Girl Scouts: “Everything and Anything Girls Can Imagine”

Jane Doyle and Rosemarie Courtney are historians. Not your typical, musty, bespeckled historians—these women manage an ever growing collection of games and paper dolls, jewelry and camping gear for a parade of young female visitors. Once a week, they volunteer to help organize memorabilia for the Greater Chicago and Northwest Indiana Girl Scouts at the Lisle office.

“My current favorite is a tic-tac-toe game that’s the size of a big button. It was a prize you got for buying your uniform back in the late 40’s.” Rosemarie smiles as she adds, “I just taught my seven year old granddaughter to play tic-tac-toe. Time goes by, but we’re the same.”

Jane is quick to agree. “Girls are fascinated by this stuff. Seeing what other girls have done in the past shows our girls today—they can do everything and anything they can imagine.”

Girl Scouting was founded in 1912, Savannah, Georgia by Juliette Gordon Low, a woman considered quite “forward thinking” for her time. She believed girls needed exercise and fresh air and training in practical skills. Those skills became the badges we know today.

“There’s a story that Juliette used to hang bed sheets around her yard when the girls came to her house for a meeting,” explained Jane. The sheets gave the girls privacy to play ball—without the long, cumbersome skirts they normally wore. “They ran around in the backyard in special uniform bloomers.”

From needlework to website designer badges, The Girl Scouts of the USA has been helping girls do everything and anything for nearly one hundred years. This autumn, the Girls Scouts of the USA begins a year long celebration of the 100th Anniversary of an organization that has touched the lives of millions of girls.

On November 5, 2011, from 12-4 pm the DuPage County Historical Museum hosts the grand opening of one of the largest and longest running Girl Scout history exhibits in Illinois in honor of the anniversary. On view through April 30, 2012 the exhibit will highlight the last hundred years using uniforms, photos and artifacts.

The grand, historic atmosphere of the Margaret Adams Dunton Auditorium will welcome all visitors, including current and former scouts, as well as volunteers. Opening festivities will include prizes and give-aways—including a special American Girl Doll and other gift baskets.

Cookies will be served, naturally.                           

“It’s a feather in our cap to host such a prestigious exhibit,” said Sara Buttita, the Museum Educator for the DuPage County Historical Museum. “Presenting the history of community organizations like the Girls Scouts is a fun part of the museum’s mission.”

The museum plans to do more than merely present history with this exhibit, they will also collect oral histories of girl scouts and leaders from across DuPage, and offer badge opportunities for current scouts during the six-month exhibit run. The “Tell Us Your Girl Scout Stories” questionnaire will be available for visitors at the exhibit as well as on-line opportunities for posting memories through the museum’s website. 

Kellie (Borter) Donlevy, a current scout leader for both of her daughters’ troops, encouraged her family’s company, Borter Heating & Air Conditioning in Wheaton, to provide corporate sponsorship for the exhibit.

“Girl Scouts is a bridge to an outside world. We chose to support this exhibit because it recognizes the accomplishments of girls in our community, our nation, and the whole world really.” She is thoughtful when she adds, “It gives our girls the perspective of history—that small efforts matter. And sometimes, they grow into something even bigger and wonderful.”

May it be everything and anything they can imagine.

By Julie Eakins, Wheaton Park District