madison’s favorite memory from Girl Scouts was their trip to Lake Lakota. While they were there they learned how to camp, they learned some new songs, they did trust games and also did some bonding games. Madison remembers late night talks and pillow fights as well.

Lake Lakota was just one of the many trips that Madison’s troop did. Her troop did trips almost every chance they got, during school breaks of all seasons.

Madison has all three of the metallic (Bronze, Silver & Gold) Girl Scout Awards. She earned one of the awards by adopting a fire station. What this meant is that Madison would often be in and out of fire station 99. She constantly visited and went on tours with them and in return they taught her what a day of work was like, how to preform CPR and how to do first-aid.

Girl Scouting has affected Madison’s life in many ways. It has given her the physical and mental skills that place her a cut above the rest. When Madison has done jobs babysitting and tutoring, many parents chose her above others due to her Red-Cross certifications. When Madison’s class went on a camping trip and no one knew how to pitch a tent, Madison took the lead and taught them all how. She can sew and cook, but she can also do many things that people don't expect a girl to be able to do. Madison feels very empowered and being a Girl Scout is a large badge of pride for her.

One of the biggest things Girl Scouts has given her is self-confidence, whether it is confidence that she can survive on her own, save a life, cook for herself, protect herself in the wilderness, stich a blanket or work in a hospital, she has it.

Madison is currently a junior in college, she is a third generation Girl Scout and she’s living the dream.

Carol J. (Troop Leader, Life Time Girl Scout)

Carol grew up on a farm in a place that no Girl Scout troops existed, but when she had children of her own both her daughters became Girl Scouts. She has been actively involved in Girl Scouts for about 50 years now.

One of the big changes she has seen in Girl Scouts during her time is the way that girls progress through the program and the order they do things in. It used to be that you would start by “gaining steps” at the time you were a Daisy to Brownie. You would cook simple things like bugs in a log and the first overnight camp out would start at the end of Brownie year. For Carol’s troop’s first overnight, they camped out in Sycamore Canyon Park (California).  Later, they went to the Spanish Trails Girl Scout conference. As a Junior, a girl would go both scout house camping and open camping. Carol’s troop went to Mt. Palomar in San Diego to see the observatory and camp out. Cadets could go even farther on trips.  For example, Carol’s troop went to the state capital as their Cadet trip.  They also went to Sea World. As a Senior Girl you would run and direct the camps with adults, teaching cooking and songs like Something In My Pocket (AKA Brownie Smile Song) (most songs were found in a small grey book called “The Girl Scout Song Book”).

Back in the day, leaders - not only Girl Scouts - had to wear uniforms. Carol has three different Girl Scout leader uniforms hanging in her closet. As Carol worked closely with her daughter’s troop, she made friends with many fellow leaders along the way.

Carol’s Girl Scout troop did many crafts and projects:  they wrote letters and made Care Packages for the returning Vietnam veterans, they cleaned up hiking trails, they helped out at hospitals and they won their “First Class” Award. Carol has never been that much of an artsy person, so when she was running activities with her fellow leaders, she was the person who taught the girls respect, the flag ceremony and all the outdoorsy things. She also helped run many Girl Scout camps and mini camps.

Carol really enjoyed watching her daughters grow up and learn how to accomplish anything they wanted in life. Carol holds the Girl Scout values of respect, honor and care of the nature close to her heart. She really believes in what the motivational speakers that she used to bring in to her Girl Scout troop said about how a strong woman can accomplish anything.

Kathy A. (Troop Leader, Lifetime Girl Scout)

Step back in history, to the time of the Vietnam War, when Ronald Reagan was governor of California. Travel to Sacramento, go through security and enter the governor’s office. What you see ahead is the same thing Kathy saw when her Girl Scout troop traveled to Sacramento and got to meet America’s future president.

Kathy began her Girl Scouting career at the time that was common for girls to start troops in the 60s, as a brownie in second grade. When she was a junior, her mother became her troop leader and when she was a cadet she made the historic visit mentioned above.

When Kathy was a Girl Scout, women weren’t as much into careers as they are now, so Girl Scouts was more focused on woman as a homemaker then woman as a breadwinner. At that time Girl Scouts was way more focused on camping and getting woman outside the house then it is now.

Back then they also didn’t have Bronze, Silver and Gold Awards. What they had as the highest award was something called “First Class”. They earned it part by part. As juniors they would earn badges like the “Silly Badge” (on humor), the “Hospitality Badge” (on home-making) and numerous camping badges. After that they would earn the “Sign of Air” and the “Sign of Star”. When they were cadets they would earn more badges and “challenges”, followed by community service. For earning a “First Class” there wasn’t one main focus, it was mainly just mainly different little projects clumped under one award.

During the time she was a Girl Scout, Kathy also went camping and did many Girl Scout Camps with her troop. When they went camping as a troop, they would often travel to different mountains throughout Southern California and visit different places owned by the Girl Scout Council. While they were camping and traveling they would sing songs and do many crafts. Some of the songs Kathy remembers singing are “I Know A Place”, “Girl Scouts Together” and the “Brownie Smile Song”. As crafts they would combine leaves and rocks with plaster of paris. They would also practice their knot-tying and cooking skills.

A Girl Scout camps, Kathy often acted as a P.A.. As a P.A. she would teach young girls skills like sewing and cooking. They did a lot of cooking since they did it with their families too. At the Girl Scout camps they had to cook all their own meals, they did it over an open fire, in foil ovens, in Dutch ovens cooking and lots of different varieties of things that they did not normally use at home and stuff.

Kathy has been a Girl Scout for over 40 years, when she started, the only levels that existed were brownies, juniors, cadets and seniors. She is still heavily involved in the program, she is on the Girl Scout board in Colorado and her daughters are Girl Scouts. She wants to share the skills, organization, leadership and values Girl Scouts gave her with the world. She is headed forward to a bright tomorrow.

Amalu (あまる) (Girl Scout Adult)

Amalu was born in Los Angeles. She moved to Hawaii when she was one. Her family moved back to Japan when she was five. They lived next to a American Marine base in Okinawa. When she was in second grade in 2002, Amalu joined the Girl Scout troop on base that was led by her younger sister’s teacher. Her goal was to learn how to knit, to meet new people and make new friends.
This was not a Japanese Girl Scout troop, but a troop for American girls overseas in the West Pacific. Amalu was allowed to participate in this Girl Scout troop that was mostly made of the children of Marine’s due to her American citizenship.

Amalu’s troop did all the traditional Girl Scout things: they cooked common American foods like peanut butter cookies; they had potlucks; and they also explored other cuisines (Amalu remembers a Russian pot dish they once made). When they were exploring food from around the world, they often couldn’t find the exact ingredients they needed due to the fact that they on an island in Japan, and the base sold a limited amount of food. Due to this, they had to make a lot of substitutes. When they wanted to have snacks for a meeting, they would often go off base to buy Japanese snacks like Pocky.  Sometimes, Amalu and her mother would make onigiri (rice balls) for the troop.

Her troop also went on camping trips. One of Amalu’s favorite camping memories was when her troop climbed Mt. Fuji together. They learned about the natural aspects, and a teacher from Tokyo came in and taught them about reusable resources and how they could be more eco-friendly.

When Amalu was a Junior, they did a program with charm bracelets. To get each bead for the bracelet, they had to learn a new thing. The new thing could be anything form leadership skills, to information on how to be green.

Amalu didn’t do her Bronze or Silver Award, but she did do her Gold Award. She got in contact with a local orphanage that was started by the US Marines after World War II. The orphanage had been losing volunteers for the last ten years, so Amalu started a program where volunteers from the church on the base would come in a few times a year to help them out with the things that were needed with yard work, and creating events for the children and volunteers.

When Amalu went to Girl Scout summer camp (around the month of June in summer), it wasn’t just a regular Summer Camp where girls would go horse-back riding, camping and snorkeling.  It was a place where West Pacific US Overseas Girl Scouts from Japan, Guam and Korea would gather. The main language used was English, but many girls came from mixed backgrounds like Amalu. An activity they did at camp that Amalu vividly remembers was making cages for the turtle eggs. Turtles are really endangered in the Pacific area, so the girls would make cages out of thin wire to project the eggs from ravenous creatures.

In later years, when Amalu helped young kids out, she used the leadership and communication skills she learned in Girl Scouts. She taught the children the songs she knew like Old Lady Leary, Squizi Hunt, Tarzan, My Momma Don't Wear No Socks and 99 Soda Pops (changed from beer to soda pop).

Amalu just got a life membership for Girl Scouts. She wants to remind other females that Girl Scouts is an option, and she wants to share the wonderful opportunities and experience it gave her with others. Her troop taught her how to be an independent woman and be confident. Her troop used to have women from the military come in as motivational speakers, and speak about what they did and their roles in life. If Amalu hadn’t been in Girl Scouts and she hadn’t gotten her view of experiencing the world, she may have never had thought or had the courage to come to college in the United States. It wouldn’t have been an option in her mind.

At the end of the Friendship Song that Amalu’s Girl Scout troop used to sing, there is an extra verse added that isn’t sung by mainland US Girl Scouts. The third verse talks about how even though friends may be overseas (her troop was unstable due to military kids moving every few years), their friendships endure.