This week, we are featuring Sally Frotscher, someone who has known the importance of Girl Scouting her entire life. Sally is the Regional Director at our Des Moines location, and Greater Iowa is proud to have her on staff. We thank her for her reflections and thoughts on the Scouting experience.
As a reminder, our offices will be closed next week for the Holidays. If you would like to be our next guest blogger, please email us and tell us your story! Enjoy and Happy Holidays!
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| Sally Frotscher Regional Director Girl Scouts of Greater Iowa |
I joined Girl Scouts in 3rd grade – Daisy Girl Scouts were not available for the younger grades and Brownies were second and third grade. I remember asking/begging to join and finally by third grade I was able to join my friends. Back then, North Scott was a hodge podge of older small elementary schools, and one room buildings in the area. I went to second grade in a one room building. In third grade, I went to the small elementary in Eldridge which meant I could walk to the Lutheran Church every Tuesday with my friends to Brownie meetings. Back then, Brownies did not work on badges, instead, we did a lot of service projects and had a lot of fun. In fourth grade, I was back in a one room building and continued with Girl Scouts as the buses took us to Eldridge for our meetings still on Tuesdays after school. We continued meeting on Tuesdays all through high school.
I was a fortunate girl as two of our leaders stayed with us all the way – they were two very strong, and different, women. Mrs. Arp was a farm wife who helped run their dairy/grain farm. They always seemed to have a baby calf in the kitchen that needed just a bit of extra care and warmth to survive. She showed us that women could do anything as my own mother, also a farm wife, modeled. Our other leader was Mrs. Swanson, a wife to the manager of the grain elevator. She had a fun spirit and her hair style reminded us of a duck tail - she never minded the teasing of that! We did lots of crafts, camping, and selling of cookies.
The culmination of Girl Scouts came after our Junior year of high school. Our troop saved money for several years, and Mrs. Arp and a woman from the GS council in Davenport – River Bend, chaperoned a group of us to Europe. We most enjoyed the nights at Our Chalet and hikes up the mountain to watch the cheese maker blow his horn to let the community know that the cheese was ready. We also met Girl Guides from England and Norway who were staying there with us.
When I graduated high school, though I stayed in touch with my Girl Scout friends, I thought my Girl Scout days (10 years) were over. Fast forward to 1991 when my daughter comes home at the end of kindergarten with an "I’m Interested in Daisy Girl Scouts" flyer - somehow, I magically became a Girl Scout adult volunteer! I checked the box that said I would help the leader, and so did my neighbor. We became co-leaders and good friends, due to our daughter’s interests in Girl Scouts. We continued to be their leaders for nine years as they got older and interests varied they had so many more choices of things to give their free time to than I had as a child.
While Girl Scouts has been changing with the times and working hard to keep up to the speed of girl… some things do not change. One is our continued goal to provide girls with leadership experiences. When I think back to being patrol leader of my Junior Girl Scout group, I realized I gained valuable leadership experience. I gained confidence by speaking in front of my peers in those patrol meetings. I was shy as a child and my parents raised the six of us to be “seen and not heard” as that was how they wanted their children to behave. But the good thing with Girl Scouts is it allowed me to have a voice.
I was reminiscing with one of my sisters at Thanksgiving about our fond memories of a week at Girl Scout camp, Camp Conestoga. We are a year and a half apart in age and had different interests. For me, it a week away from the family. I had an entire week at camp all to myself – no siblings at all in the same group - it was my vacation time.
I know that some day when my they are a mother to a girl who brings home that "I’m Interested" form, that the girls from my daughter’s troop have the courage to volunteer to help their daughters and her friends make our world a better place.
-Sally Frotscher
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Nice post, Sally. Kiane
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