My box of Girl Guide Cookies – remembered long after devoured
Mmm, cookies. As I mentioned last Monday, after a chance encounter with some lovely salespeople on the street, I’m started pondering the history of Girl Guides. Their cookies were devoured quickly, but my curiosity about their history lingered and kept me asking…
HOW DID GIRL GUIDING & SCOUTING BEGIN?
Left to right: Robert Baden-Powell, David Cossgrove, Agnes Baden-Powell, Juliette Gordon Low
- In 1907 in England, Army General Lord Robert Baden-Powell organized the first Boy Scout camp in the United Kingdom.
- In 1908 in New Zealand, Lieutenant Colonel David Cossgrove (who served in the Boer War with Robert Baden-Powell and brought the Boy Scout Movement to Christchurch) organized the Peace Scouts for Girls—on the request of the youngest of his four daughters who asked for a girl’s equivalent.
- In 1909 in London, a group of girls appeared at a Boy Scout Rally and declared themselves to be Girl Scouts. Robert Baden-Powell, the founder of Boy Scouts, decided that there should be a Movement for girls.
- In 1910 in the United Kingdom, the Girl Guide Association was officially established under the leadership of Agnes Baden-Powell, Robert’s sister.
- In 1910 in Canada, Mary Malcolmson officially registered the first Canadian Girl Guides Company in St. Catharines, Ontario. The group started meeting in November 1909 after a St. Catharines Boy Scout leader received two Girl Guides pamphlets from Baden-Powell and passed them on to Malcolmson. * I was very sorry (very Canadian of me, eh?) that I couldn’t find a picture of Mary to add to the one above *
- In 1912 in the USA, Juliette ‘Daisy’ Gordon Low founded Girl Guiding by assembling 18 girls from Savannah, Georgia for a local Girl Scout meeting.
- In 1928 at a conference in Hungary, WAGGGS – the World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts was formed with 26 founding members: Australia, Belgium, Canada, Czechoslovakia, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Hungary, Iceland, India, Japan, Latvia, Liberia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, South Africa, Sweden, Switzerland, UK and Northern Ireland, USA and Yugoslavia.
- In 1931, WAGGGS reached one million members.
- Today, WAGGGS members total around 250 million and are found in 150 countries.
THE HISTORY OF THE COOKIES… OR BISCUITS 🙂
Selling Girl Guide Cookies in 1969
- In 1917 in America, the Mistletoe Troop in Muskogee, Oklahoma, baked cookies and sold them in its high school cafeteria to finance troop activities.
- In July 1922, The American Girl magazine (published by Girl Scouts of the USA) featured an article by Florence E. Neil (a local director in Chicago, Illinois) where she provided a cookie recipe and suggested they could be sold by troops for 25 to 30 cents per dozen.
- 1927 in Canada, Girl Guide Cookies (inspired by America’s Girl Scout Cookies) were first baked by Guide leader, Christina Riepsamen, in Regina, Saskatchewan. The cookies were sold door-to-door (with a bag of 12 cookies costing 10 cents) to finance troops’ rail fares to a lakeside camping trip.
- In 1992, Canadian astronaut (and former Girl Guide) Roberta Bondar juggled Girl Guide cookies in space.
ONE FINAL BITE OF HISTORIC LITERATURE
- In May 1908, Lord Robert Baden-Powell published Scouting for Boys, a book based on his ideas for the training of boys. The book inspired thousands to join the Movement and became one of the bestselling books of the 20th century.
- Today, I’m imagining as many girls as boys read it.
Thank you to the WAGGGS, Girl Scouts of the United States of America, Girl Guides of Canada, Girl Guiding New Zealand, and Girl Guides Australia websites for such interesting information.
Were you a Guide or Scout? Or do you know someone who was?
I wasn’t and I think I missed out, so I’d love to hear your Guiding and Scouting stories! Hope you’ll leave a comment below.
I must admit dropping out in Brownies but I, and I think, every other girl in America sold Girl Guide cookies when I was a girl. And, of course, have bought, and eaten many since.
Those cookies I had last week were very good! I think I was too shy to join Girl Guide or anything. Would be interesting to go back in time and try to be more fearless…or just stay home and read more books 😉
Hi Jacqui,
Loved your post. The story of the scouting movement is so uplifting and it brings back many memories.
Yes, I was a Brownie and a Girl Guide for one year. Then my interests wandered off. There are so many things to do as a kid these days. But I still remember my time in the circle of friends and I loved it.
My daughters both joined brownies. One loved it. One hated it. One made it for one year of Guides. My oldest granddaughter joined brownies but was too busy with sports to continue into Guides.
If’s neat to have something that passes on between generations. Something we share. It’s a bit like a rite of passage.
Thanks for sharing.
Jo-Ann
Very true that it’s nice to have something to pass on between generations! Creates a bond & always interesting to see how some things stay the same while others don’t 🙂
Great information! I never thought about how the Girl Scouts started selling cookies. I was a Brownie then a Girl Scout until my junior year in high school. I loved it! My troop was into outdoorsy activities rather than anything domestic.
We took canoe trips that lasted several days at a time, carrying all our gear in the canoes with us and making camp along the river at night. We hiked several different sections of the Appalachian trail, one time getting caught in a surprise blizzard that kept us in the trail’s lean-tos for a couple days. When I was in high school, my troop did a weeklong sailing school on the Joseph Conrad in Mystic, CN, where we learned how to climb the rigging and theoretically sail her. (We sailed smaller boats for practice.)
These were experiences that gave us a sense of adventure and independence that has always stayed with me. I’m not sure girls are given the same kind of challenging activities today–most would be considered too dangerous. We never lost anyone and I don’t remember any serious injuries. And I can still cook a decent meal over a campfire (not that my husband would EVER dream of going camping!)
What adventures you had, Lark! And you never know when those skills might come in handy. I imagine you’d do well at Survivor ☺
No girl guides for me — not available in my community — but I just learned me great niece, aged six, has enrolled in girl scouts. I’m thrilled. She’s a city girl and the club will give her outdoor wilderness experiences she might otherwise miss. Kudos to those visionaries who started the scout movement more than a century ago.
How wonderful that your great niece is embarking on this grand new adventure, Alice. Hurrah for the girl scouts!