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10 Fun Things You Might Not Know About Juliette…

Girl Scouts across the country celebrate October 31 each year as Founder’s Day. The date was chosen to celebrate our Founder, Juliette Gordon Low, because it’s the anniversary of her birthday. There are tons of ways to celebrate! To challenge your JGL knowledge, here are 10 Fun Facts about the ultimate G.I.R.L. that you might not yet know!

  1. She was born on October 31, 1860 in Savannah, Georgia.
  2. Her childhood nickname was Daisy which serves as inspiration for the first two years of Girl Scout membership (K-1 grades).
  3. That nickname also led to a biography written about JGL by Fern G. Brown called Daisy and the Girl Scouts.
  4. Though she never considered herself a skillful sewer, while home from boarding school one year, this Go-Getter named herself an instructor of sewing and started a club called “Helpful Hands” in which JGL and her friends would sew and donate clothes to children in need.
  5. In lieu of using ribbons and flowers to decorate a hat like the other girls, she was an Innovator and used her creativity to decorate with carrots and parsley instead!
  6. She was nearly deaf – not that she’d let it  stop her from being the life of the party!
    1. She got an earache in one ear and insisted her doctor treat it with the up-and-coming treatment of silver nitrate, which the doctor did not want to do but with JGL’s persistence (and her Risk-Taker tendencies), he could not turn her away. This ultimately left her partially deaf in one ear!
    2. The second eardrum was damaged by a piece of rice that got stuck in her ear during the rice shower after her wedding! This small piece of rice damaged her eardrum so terribly that it left her completely deaf in the second ear.
  7. Skills she excelled at included tennis, swimming, horseback riding, and hunting.
  8. In May of 1911, JGL met General Sir Robert Baden-Powell, author, and Founder of Boy Scouts. Three months later she got involved by inviting every girl in Glen Lyon, Scotland (where she lived at the time) to her home for the first ever Girl Guide meeting. Seven girls attended, one of which walked over seven miles to get there.
  9. In 1912, JGL aimed to bring Girl Guides to America and on on March 12, 1912, 18 girls were inducted from Savannah, GA as the first Girl Guides of America.
  10. After traveling back to Europe to seek counsel from the British Girl Guides on how to grow membership, she arrived back to America in 1913 with the plan to change the name to Girl Scouts after finding out that the Savannah girls did so themselves because it “reminded them of America’s pioneer history.” Soon after, this Leader designed and patented the trefoil badge becoming the official insignia of the Girl Scouts of the United States of America.
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Top 10 Reasons to Invite New Girls

Troop Leaders – listen up! If you haven’t invited new girls into your troop yet this fall, what are you waiting for? There are SO many reasons to inviting even more girls to join the sisterhood. Here are our top 10 reasons (just to name a few)!

  1. Going outside of your comfort zone sets a great example for the girls. If you’re ready and willing to allow a new girl into the troop, then they will be ready and willing to allow a new friend into their lives.
  2. Is your daughter’s best friend not in the troop? Did you ever stop to ask yourself why? This gives more time for the girls to hang out and to connect with others!
  3. Girl Scouts is a safe space. You’re already there as a leader or volunteer so you know what girls are doing. Share with other parents that you’re always there for the girls and a supportive adult.
  4. New girls means new families. And new families come with potential new co-leaders, fall product and cookie volunteers, drivers, or an extra set of helping hands!
  5. New girls means new ideas and new interests. Younger girls and older girls alike can benefit from experiencing different types of badge or Journey interests. Are your current girls hyper focused on art or the outdoors? Introducing a girl who loves math or science can open an entirely new set of passions.
  6. It’s super simple to make it a fun opportunity for both your girls and the girls who are new to the troop. Girls already in the troop can earn a fun patch by inviting a new girl while new girls get a fun patch of their own when it’s their first year in the troop! If you’ve noticed inconsistency with girls attending meetings, set a minimum amount of participation for both girls in order to earn the fun patch and keep girls coming back.
  7. With Girl Scouts being girl-led, particularly as girls reach Junior level and up they can start breaking down badges and Journey steps to help their troop mates through the activities. More girls, believe it or not, can mean less work for you!
  8. More girls equals less of a probability of girls getting on each others’ nerves. Any small group of girls, even best friends, can get on each others’ nerves if they’re together too much. With more friends to spend time with, you can easily mix up groups of girls working on projects together, to keep things fresh.
  9. Face your fears of leading more girls so they have the opportunity to face their fears and try something new too! Whether it’s swimming for the first time, rock climbing, zip lining, or participating in her first overnight – there are so many opportunities that girls may not have without you inviting her into the troop!
  10. Girl Scouts gives girls a community to better themselves through skill building badges, journeys, Take Action, and highest awards. There are so many Girl Scout alumnae from actors like Dakota Fanning and America Ferrara to musicians like Taylor Swift and Mariah Carey to politicians like Hillary Clinton and Sandra Day O’Connor to the first woman in space, Sally Ride, to news anchor Katie Couric. You can give girls the opportunity to change themselves and the potential to change the world.