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Fall Festival Celebrates Girl Scout Founder's Birthday

OCTOBER 2009

 

Girl Scouts from throughout southeast Louisiana will be celebrating the birthday of Girl Scout founder, Juliette Gordon Low, at the annual Fall Festival being held Saturday, November 7, at Camp Whispering Pines in Independence. Girl Scouts Louisiana East is encouraging all Girl Scouts to participate in this year’s community service project to benefit the Metropolitan Center for Women and Children.  Participants are asked to donate items needed in local shelters and by the women and children who are trying to start new lives with very little of their own. By supporting women and children in a critical time of need, Girl Scouts continue the mission begun by Juliette Low nearly a hundred years ago.

Born on October 31, 1860, Juliette Low organized the first Girl Scout troops in the United States.  In developing the Girl Scout movement, she brought girls of all backgrounds into the out-of-doors, giving them the opportunity to learn about nature and develop self-reliance and resourcefulness. She encouraged girls to prepare themselves not only for traditional homemaking roles, but also for possible future roles in the arts, sciences, business, and for active citizenship outside the home.

“Girl Scouts is as relevant today as it was 100 years ago as we continue to give girls the skills they need to be leaders for themselves, their communities, and their world,” said Kevin Shipp, program event coordinator at Girl Scouts Louisiana East. According to Shipp the event celebrates the ‘can do’ attitude of Girl Scouts with hands-on activities and informative presentations from different organizations like Global Wildlife, LSU Dept. of Forestry, Society of Women Engineers, Dept. of Environmental Quality, and Lake Pontchartrain Basin Maritime Museum, to name a few.

Several Girl Scout troops will be facilitating some of the fun activities, too. As a birthday celebration, Girl Scouts may bring their own special birthday cake to share with their Girl Scout sisters at the cake party. Denham Springs Cadette Troop 10437 will be helping to serve these confections throughout the day. Albany/Springfield Cadette Troop 30421 will provide a variety of face painting art designs. Girl Scouts are encouraged to bring t-shirts to tie dye with Cadette Troop 31324 from Tangipahoa Parish who will be teaching them how to create “art-to-wear.”   Senior Troop 20851 from St. Charles Parish will help Girl Scouts to make a jewelry memento to take home. Registration for this all day event is $8 per girl, and $2 for adults.

Girl Scout’s mission is to build girls of courage, confidence and character who make the world a better place.  The local council, Girl Scouts Louisiana East, serves girls 5 to 17 in the parishes of Ascension, Assumption, East Baton Rouge, East Feliciana, Iberville, Jefferson, Lafourche, Livingston, Orleans, Plaquemines, Pointe Coupee, St. Bernard, St. Charles, St. Helena, St. James, St. John, St. Mary, St. Tammany, Tangipahoa, Terrebonne, Washington, West Baton Rouge, and West Feliciana.  For more information about Girl Scouting or for volunteer opportunities, call the council office in New Orleans at (504) 733-8220, in Baton Rouge at (225) 927-8946, or visit its website at www.gsle.org.

 

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Media contact: Marianne Addy, VP of Communications
(504) 733-8220, ext. 2226 or maddy@gsle.org  or Cathy Pottschmidt, Public Relations Specialist, at (225) 927-8947, ext. 1238 or cpottschmidt@gsle.org

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