100th Anniversary - Guest Blog: Shook

Our thanks go to Emily Shook for this week's blog entry.  Emily is a Girl Scout Brownie and Cadette Troop Leader, as well as the co-Service Unit Manager for Urbandale.

Interested in being our next guest blogger?  Email us!

Do you have someone that you'd like to nominate at a Girl Scout Great?  Click here to learn more!

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Emily Shook

Girl Scout Brownie & Cadette
Troop Leader
Co-Service Unit Manager
Urbandale, IA

When I was asked to write a story for this blog, I thought about what part of Girl Scouts is most important to me. So I looked to the Girl Scout law, you can ask any of my girls and they will tell you what my favorite part of the law is.... "to be a sister to every Girl Scout". I've never had a sister and most of my life I've been outnumbered by boys, so the idea of being a sister is special to me. Girl Scouts all around the world are bound together in this unique sisterhood. I now have 10 million sisters!

Since I will probably never meet all 10 million of my sister Girl Scouts, I will focus on the ones that I have met! I am a sister to both my Brownie and a Cadette troops, and I have expanded beyond my girls to serve as the co-Service Unit Manager for Urbandale. I love all the friendships that have developed in all these areas.

My Cadette troop has been together since Kindergarten, and I've been their leader since they were first graders. It has been such an honor to watch them grown into young women. They are almost all as tall as me! They have become busy as their social lives expand and have become more involved in sports, music, church and other activities. Our troop meeting frequency and times are changing this year, all so they can remain together as they move into this next chapter of their lives. My hope is that the sisterhood of Girl Scouts ties these 16 girls together for life. The memories of horseback riding, playing football, decorating cakes, giving to others, and the countless other adventures we've had will make their friendships even sweeter. We are a diverse group of girls from every elementary school in the Urbandale area. Next year as the all go to same middle school, the sisterhood of Girl Scouts will connect them and be even more important. Watching our relationship change, from me being a leader to more of an advisor and friend has been great.

It is also fun to watch with anticipation as my Brownie girls move forward and mature. I am definetly a more experienced leader than I was the first time around with this age. In their two years together, they've already matured and come out of their shells. The shy little group of girls I had, has blossomed into an outgoing friendly group. I know that as they move forward together, they will find their friendship and the bond of sisterhood growing even stronger between them.

Girl Scouts has broaden my connections in my community as well as brought about friendship with other families that we may never of had. I am thankful for all the opportunities I've had...and if my math calculations are correct, I have at least another 15 years of fun!

- Emily Shook

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100th Anniversary - Guest Blog: Matthes

Monica Matthes brings her inspiring words to us this week as our guest blogger.  Read on to hear her fond reflections of Camp Lakota and her adventures in Girl Scouts - both as a girl and as a leader for her daughter's troop!

If you would like to be our next guest blogger, please email us!

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Monica Matthes and children
Girl Scout Troop Leader

It seems like so long ago, but the more I think about it the more the memories come streaming back. It was a dark night on my first night sleeping in a tent with girls I did not know in a place I was not yet comfortable in. The tears started and shortly after I heard sniffing from the other three girls who were experiencing the same thing as I was and that was home sickness. Of course after a week of fun, singing, cooking over the campfire, swimming every day, and horse back riding came the last night camp fire and the dread of telling all my friends and counselors good-bye.  Yes, I even remember the names of the counselors, Willy and Doc, and the tears started all over again - for different reasons.  Camp Lakota was a big part of my memories as a Girl Scout.  I still sing the songs and still know the Girl Scout Promise and even though the camp is no longer in operation I will always carry the memories with me forever. 

Twenty years later, my daughter was born.  I had the habit of telling stories and singing and one day I was singing a song I learned from the nights in front of the campfire at Camp Lakota. She loved it and I began to teach it to her.  Five years later, the prospect of becoming a Girl Scout Daisy was on the horizon. I did not have to talk her into it because she was more than ready to embark on the adventures that I often talked about.

Since then, five years have gone by and she is a Girl Scout Junior.  As for me, I am still active in the quality and quantity of life lessons that Girl Scouting gives to girls. My daughter Kiera is an outgoing young lady who is a leader, takes charge of situations and rights the wrongs especially when it comes to friends who are in trouble. She may be only 10, but with the guidance of Girl Scouts, she is outspoken, courteous, mild manner, and loves to be around people. We work together when it comes to Girl Scouts because even as a 40 year old I learn from Girl Scouts also. We sell cookies together, sell nuts together, put out flags for Memorial Day together, and do the lock-ins together. Last year we even did the Frontier Parade in Fort Dodge together to celebrate 100 wonderful years of Girl Scouts. I was a co-leader for three years of her Girl Scout career and will probably continue that this fall when I take on the fourth grade juniors as they continue to grow and learn about the all the possibilities Girl Scouts can give them.

I can not begin to explain how much Girl Scouts has meant to me and how many memories my daughter and I will carry with us for a long time.  Hopefully some day she will be singing songs or talking about memories of girl scouts to her daughter and another generation of Girl Scouts will be started. Girl Scouts are a wonderful group of young ladies learning from each other and from different generations. It gives girls a chance to learn how to become leaders, how to work as a team, and how to appreciate all the world can give them. I know in my heart that my daughter will find her little nitch in this world because of the courage, and knowledge she has learned from being a Girl Scout.

All I can say is thank you for leading this little girl to camp Lakota and teaching her how to engage in fun, creativity, and leadership and being able to pass that on to her daugther - together we are Girl Scouts.

-Monica Matthes

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100th Anniversary - Guest Blog: Bruner

We're recognizing Suzie Bruner as this week's guest blogger.  Suzie is among our valued Girl Scout leaders from Council Bluffs.

Are you interested in being our next guest blogger?  If so, please email us! 

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Suzie Bruner (2nd from left) with friends, daughter,
and staff at the Girl Scout Annual Meeting.

Hello, my name is Suzie Bruner.  You might say Scouting is in my blood.  My parents were Den Masters and Leaders for Boy Scouts.  My Mother was the helper in my Girl Scout Troop.  Our Troop would meet once a week right after school.  Our leader, Mrs. Jones, had her hands full.  At that time we didn’t have many Leader’s in my area and she ended up being the Leader for all the girls in my school class.  I think there were about 30 of us.  We would leave school on Tuesdays, all of us walking to her house where we held our meetings.  She would move all the furniture in her house to the side walls and put up tables where we would sit and do crafts, and work in our Girl Scouts Brownie Books.  We wore the Girl Scout uniform which consisted of the Brownie dress, tie and beanie.  The tie was a real tie and we had to learn how to tie it correctly.  You might say this was my first lesson in knots.  Whenever one of the Girl’s in our Troop had a Birthday we wore our uniform to school that day.  Our way of saying Happy Birthday to a fellow Girl Scouts.  With so many of us in our Troop we wore our uniforms often.  When it was time to Bridge to Juniors Mrs. Jones had decided to step down from Girl Scouts.  This left all of us without a leader.  Both my parents were already involved in Boy Scouting and working.  This left me no choice, but to end my Girl Scouting days as a Girl.

Later in life I had boys.  I would help with Boy Scouts, but never really got that involved.  We moved from Council Bluffs and I lost touch with Scouting.  Then came my daughter.  She joined as a Daisy.  She had a wonderful Leader and Co Leader.  She was getting the full experience of be a Girl Scouts.  I would go help out occasionally but didn’t feel the need to get involved.  Then our family was moving again.  This time we moved back to my home town of Council Bluffs.  When we went to register for Girl Scouts it was almost summer and time for Camp.  My daughter was not excited to go to camp without friends, but with some encouragement off she went.  This was not a very good experience and she was going to quit.  Then I remembered the great experiences I had with my parents as Leader’s and friends that I had due to Girl Scouts.  So I decided I was going to be her Leader.  I went to my training and thought boy this is a lot of responsibility.  I don’t know if I can live up to the Girl Scouts expectations.  With lots of encouragement and help from the staff I started my Troop.  We had the typical trials and errors of Girl Scouts the first year.  Then it all seemed to fall in place.  I had a troop of girls that wanted to be Girl Scouts.   I was getting as much out of Girl Scouts as they were. 

Then came the big question?  Would I be willing to be Service Manager for Service Unit 406?  I didn’t think this was something that I was qualified for.  But again with some encouragement I became the Service Unit Chair.  With this came more responsibility. My family began to think I was living and breathing Girl Scouts.  In a way I was.  So I decided to ask for help.  I began by asking others that didn’t know me.  This gave us a bigger range of ideas to work from.  From there, not only have I got to work with the girls, I have gained some of the best friends I could ask for.   During my years as a Leader and Service Unit Manager I think the most important thing I have gained out of Girl Scouts is friendship. 

Like they say, once a Girl Scout always a Girl Scout.

- Suzie Bruner

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100th Anniversary - Guest Blog: Farmer

Thank you to our guest blogger, Twan Farmer, for her thoughts and Girl Scout story. Twan was also our first winner of our Facebook Giveaway 'Cookie Connection'!  She is extremely passionate about Girl Scouts and was a long time member of Girl Scouts of Eastern Iowa Western Illinois.

Interested in being one of our guest bloggers?  Email us and tell us your story!

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Twan Farmer (left) with
camp counselors/friends

When I was eleven years old I sat at the top of what seemed like a huge cliff looking over the edge. Suddenly it didn't matter that I had a harness on or that I had practiced this so many times before, it looked like I was about to step off the edge of the earth. As I sat there thinking of every bad thing that might happen if I slid those few feet to my left, I heard a voice telling me, "It's okay, if you don't want to do it you don't have to. We aren't going to make you do anything you don't feel comfortable with, but we want you to know that if you decide to go we won't let anything happen to you.  And we wouldn't let you do anything you weren't ready for.  It's your choice but remember there is nothing we haven't prepared you for, nothing you can't do if you try." It still took a few minutes after that, but thanks to those words from my counselor and the encouragement of my fellow campers, I went over the edge and rappelled down just like we had practiced at camp. And it is because of those words and all the other lessons I learned through Girl Scouts and Camp Conestoga that I’ve become the person I am today.

I am incredibly grateful to Girl Scouts for making me feel prepared throughout my life. In high school I was getting a ride home from a friend and we came out to a flat tire, no problem, I took a car care workshop to earn my Auto Maintenance Interest Project Patch.

When I was looking for a college, I wasn’t nervous about living in a dorm because I had gone to camp every year and I figured if I could live in a tent with strangers I could handle a dorm room. I also ended up choosing my college (Agnes Scott College in Decatur, GA) because after narrowing down my list of schools to two that had the program I wanted and looked like places I would thrive, I saw that Agnes had a Campus Girl Scout program and the choice was simple. When I was there, on my own for the first time, halfway across the country from everyone I knew, I used the skills I had learned at camp and on my Wider-Op to meet lots of different people. I managed my money well because I learned those skills earning Try-Its and badges and IPPs. And at the end of my first year I applied to be a Resident Advisor figuring my CIT and counselor experience would serve me well. I was right and found myself loving the first year dorms where I got to do lots of get-to-know each other activities and help girls adjusting to life away from home for the first time.

After college I moved all over trying different things, and while each time was nerve-wracking I knew I would be okay because I had the skills I needed to be successful in almost anything I tried. Even when I didn’t know how to do something specific at a job or in general, I had the skills to find the information I needed or to interact with the person I needed to ask. I took the leadership skills I learned while earning my various Leadership Awards and used them to be promoted at almost every job I’ve ever had. I have been a Trainer at almost every job because I have shown that I not only know how to excel at my position, but that I can try many and varied ways of teaching skills in order to help others learn different things - all skills learned throughout my time with Girl Scouts.

And while it has taken me a bit of time to decide what I want to be when I grow up, I have never felt completely lost because I know that I have numerous invaluable skills that I can use to get me through almost ANY situation in life. I am currently using those skills to save money to get my Masters in Library and Information Science, I plan to focus in Children’s and Teen Services where I hope I can help lots of future Girl Scouts earn their patches.

But the thing I am most grateful for from my time in Girl Scouts is the feeling of family. I am an only child and both of my parents are only children. I never knew what it was like to be surrounded by aunts and uncles and cousins or siblings. But when I went to Girl Scout meetings or workshops or Camp Conestoga, I understood what that meant. Even now, as an adult, I find myself turning to my CIT counselor for advice (Hi Quibs!) or messaging fellow counselors or Girl Scouts when I see something that reminds me of one of our adventures. I keep up with almost all of my former CITs and feel like a proud mama duck watching her ducklings become full-grown. I feel honored to have played even a tiny role in their lives. The best thing is feeling so unconditionally loved by all of the people I have encountered no matter how long it has been since we’ve seen each other. I will never be able to thank Girl Scouts enough for giving me such a huge worldwide family, but I will do my best to give back to that family in any and every way I personally can for the rest of my life because I wouldn’t be who I am today without them.

- Twan Farmer

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100th Anniversary - Guest Blog: Doruska

We welcome Molly Doruska as our guest blogger this week.  She is an active Girl Scout and has a great connection with our 100th Anniversary... read on...

If you'd like to be our next guest blogger, please let us know by emailing us your story!

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Molly with Lieutenant Governor Kim Reynolds

My life has always been a busy one. There never really was or are any dull moments. Joining Girl Scouts in fifth grade, after finding time, has created so many more amazing moments for me. I have attended camp at Camp Tanglefoot and Camp Sacajawea. There, I have learned so many skills. But more important than all the things I have learned, is all the people I have met. I have made so many friends and met so many amazing role models at camp since I have entered the world of Girl Scouting. They have inspired me to go back to my community and influence it. 

I have assisted those with brain injuries for my Bronze Award. Then I made over twenty lap blankets for the nursing home patients as my Silver Award. I asked for help in carrying my work on, and the Ankeny Girl Scouts made fifty-six blankets for the local nursing homes to hand out while caroling. These have all been great moments that Girl Scouts have implanted in my life.

Recently, I was asked in my extended learning class to take on a project to challenge myself. I knew immediately I wanted to enter the Write Women Back into History Essay Contest. My topic would be Juliette Gordon Low as we entered into the 100th anniversary year.  Little did I know that the theme was women’s education and women’s empowerment!  I did my research and learned so much about how Juliette Gordon Low battled not only the social norms of the time, but also hearing loss in order to found the Girl Scouts. My essay on her accomplishments and their impacts on my life won first place in the 8th-9th grade division. It was my little way to add to the celebration of Girl Scouts 100th year celebration.

This celebration should inspire us all to go back into our communities and create lasting moments with others. Juliette Gordon Low’s gathering of eighteen girls in Savannah, Georgia allows us to be part of the wonderful organization she created. If she created so many waves in 1912, why can’t we keep the ripples alive? 

I believe there are two reasons for this celebration: to look back, and to look forward. We look back on the history of Girl Scouts and see many amazing accomplishments of women and girls everywhere. As we look ahead, ask yourself, what do I want my world to look like? Whatever your issue is, face it head on. Use the courage and confidence of Juliette Gordon Low as your own. Let’s make the celebration of 100 years an inspiration to impact the future. You, too, can create moments to remember.

- Molly Doruska

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100th Anniversary - Guest Blog: Lunde

Thanks to Karen Lunde for contributing her Girl Scout story to our guest blog.  We appreciate this walk back in time and all the positive impact that Girl Scouting had on her life.  Read on… 

If you’d like to become our next guest blogger, email us and tell us your story.

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My Girl Scout story, by Karen Lunde

Karen Lunde
Lifetime Member

Girl Scouting has had such a positive impact on my life that it would be impossible to imagine my upbringing without it.  I would love to connect with anyone who shares my story, worked at Camp Sacajawea at the same time, or is interested in hearing more! You can contact me directly by email.  Here are some of my memories of Girl Scouting and how they affected my life.
 
By selling Girl Scout cookies, I got “camp credit,” even enough to attend twelve-day sessions at Camp Sacajawea for free.  Starting at age 14, I was a Counselor-in-Training using the camp name of Linus - as a kid, I had identified with the this character in the Peanuts comic strip.  He carried a blanket, and so did I.  He was of good character.  I was a CIT for three summers at Camp Sac, and at 18, I was an Assistant Unit Leader at Camp Sac.  At 19, I was an Assistant Unit Leader at Camp Togowoods near Wasilla, Alaska.  At 21, I was a Unit Leader at Camp Lachenwald in the middle of Germany.  These experiences were pretty incredible.  By working at Girl Scout camps, and then taking a few more weeks to travel in both Alaska and Europe, I created my own opportunity and adventure.

I now live in the small town of Maulburg (pop. about 3,000), in southwest Germany with my German husband, Ingo, and almost six-year old daughter Marie. It seems like my experience as a Girl Scout camp counselor in Germany may have had something to do with my ability and willingness to move here to work as a postdoc in Developmental Biology at the University of Freiburg.

My journey started in Ames, IA as I became a Girl Scout when I was 6-1/2 years old.  When I was 18, I paid $100 to become a Lifetime Member through the historic Moingona council.

Me as a
Brownie

As a Brownie, from 1971-1973, at the end of each meeting, we stood in two lines and formed a tunnel with our hands over to the other side.  One by one, we each ran through the tunnel, as we sang, “Merrily, we roll along …”

Girl Scout summer camp Camp Sacajawea in Boone, Iowa, had a major impact upon my growing up. In the summer of 1973, I went to Camp Sacajawea for the first time.  I was a Rambler, for a six-day session.  Geri and Sandy were in my tent, and Kermit, HoHo, and Chipper were my counselors.  I learned the song, “Once upon a time, in a wee little cottage, there were three bears, cha, cha, cha..."

Me ready for
the  parade

As a Junior, we put on a play for Dad-Daughter Date Night and we learned to roller skate at the J4-Rollaway.  I think of this now, while I teach my daughter to inline skate outside in our cul-de-sac.  Our troop sang songs like, “When ‘ere you make a promise, consider well its importance... “ Ames has very active Girl Scouts.  I remember marching with the Girl Scouts in the Ames Memorial Day parade, and going to Day.

I sold hundreds of dollars worth of Girl Scout cookies and nuts over the years and when I learned I could get “camp credit”, I sold even more. The fraternities at Iowa State University were my favorite place to sell Girl Scout cookies.

Every summer, I went back to Camp Sacajawea.  We sang, and sang, and sang!  I remember a camp counselor named “Teach” (a fifth grade teacher in real life) who took us on “teach hikes” helping us learn along the way.  I also took my first (and only) horse-riding lessons at camp.  We went rappelling on the tower at the 4-H camp, and scuba diving in the pool.  Little did I know that I would go on to get my advanced scuba license and love the whole new world under the water.   Two other camp counselors, Flicker and Teddy, helped me even beyond camp as they wrote me letters during my transition to Ankeny.   

I also traveled with Girl Scouts as a Cadette to Mackinac Island in summer 1978, and to the Ozarks in summer 1979.  The trips were great.  The most important thing that I did on the first trip was to meet a girl from rural Nevada named Robin Richards.  She later participated in a successful sit-in in the executive offices of the University of Iowa to convince them to sell their investments that they had made in South Africa, as long as South Africa maintained apartheid. 

Me getting my
First Class Award

On May 13, 1979, I participated in Memories Alive, the 50th Anniversary of Moingona Council, at Veterans Auditorium in Des Moines.  Thanks to our mothers, who patiently sewed our 1929 Girl Scout uniform replicas.  We did both the 1929 opening, and the contemporary closing flag ceremonies.  They had me stand up, as a recipient of the First Class award that year.

In 1979, 1980, and 1981, I was a Counselor-in-Training at Camp Sacajawea. 

I received the Gold Award in fall, 1981, after volunteering an hour or so per week during the fall semester to help a man from China learn English, at the University of Iowa. 

After spending so much quality time there, the physical layout of Camp Sacajawea has a special place in my mind.  The camp units themselves were fine.  I lived in Mayea Meadow, Windy Ridge, Whistling Oaks, and Rainbow Ridge, but not in Shoshonie Villiage.  As a CIT, I lived in Carpenter Lodge, and the Knoll.  We took hikes to the river by both day and night.  We had hayrack rides to Tip’s Point.  We went inner-tubing in the Des Moines River and canoeing on Don Williams Lake.  The Ranger Trail led around the whole camp.

Camp Sacajawea was not only open in the summer.  We had Fall Frolics, resulting in a camp clean-up to end the season.  Winter Frolics were great there too.  Once, we even had a CIT reunion in the Mayea lodge.  Camp Sac is a great place to get together with good friends.

In 1983, I was an Assistant Unit Leader at Camp Sacajawea.   I worked with some wonderful people there. 

I was a Campus Girl Scout in about September, 1983, to May, 1984, at the University of Iowa, after which there didn’t seem to be any Campus Girl Scouts there anymore.  We camped out at a Girl Scout camp near Iowa City, and made lasagna over the campfire.  Later, I made lasagna for the first time at home.

In 1984, I worked as an Assistant Unit Leader at Girl Scout Camp Togowoods, near Wasilla, Alaska.  Since this is so far north, when I led “Teach” hikes, there were not as many species of plants to teach about.  The website says that Camp Togowoods is now hiring for the summer of 2012.

I enjoy singing and playing my guitar with Girl Scouts.  At Camp Togowoods, I met a woman who spoke of her time at Camp Lachenwald in Germany where they sang great songs.  So, in 1986, I worked at Camp Lachenwald, in Germany for about six weeks. I was also able to travel with my bicycle (and trains) in Europe for the three weeks ahead of the camp season (Brussels, Paris, Marseille, Menton, Antibes, Rome, Florence, Innsbruck, Munich), and for three weeks after it (Koblenz, Mainz, Speyer, Strasbourg, Hornberg, Triberg, Basel, Adelboden (Our Chalet), Amsterdam, and London).

To provide an example of what can happen to a Girl Scout when she grows up, my education includes a BS in Biomedical Engineering from the University of Iowa.  To round out the liberal arts side of me, I got a Bachelor of Liberal Studies (BLS) there too.  Before this, I had seen signs up on bulletin boards around campus about the Japan Exchange Teaching (JET) Program.  I lived in the Foreign Language House (FLH, highly recommendable!), took a year of college Japanese, a semester of linguistics, and audited a course in “Teaching English as a Second Language.”  In November, 1989, I applied with the JET Program.  In April, 1990, I traveled to Chicago to interview at the Japanese Embassy in Chicago.  I got in!

From July, 1990, to July, 1992, I lived in Ichikawadaimon-cho in Yamanashi prefecture in Japan.  Yamanashi is the sister state of Iowa.  Kofu is the sister city of Des Moines. I “team-taught” English in the junior high schools in my small town, through the JET Program.  It was great!

I got a BA in Biochemistry in May, 1993.  There, I met Professor Pamela Geyer who does research in molecular genetics using Drosophila (fruit flies).  I was excited to learn that you can put genes (DNA) into live Drosophila and use this as a research technique.  I developed an interest in studying animal development using Drosophila.

I then worked as a laboratory technician in Biology at John Hopkins in Baltimore, Maryland, then I worked as a Technician, and then as a “Junior Scientist” studying animal development in a Drosophila lab at the University of Minnesota in St. Paul, Minnesota.

I did my Ph.D. work in Biology at the University of California at San Diego. From there, I moved to Freiburg, Germany, and worked as a postdoc in Developmental.  I married Ingo Buschke (keeping my same name) and then our daughter Marie came along. For a couple of years, I taught and tutored English as a second language here in Germany.  I now work as a Research Associate with CERES, Clinical Evaluation and Research, in Loerrach, Germany.

Our daughter Marie speaks English with me, and German with Ingo. I didn’t anticipate that I would be teaching my daughter to speak, read, and write in English. On the other hand, living in Germany, I did expect to do the lion’s share of teaching Marie about the U.S.A.  So, I have begun homeschooling Marie in the evening.

Back in 1983, my Lifetime Membership cost $100.  Today, the cost is $300.  At High School Graduation, a reduced cost is offered at $156.  Do you know a teenage Girl Scout who you would like to sponsor to become a Lifetime Member?

I wish you much success in Girl Scouts, and in life!

- Karen Lunde (Ph.D., Biology; Lifetime Member, Girl Scouting)

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100th Anniversary - Guest Blog: Murphy

We welcome Diane Murphy, Girl Services Director for the Girl Scouts of Greater Iowa as our guest blogger.  We are grateful for her memories of Girl Scouting and the contribution to help girls succeed.  

If you would like to be our next guest blogger, email us and tell us your story!

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Diane Murphy and
daughter Megan
Girl Services Director
Mason City and Fort Dodge Area
Girl Scouts of Greater Iowa

Although I was a Girl Scout growing up through 6th grade, the greatest impact as a Girl Scout has come to me as an adult.  First as a troop leader; Service Unit Manager; a volunteer member of my council’s Product Sale Team; and now as a professional Girl Scout staff.  My story begins the same as many of you.  When my daughter, Megan, was in first grade there was a registration night at school.  Megan was shy and quiet so I was happy when she wanted to go see what it was about.  What happened next set the stage for my future as much as it did hers.  Megan looked up at me and said she would only be a Girl Scout if I were her leader.  As I looked down into her longing eyes I knew there was only one answer. I believed in the mission of Girl Scouting and knew it was something I wanted her to be a part of; little did I know that I would be just as impacted by that decision as she was.

Although I have memories of my girl years my adult years are even more vivid with memories and new experiences.  My best friendships are with people I met as a Girl Scout volunteer.  My first airplane flight was as a Girl Scout Staff.  Just as our girls have these experiences, so can we as adult Girl Scouts.

When I was a volunteer, I portrayed Juliette Gordon Low for my Service Unit each October at our Juliette Low birthday party.  I gathered lots of stories about our founder so I would be able to bring her to life for the girls.  The more I read the more I appreciated all that she had been through and how her life experiences had impacted her and would come to impact girls and women for years to come.

I often wonder if she thought we would still be here 100 years later and what we would look like.  I was fascinated by her years while she was starting the organization; she was determined and stubborn and dedicated to helping girls develop the skills to succeed in life.  She wanted girls to see the possibilities that were available to them.  I knew I had succeeded in bringing her to life when one little girl asked me if I was really Juliette Low.  To me that was huge compliment.  If you have not spent time reading about our founder, I suggest that you do, it will give you a deeper appreciation for what she accomplished and what our mission is all about.

When I became a staff member with the Girl Scout Council of North Iowa I continued my role as Juliette Low. In one day the membership department traveled to four different locations with a special event for girls who had registered through the early-bird program.  Each troop in attendance had their picture taken with Juliette Low.  At the Mason City location my daughter had her picture taken with Juliette (aka Mom).  Looking through old pictures at the office recently I came across a set of those pictures and the memories flooded back.  The eyes of those young girls reminded me why I became involved in the first place.  Those eyes reminded me of my daughter’s eyes so many years earlier.  Twelve years later I still see those eyes when I meet new Girl Scouts and their leaders.  Sometimes those leaders are moms, but sometimes they are women who had a positive experience as a Girl Scout and want to bring that experience to the next generation.  I feel blessed to be part of this organization and look forward to the next 100 years.


- Diane Murphy

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