Girl Scouts of the United States of America Day in the Works

January 26, 2012

As part of the Girl Scout family, we all know March 12^th as Girl Scout’s Birthday, commemorating the day in 1912 when Juliette Gordon Low officially registered the organization’s first 18 girls in Savannah, Georgia.

Now, March 12^th may have a larger stage for celebration- the rest of the state! Yesterday House Bill 2498, which establishes March 12^th of each year as “Girl Scouts of the USA Day” in Arizona was heard and approved by the House Military Affairs and Public Safely Committee. House Bill 2498, Girl Scout Day, along with House Concurrent Resolution 2041, which honors Girl Scouts’ Centennial, must now be passed by the full House and approved by the state Senate. If approved, they will be referred to Governor Brewer to be signed into law.

The two Girl Scout measures were introduced by Representative Kimberly Yee of Phoenix, a Girl Scout alumni and avid supporter, who in true Girl Scout fashion sported her sash during her testimony. Joining Representative Yee were Girl Scout members from Girl Scouts of Arizona Cactus Pine and Girl Scouts of Southern Arizona. GSACP Board President Margaret Serrano Foster and Girl Scouts of Southern Arizona’s CEO Debbie Rich spoke on the importance of Girl Scouting, Council initiatives, and our successes in building girls of courage, confidence, and character.

Brownies Kayden Jarnagan, Kyleigh Ganz, Hannah Coyle and Daisy Motes from Troop 951 were also in attendance as well as Cadettes Taylor Groy and Rachel Harfst from Troop 951. Taylor spoke to the committee about Girl Scouting’s impact beyond cookies, “We sale cookies but also do so much more. You learn leadership skills and give back to the community.” Taylor explained how one of the girls in her troop lost her dad at a young age from cardiac arrest. Her troop then decided to increase awareness surrounding cardiac arrest by focusing on CPR trainings and obtaining Automatic External Defilbrilators (AEDs). The troop managed to secure AED donations for each of the Girl Scouts camps, allowing girls with heart issues to finally go to camp and join in on outdoor fun.

Lastly, World Award honoree Alexis La Benz, also a Girl Board Member at Cactus Pine, spoke of her Girl Scouting service projects, in particular Girl Scout GEMS, the group she established to prevent human trafficking by increasing community awareness. Her GEMS campaign includes making handmade black and white beaded bracelets and jewelry that the GEMS sell to fund their project.

Overall, it was a great day for Girl Scouting at the House.  All committee members voted unanimously in favor of the legislation and spoke highly of the organization. The girls in fact greatly impressed the representatives, in particular, Representative Gallego who told Alexis La Benz, “Please don’t ever run against me because you’re going to kick my butt.”

Here’s to Alexis and all our Arizona Girl Scouts who are leaders not only in their troops, but in their families, schools, and community.

A special thanks to our sister Council Girl Scouts-Arizona Cactus-Pine’s staff Lindsay Johnson-Hintze and Sam Perez for capturing the stories and actions of the day and sharing it with us!

 

Photo Credits: Courtesy of Girl Scouts Arizona Cactus-Pine

This entry was posted on Thursday, January 26th, 2012 at 11:12 am and is filed under 100th Celebration, Advocacy, Announcements. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.