Girl Scouts Celebrate Founder's Birthday

Girl Scouts of the USA celebrates the birth of its founder Juliette Gordon Low this month on October 31. Since its beginning in 1912, Girl Scouts has impacted the lives of 50 million American women and is part of the international community of Girl Guides serving over 10 million girls and adults in 144 countries.

Juliette Low long dreamed of creating "an organization that would bring girls out of their cloistered home environments to serve in their communities and experience the open air," according to Wikipedia. While living in the United Kingdom, she met Robert Baden-Powell, founder of the Boy Scouts. With the assistance of his sister Agnes Baden-Powell, Sir Baden-Powell had founded a female counterpart to the Boy Scouts in 1910. While initially called Girl Scouts (the name retained in America), the name of the group was changed to Girl Guides early on. Named after the famous Kyber Guides of India, Sir Baden-Powell thought that calling the girls "scouts" might alienate the boys, as well as the girls' parents.

Juliette Low determined to bring the scouting program to American girls. In 1912, Daisy, as she is affectionately known by Scouts, held the first Girl Scout troop meeting with 18 girls in Savannah, Georgia. Early Girl Scouts went hiking, played basketball (on discretely curtained courts!), learned first aid, performed community service, and went on camping trips, not typical activities for girls in the early 1900s. The Girl Scout program remains true to Juliette Low's goals of helping girls build character, leadership, self-esteem, social conscience and love of the outdoors. Today Girl Scouts participate in myriad community service projects, learn new skills, and, of course, go camping. From making potato stamps to launching model rockets, from collecting rocks to participating in a dinosaur dig, from tying knots to crewing tall ships, from singing at local senior centers to visiting their counterparts in foreign countries, American Girl Scouts are exploring their world in ways never dreamed of by their founder. (To find out more about Girl Scouts, click the link.)

County Stamp Center offers numerous stamps celebrating Girl Scouts and the Girl Guide movement. Click the post title to order a colorful 4-stamp set from Romania depicting scouting activities. Visit our website to find more stamps celebrating Girl Scouts. Just enter Girl Scouts or Girl Guides in the Stamp Search feature on our website. And remember to visit County Stamp Center for all your philatelic needs.