Introduction: An American Girl Scout in the UK
Greetings, Girl Scouts, and Happy
New Year from Merry England!
My name is Dr. Deborah Lafferty
and I am a Girl Scout and an American historian living in England.
I have been here researching the
history of American Girl Scouting's roots in the British Girl Guide Movements.
Though I work mainly with British
Girl Guides these days, I still visit my former home Girl Scout council (then
the legacy Council of Mount Magazine and now Girl Scouts, Diamonds of Arkansas,
Oklahoma and Texas). I lived in Pocola, Oklahoma and Fort Smith, Arkansas.
Our council has a very special
link with the Girl Guides in West Sussex, England, and we have been exchanging
patrols of girls since 1980. That's how I made my first trip to England in 1996
as a leader for one of these patrols. The Guides invited me back to work for
them at several camps. At one of those camps, I learned that we have been
sisters to the Guides from the very beginning. Juliette Low was a Girl Guide
before she started the Girl Scouts!
I love sharing the things I've
learned about Juliette Low and historical places I've been with other Girl
Scouts so, in the run up to the Centenary, let's explore some of that history,
a trans-national history (that means one that reaches across many nations) of
the American Girl Scouts and how you, in Pocola or Little Rock or Texarkana,
keep the Girl Scouts strong even a hundred years later. Without you, there
would be no reason to celebrate.
Yours in Girl Guiding and Girl
Scouting (YGGGS)
Dr D
No comments:
Post a Comment