toledoblade.com --

To earn a Matron Housekeeper badge in 1913, Girl Scouts were encouraged to learn to polish floors, clean kitchen utensils, and store fur and flannels.

Today, the Girl Scouts of the USA is working hard to be compelling and contemporary to attract and hold the interest of members.

With new programs, a streamlined format, and an emphasis on girl-led projects and activities, the organization is transforming itself as it approaches its 100th anniversary.

Locally, Girl Scout Troop 407 symbolizes the new era of scouting as it crawls through caves, creates a Peace Garden, and jumps into community-service projects.

"I was in a more traditional Girl Scout troop," said co-leader Kelly Averill Savino of Toledo.

Back then, she said, traditional meant predictable.

"We met in an art room and did a craft," said Mrs. Averill Savino, a potter and beekeeper who shares her interests with the troop's dozen members.

In the summer, the girls kept bees and collected honey, a sweet sample of hands-on activities that keep members buzzing about how cool it is to be a Girl Scout.

Founded in 1912 by Juliette Gordon Low, the organization has grown from 18 members in Savannah, Ga., to an international movement with 3.4 million members today, including 2.4 million girls and about 1 million adults, primarily volunteers.

Since its founding, there have been 50 million Girl Scouts.

This weekend, scouts across the country celebrate the founder's birthday. She was born on Oct. 31, 1860.

Reversing a trend

The transformation of the Girl Scouts of the USA was initiated in 2004 when it looked at its 10-year membership figures and saw a clear trend: Fewer girls were joining and that was likely to continue unless something was done, said Cathy Tisdale, vice president of the Girl Scouts of the USA.

Membership then, she said, was down by a few hundred thousand girls and a few hundred thousand volunteers.

Much has been done in the last few years, including extensive research to identify reasons behind the decline.

Although several girls in Troop 407 vow to stay in Girl Scouts forever - they say they are learning way too much and having way too much fun to ever leave - the reality is that many interests pull for attention: dance and piano lessons; sports and other after-school activities.

To help push, and keep, Girl Scouts at the top of to-do choices, the organization is striving to be relevant, and several Girl Scouts said they welcome the opportunity to explore topics - computers, global warming, wind energy - tied to current events.

"Our badges relate to real life," said Pilar Athaide-Victor, a preteen whose Girl Scout vest blings with badges and awards.

Her achievements are near the mark for a meeting with President Obama.

Pilar particularly likes environmental projects and badge work with a nontraditional twist.

She earned a dog-mushing badge with guidance from her mother, Liz Athaide-Victor, who races sled dogs.

Ms. Athaide-Victor, who is co-leader of the troop, and her daughter live in Fulton County near Neapolis.

Helping others

The troop is dedicated to community-outreach efforts, such as collecting food for the homeless, making treats for animals sheltered at a humane society, and donating Girl Scout cookies to soldiers.

Sherryann Franks of Wauseon, a community leader involved in many patriotic service tasks - including speaking to Girl Scout troops - said that from her outsider's perspective Girl Scouts are "becoming aware of the need to help others who are less fortunate and to help those fighting for our freedom. I wish every person would model themselves after these girls. They are making a difference and they will turn out to be great adults."

She noted Troop 407 helped collect 27 boxes of supplies, including cereal, snacks, and bottled water, for military personnel.

Girl-led activities

Troop 407 members received the Bronze Award, the top award for girls their age, for the Peace Garden they created at the West Side Montessori Center where the troop is based.

Made of 60 interlocking bricks - the girls painted each with a nation's flag and the word peace in that nation's language - the garden features hope-for-peace placement with warring countries nestled neighbor-like next to each other.

The girls dug out the area, hoed weeds, hauled mulch, planted mums, and solicited donations and reduced-cost supplies from businesses. They researched flags, languages, and history.

"It is their hope for peace among nations with a difficult past. To me, that is the essence of the peace garden: a child's hope for peace. It is very sweet, simple, and poignant," said Ms. Athaide-Victor, Volunteer of the Year for 2008 for Girl Scouts of Western Ohio.

Troop 407 members Bobbi Baranek of Springfield Township, Molly Savino of Toledo, and Laramie Reynolds of Holland like girl-led activities, and that meshes with findings from a nationwide survey conducted by Girl Scouts of the USA.

Overwhelmingly, Ms. Tisdale said, the response was that girls want to be part of something girl-led. They want to meet new people. They want to be part of the action. They don't want to listen to an adult talk, talk, talk, so that they feel like they are in a classroom.

In this new girl-led model, members decide what projects to pursue and how to accomplish goals, Ms. Tisdale said.

In the process, they learn something about themselves and what they care about, they connect to other girls who might share similar interests, and they figure out what action to take to make their neighborhood or their community better, she said.

"That is the power of this new model and that's what is at the heart of it."

Such a model opens an "enormous opportunity" to retain volunteers and to entice others to serve as leaders, including young women in college or in the work force who can be positive role models and strong mentors, she said.

An eye toward growth

Within its new mission and vision, Girl Scouts of the USA intends to be the nation's premier leadership program for girls, she said.

Recent membership numbers brought good news. Instead of the projected 4 percent decline, the numbers were down 2.5 percent, she said. The goal is to have membership leveling off or slightly growing by 2010 or 2011.

As part of the changes, Girl Scouts of the USA reduced its number of councils from 312 to 112 on Oct. 1.

Programming stayed local by design in the realignment. The end result was to provide members with more opportunities and choices.

"We did not want them to feel anything was taken away," Ms. Tisdale said.

The Greater Toledo area has about 12,000 Girl Scouts, said Amy Cooper, spokesman for Girl Scouts of Western Ohio.

For older members, there is some key - make that keyboard - flexibility. High school girls can attend virtual troop meetings online, skipping weekly after-school sessions, she said.

"We think building tomorrow's leaders is important and that is what we are doing in Girl Scouts so we work with them to make that happen," she said.

Other changes that might help keep girls from dashing for the door when they get to high school: the green uniform, long considered uncool, has been replaced.

Girls can wear a white shirt and khaki pants instead.

And fans of Thin Mints take note: even with the changes, some traditions carry on and leaders are feverishly planning for the tasty, tried-and-true, cookie campaign, starting in January.

Contact Janet Romaker at:
jromaker@theblade.com or
419-724-6006.

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