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Special Days in Girl Scouting—All Year Long!
Throughout the year, girls and adults celebrate some very special days in Girl Scouting.
- Juliette Gordon Low's birthday or Founder's Day, October 31, marks the birth in 1860 of Girl Scouts of the USA founder Juliette Gordon Low in Savannah, Georgia.
- World Thinking Day, February 22, celebrates the birthdays of Girl Guide/Girl Scout founder Robert, Lord Baden-Powell (1857–1941) and World Chief Guide Olave, Lady Baden-Powell (1889–1977). The day is also a time to donate funds to the Juliette Low World Friendship Fund.
- Girl Scouts’ birthday, March 12, commemorates the day in 1912 when Juliette Gordon Low officially registered the organization's first 18 girl members in Savannah, Georgia.
- Girl Scout Week is celebrated each March, starting with Girl Scout Sunday and ending with Girl Scout Sabbath on a Saturday, and it always includes Girl Scouts’ birthday, March 12.
- Girl Scout Sunday and Girl Scout Sabbath give girls an opportunity to attend their place of worship and be recognized as a Girl Scout.
- Girl Scout Leader's Day, April 22, honors all the volunteers who work as leaders and mentors in partnership with girls. On this day, girls, their families, and communities find special ways to thank their adult Girl Scout volunteers.
- Girl Scouts’ national convention is celebrated every three years, and G.I.R.L. 2017 was held in Columbus, Ohio. We'll convene again in 2020 in Orlando, Florida. Stay tuned for details!
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Building Friendships One Gift at a Time
SWAPS, the tradition of Girl Scouts exchanging keepsakes, started long ago when Girl Scouts and Girl Guides first gathered for fun, song, and making new friends.
SWAPS were first widely exchanged at national Girl Scout Senior Roundups in the 1950s and 1960s. Today, SWAPS are still the perfect way for Girl Scouts to meet one another and promote friendship. Each one reflects a memory of a special event or Girl Scout sister.
SWAPS Basics
SWAPS should:
- Tell something about the givers or their group. (Girls may include their address or email information so others can write to them.)
- Represent the givers' country, community, or local Girl Scout council.
Tips for SWAPS Givers
Girls should:
- Think about the kind of SWAPS they would like to receive from someone else.
- Try not to spend a lot of money. Consider making something from donated or recycled material.
- Be creative, and take time to make hand-crafted SWAPS. (Include directions for making them if it is a craft project that can be replicated.)
- Try to have one for each event participant and staff member.
- Plan ahead so there's time to make them.
- Make SWAPS that can be worn, used, or displayed.
- Ask their group or service unit for help, if needed, in putting SWAPS together.
- Make them portable. Remember, they must be carried or shipped ahead to the event, where other girls will be carrying them away.
What to Do with SWAPS
Girls can:
- Include them with thank-you letters to sponsors and those who helped with a travel event.
- Keep them in a scrapbook, memory box, or shadow box.
- Use them to make a quilt or other textile project.
- Put pins and patches on a hat or jacket.
- Start a council best-of-SWAPS collection.
SWAPS Safety and Etiquette
Girls should:
- Never refuse to swap with another person.
- Swap face-to-face, especially if exchanging addresses or email information.
- Avoid using glass or sharp objects in SWAPS.
- Follow all Safety Activity Checkpoints guidelines.
- Avoid using food products, unless they are individually wrapped.
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Here are a few other popular traditions for Girl Scouts to enjoy.
Ceremonies honoring Founder's Day, which is celebrated on Juliette Gordon Low's birthday, are another valued Girl Scout tradition. They highlight the important role Juliette played in the development of the Girl Scout movement in the United States. Learn more about other Girl Scout ceremonies.
- Girl Scout Sign: Girl Scouts make the Girl Scout sign—raising three fingers of the right hand with the thumb holding down the pinky—when they say the Girl Scout Promise. The three fingers represent the three parts of the Promise.
- Motto: The Girl Scout motto is "Be prepared." In the 1947 Girl Scout Handbook, the motto was explained this way: "A Girl Scout is ready to help out wherever she is needed. Willingness to serve is not enough; you must know how to do the job well, even in an emergency." The same holds true today.
- Slogan: The Girl Scout slogan, which has been used since 1912, is "Do a good turn daily." The slogan is a reminder of the many ways girls can contribute positively to the lives of others.
- Greeting: Girl Scouts can greet one another with the Girl Scout handshake, used by Girl Scouts and Girl Guides all over the world. The handshake is made by shaking hands with the left hand and making the Girl Scout sign with the right. The left hand is nearest to the heart and signifies friendship.
- Friendship Circle: Representing the unbroken chain of friendship among Girl Scouts and Girl Guides around the world, the Friendship Circle involves Girl Scouts standing in a circle, crossing their right arms over their left, and clasping hands with their friends on both sides. Everyone then makes a silent wish as a friendship squeeze is passed from hand to hand around the circle.
- SWAPS: Girl Scouts often make small tokens of friendship to exchange with the Girl Scouts they meet while traveling. These little gifts are called ”SWAPS,” which stands for “Special Whatchamacallits Affectionately Pinned Somewhere.”
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Timeline: Girl Scouts in HistoryMore Than a Century of Making a DifferenceDuring WWI, American President Theodore Roosevelt presents a family silver plate to Girl Scouts to be melted down for cash for the war effort, 1918. In the midst of the Progressive Era, and as the nation was expanding by adding the states of New Mexico and Arizona—but before women had the right to vote—Juliette Gordon Low founded Girl Scouts in 1912, with an emphasis on inclusiveness, the outdoors, self-reliance, and service. World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts (WAGGGS) 1926 World Conference, Great Hall, Camp Edith Macy, New York Girl Scouting continued to expand its reach to more and more girls, with the first Girl Scout troops launching outside the United States in China, Syria, and Mexico. Additionally, one of the earliest Native American Girl Scout troops formed on the Onondaga Reservation in New York State in 1921, and Mexican American girls formed a Girl Scout troop in Houston, Texas, in 1922. Lone Troops on Foreign Soil (later called USA Girl Scouts Overseas) registered its first Girl Scout troop in Shanghai, China, with 18 girls in 1925. Promotional booklet, "Who Are the Girl Scouts?," published by Girl Scouts Inc., circa 1933 With the United States consumed by the Great Depression, Girl Scouts participated in relief efforts by collecting clothing and food for those in need. And as the country continued to deal with the waves of immigration from the previous decade, Girl Scouts began printing itsWho Are the Girl Scouts? promotional booklet in Yiddish, Italian, and Polish. Girl Scouts present President Franklin Delano Roosevelt with a checklist documenting service hours, March 12, 1944. During World War II, Girl Scouts interested in flying participated in the Wing Scouts program. Girl Scout troops also operated bicycle courier services, ran Farm Aide projects, collected fat and scrap metal, and grew Victory Gardens, as well as sponsored Defense Institutes that taught women survival skills and techniques for comforting children during air raids. Japanese -American girls, confined to internment camps in Utah and California, also established troops. The Central Los Angeles Council of Girl Scouts prepares “Kits for Korea,” 1954. Girl Scouts responded to the Korean War by assembling “Kits for Korea,” pouches of items needed by Korean citizens, and also continued to press issues of inclusiveness and equality, with Ebony magazine reporting in 1952 that even in the South, ". . . Scouts were making slow and steady progress toward surmounting the racial barriers of the region." Girl Scout Seniors at a Speak Out conference During this tumultuous and vibrant decade, Girl Scouts held “Speak Out” conferences around the country to lend their voices to the fight for racial equality, launched the "ACTION 70" project to help overcome prejudice and build better relationships between people, and viewed the Apollo 12 moon landing at Cape Kennedy, Florida, as guests of NASA. Girl Scout Cadettes, Earth Day, 1970 During this period, Girl Scouts elected its first African American national board president, Gloria D. Scott; stood up for environmental issues by launching the national "Eco-Action" program; and helped Vietnamese refugee children adapt to their new homes in America. Girl Scout Daisies at a playground, circa 1984 Girl Scouts established the Daisy level for kindergarten-aged girls as interest in Girl Scouting expanded, and also distributed The Contemporary Issues series that addressed some of the most serious issues teen girls of the day were confronting, including drug use, child abuse, and teen pregnancy. The website for Girl Scouts of the USA debuts on February 1, 1996. The site is visited by more than 18,000 people in its first three months of operation. Amid the explosive growth of personal computers, Girl Scouts introduced the Technology badge for Girl Scout Juniors, while also tackling illiteracy with the Right to Read service project, which nearly 4 million Girl Scouts and leaders participated in. Girl Scouts in San Antonio, Texas, at the 2002 National Conference on Latinas in Girl Scouting, pictured with then-Chief Executive Officer Kathy Cloninger Girl Scouts entered the first decade of the new millennium focused on the healthy development of girls, establishing the Girl Scout Research Institute to conduct studies and report findings. We also continued to emphasize inclusiveness by hosting a National Conference on Latinas in Girl Scouting and, in 2005, electing the first Hispanic as chair of the National Board, Patricia Diaz Dennis.
Girl Scouts step away from their electronic devices and enjoy summer camp in eastern Pennsylvania, 2015. Even as technology plays a larger and larger role in Americans’ lives, Girl Scouts also stay connected to nature and the great outdoors. So while Girl Scouts introduced new badges to promote outdoor activities, we’ve also partnered with Google for “Made with Code,” a program encouraging girls to get an early start in computer science. In 2014, Girl Scouts launched Digital Cookie, through which Girl Scout Cookies were sold online by girls for the first time in the history of the iconic cookie program.
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