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| Susan Bailey Lifetime Member 26 years in Girl Scouts Service Unit Manager for Johnston Leader of Brownie troop 137 |
Several years ago, I
purchased a calendar featuring the art of Susan Branch. She creates beautiful
watercolors that always appeal to me, but a greater treasure was found within
the pages of that calendar.
On one page she described
running across her old Girl Scout sash. As she looked over those circular
Junior badges she'd earned, she started to realize that each one of those
badges reflected the person that she had become. Her badges were for art,
cooking, and crafts. She saw that each badge she had worked for as a girl,
viewed in light of her adult life, was a direct path to who she was that day.
Our 2012 campaign,
“ToGetHerThere,” viewed in light of Ms. Branch's realization shows us, as leaders,
just how important and necessary it is to open the doors for girls to follow
their dreams. While Girl Scout badges have surely evolved over the years to
keep up with the times, the appeal of earning them has not. Girls are handed a
menu of delicious options: a veritable candy store of amazing opportunities
designed, just for them, to explore and try as they navigate their path to the
future. How many young Girl Scouts were led to their careers as adults because
they opened their badge books, tried that badge and fell in love with the
experience? How many adults look back and see that they have the same passion
for an activity now as they did as a child? Girl Scouts gives us that gift, and
it is a gift we can share with our girls.
I still have my Junior
Girl Scout sash. It's got my name on an embroidered patch, which our leaders insisted
on because they were sick of trying to figure out whose was whose when we
dumped them all in a pile during meetings. It's a bit hodge-podge too. I've
been told there are things on it that shouldn't be, which is possible - I know
I kind of just stuck things there. I've also got a few badges that are still just
held on with straight pins. Mom sure hated sewing those things on – she did it
by hand too, because iron-ons weren't available yet – and I am sure that's why
it never got done. I don't know why she didn't use Grandma's sewing machine. I
really don't know why she didn't make me do it! I must not have worn it much
after I'd earned them because the whole thing is a finger-poke waiting to happen.
I have taken my sash to
my Service Unit's meetings and shared this same story with my leaders. I've shared
it with my troop, so they can see that I'm committed to helping them achieve as
well. I like to reflect on it to remind myself that I should always put my
girls' desires ahead of my own. I also remember that my mother, as my leader,
must have stepped outside of her own comfort zone to guide me as I earned my
badges, and that I need to respect my girls and do that for them as well.
As we go forward into the
next century of Girl Scouting, there are bound to be more changes to the program
as times also continue to change. One thing will always remain constant though.
The heart of this program, its very core, is the girl - what she needs, what
she wants, and how we can get her there.
When girls succeed, so
does society. Together, we can get her there.
- Susan Bailey
- Susan Bailey
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