Girl Scouts is celebrating their 100th anniversary.
Today marks the 100th anniversary of the founding of Girl Scouts. According to GirlScouts.org, 100 years ago today, Juliette Gordon’s dream to bring girls out of isolated home environments and into community service became a reality.
She assembled 18 girls in Savannah, Georgia for the first local Girl Scout meeting with a belief was that all girls should be given the opportunity to develop physically, mentally, and spiritually, according to GirlScouts.org.
The concept of Girl Scouts proved successful and even more so as time went on. Today, Girl Scouts of the USA has a membership of over 3.2 million.
The organization has had quite an impact on women; around 60 million living women in the U.S. today are Girl Scout alumnae. According to TheTakeAway.org, an amazing 80 percent of female business owners are Girl Scout alumnae as well as 70 percent of all women in Congress, and almost every female astronaut.
This year, to celebrate the 100th anniversary, Girl Scouts of the USA declared 2012 the Year of the Girl. According to GirlScouts.com, The Year of the Girl reportedly comes as a celebration of girls, recognition of their leadership potential, and a commitment to creating a coalition of like-minded organizations and individuals in support of balanced leadership in the workplace and in communities across the country.
“The Year of the Girl is only a beginning,” said GSUSA Chief Executive Officer Anna Maria Chávez in a press release. “We can’t transform American leadership in a year, but we can transform expectations in a year. We can transform awareness in a year. We can set in motion a generational change, and make certain that a baby girl born in 2012 will experience her life in a new and vastly different world. Only Girl Scouts, with its scale and time-honored place in society, can launch this initiative. If not us, who? If not now, when? When girls succeed, so does society. We know that together, we can get her there.”
