"HOW GIRL SCOUTING STARTED"
Lord Baden-Powell, soldiers
Scene I
Cast:
BP telling solders to spy on the enemy – they get lost. Tells others to light a fire to cook their supper – they can’t light one. Tent falls down – they don’t know how to tie knots. How did he learn about these things? Known since he was a boy – his mother taught him a lot. Says he will teach the soldiers, but "if only you had learned these things as boys!" Appears to get an idea.
Scene II
Cast:
BP at first Boy Scout rally. Talks about how successful the Boy Scouts are becoming after just one year. He is mobbed by girls wanting to know why they can’t join. Says, "why not" – appoints his sister leader of Girl Guides in England.
Scene III
Cast:
Hostess introduces JL as an American, who grew up in Savannah, Georgia, married an Englishman, widowed, sad, doesn’t know what to do with herself. BP and ABP tell her to start a Girl Guide troop. She is going to her home in Scotland, will start one there. They come up with ideas – history of British Flag, knitting, cooking, tying knots. JL says girls are poor there, will teach them to raise and sell chickens. Gets excited about the idea, but has to ask does anyone know how to grow chickens?
Scene IV
Cast:
JL calls Nina Pope on telephone. Says ,"Nina, I’ve got something for the girls of Savannah and all America and all the world and we’re going to start it tonight!"
Scene V
Cast:
Mothers of girls talking – They talk about what their daughters – Girl Scouts- are doing – playing basketball, camping, learning first aid, identifying snakes, wearing bloomers (remember, all of these are pretty outrageous things for girls to do in 1912 – JL had to rig up a curtain around the basketball court so people wouldn’t stare). Some of the mothers are supportive, some are not sure about Girl Scouts – they are somewhat shocked or scandalized.
Talk about some of the women that are involved in the leadership – Mrs. Thomas Edison, Corinne Roosevelt Robinson (Teddy Roosevelt’s sister), Mrs. Woodrow Wilson, the president’s wife has agreed to be honorary head. Girl Scout troops forming all over the country – it’s a national organization. Some of the mothers are very surprised that there are only women in the leadership roles – can women run a national organization without men?
New American handbook "How Girls Can Help Their Country". Badges – electricians’ badge! Encourage girls to be doctors! Book advises not to copy boys, but to succeed by being a "real girl".
Some mothers think it’s terrible that the girls get to make so many choices on their own in the troops instead of adults running everything. The girls even voted on their own uniform!
Scene VI
Cast:
A troop meeting to decide how this troop will help the war effort. Discuss what other troops are doing – selling Liberty Bonds, helping the Red Cross, raising food (Girl Scouts in Boston turned the city parks into vegetable gardens), baby sitting for mothers who work in factories, making bandages, knitting socks, etc. Troops in Washington DC regularly make 500 sandwiches a day to give to soldiers traveling through on trains. They remind each other that Juliet Low promised President Wilson the Girl Scouts would help! They have a vote to decide.
Scene VII
Cast:
JL tells girls how happy she is to be part of the first International Girl Scout and Girl Guide World Camp, and how far Girl Scouting has come in just 8 years. There are 90,000 Girl Scouts in the United States, and there are Scouts and Guides in 24 countries already. Soon they will have their own international camp. JL wants girls to always remember their sisters in other countries – Thinking Day, in February.
Scene VII
Cast:
Girls say the promise and the laws.