Scouts ever evolving

[fgoodwin 23]

Scouts ever evolving

 

http://www.zwire.com/site/tab5.cfm?newsid=16994809

 

08/01/2006

By: Joanne Richcreek

 

Learning how to use a vacuum cleaner and distinguish between three cuts of meat earned a Girl Scout the Matron Housekeeper badge in 1913.

 

Pledging to offer her bicycle to the government in case of need earned her the Cyclist badge in 1920.

 

And sending at least 50 letters per minute using Morse code in the 1920s pinned a Signaler badge on her green sash.

 

"Now they're typing messages on their IMs," said Julie Lineberry, a 42-year Scout and chairman of the history and archives committee of the Girl Scout Council of the Nation's Capital (GSCNC). And they're earning badges named Ms. Fix-It, Highway to Health, Consumer Power and Walking for Fitness.

 

Girl Scouting turns 95 next year. Its badges have changed, its uniforms have changed and the ethnic makeup of its troops has changed.

 

Ask Fairfax High School sophomores Frankie Dowd and Jessica Hassanzadeh what has not changed about Girl Scouting, and they cite service, scholarship and friendship.

 

Hassanzadeh, 15, whose grandmother got her into Scouting in first grade, said, "It's all about helping other people and having a lasting effect that can be built upon."

 

Dowd, 15, may be typical of today's Girl Scout. She said she is "big on NOT camping," cannot tell you how many badges she has earned, has few sewn on her sash and also plays soccer, runs cross country and swims.

 

"We like to laugh and help other people laugh" is how she defined Scouting.

 

Dowd and Hassanzadeh, both of Troop 4288, devised 90 outdoor games as unit leaders for younger Scouts this summer at Camp Crowell, a 60-plus-acre camp in Fairfax County owned by the Girl Scout Council. Its exact location is not publicized to ensure the safety of its members.

 

The two teens are working toward the coveted Silver Award. Older teens can earn the Gold Award, which is the equivalent of the Eagle Scout rank for Boy Scouts and is awarded annually to only 3 percent of the nation's 3.6 million Girl Scouts. Such is the stature of the award that universities issue sizable scholarships to its recipients and military academies bring them in at a higher rank.

 

In 2006, some 80 Girl Scouts in Fairfax County earned the Gold Award. They included sisters Jennifer and Katherine Riedel of Clifton for conducting a dental health care class in Spanish in Rio Bravo, Mexico, and Langley High School's Julia Smart, 18, who auditioned, cast, directed and edited a video that addressed, in her words, "the inability to see the plights of another or to conceive that someone else's life might be worse than one's own."

 

But Scouting is not just about going for the gold.

 

According to Lineberry, who tapped her Scouting skills to create meals outdoors when her Alexandria neighborhood was without electricity during Hurricane Isabel, a Girl Scout can join at any age, earn only one badge, is not required to wear a uniform and need not belong to a troop.

 

"I feel sure there's something for everyone, even the noncomformist," she said.

 

Today's troops are made up of young girls with special needs, girls of the Muslim faith, girls who like to sail and girls whose parents escaped Vietnam in the 1970s and settled in Northern Virginia.

 

And their leaders need not be their mothers.

 

Toward that end, the board of directors of the Nation's Capital chapter instituted the Young Leaders Program two years ago and Camp CEO before that.

 

The Young Leaders Program trains women at Catholic, American and Howard universities to be troop leaders and offers them college credit in return. Camp CEO puts young Girl Scouts face-to-face with female corporate executives.

 

Joining such successful women as Susan Niemann, CEO of catering giant Ridgewells, and Catherine Bartels, vice president and general manager of Saks Fifth Avenue, at Camp CEO is Karen Penn, vice president of human resources for SAIC.

 

Penn, 37, a graduate of the University of Virginia and a civil rights attorney, said Girl Scouting today is willing to "tackle the tough subjects." Among them she listed bullying, a healthy body image, and drug and alcohol abuse prevention.

 

She considers Scouting a "safe haven" where girls "can be a kid yet talk openly and honestly" about issues that concern them.

 

Penn said Scouting helped teach her to treat people equitably, as well as basic life skills like dinner party etiquette-though memories of macrame art, cooking over an open fire outdoors and cleaning latrines had her smiling.

 

And what about those cookies?

 

"We Do More Than Sell Cookies" is a popular T-shirt among Girl Scouts today, according to Lineberry, though the girls acknowledge that selling cookies is an excellent way to teach them about budgeting and marketing. The regional Girl Scout Council sold more than 4 million boxes of cookies in 2005.

 

Though Penn confirmed that Girl Scouting has "come a long, long way," Lineberry chuckled at recalling answers to a common question of hers: What is your favorite memory of Girl Scouting?

 

"Rain, secret handshakes, and gluing macaroni on something" top her list of favorite answers.

 

And then there's the experience of Braddock District Supervisor Sharon Bulova, who wrote to The Times in an e-mail:

 

"I joined [scouting] when I was 5 or 6 years old, with visions of camping in the woods and whitewater rafting. My first two Brownie meetings were spent carving turkeys out of potatoes, and I decided that I had much better things to do with my time. I didn't realize that the good stuff would come later."