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| Me, as a Camp Fire Girl. Modeling my "ceremonial gown" before an end of the year "Council Fire" where we received our awards and honor beads for the year. We made our own "gown" and decorated them with our earned honor beads, pins, and patches. See below for some detail. |
Last week the Boy Scouts announced their plans to “allow” girls to join and earn an Eagle Scout Award. Some of the reaction to the news was expected — the typical complaints about Scouts allowing gays to join “and now they’re inviting girls!” On the other hand, some of the reaction was surprising and irritating. In fact, I was surprised by my irritation with some reactions. So I took a little time to calm down. And then I started writing. Because that's what I do.
It’s not that I care all that much about the Boy Scouts as an organization. I’m not particularly impressed with them these days. I know "letting" girls do Eagle Scout Projects/Awards has been talked about at least since I was a Camp Fire Girl nearly 50 years ago. Given their recent history, the cynic in me sees this news as another attempt to change the narrative around Boy Scouts after recent years of bad press and declining membership. Still, good for them.
My problem, my irritation, is with the comments I’ve seen from women saying they always wanted to be a Boy Scout and participate in a soapbox/pinewood derby and be Eagle Scouts. Some complained about their experiences as a Girl Scout or Camp Fire Girl, claiming they couldn’t do cool stuff as a girl, a Camp Fire Girl or Girl Scout; or that their experience was “lame.” But I know that both of those organizations have always had ways to do whatever activity a girl wanted. So these complaints bothered me. Here’s what I wish I could say to each of them:
“If your experience wasn’t up to your standards or what you thought your experience would have been as a Boy Scout, I’d like to suggest you look to yourself first. What did YOU put into your experience? What did YOU contribute to your group or troop? Were you willing to try new activities and adventures? Were you willing to test yourself? Maybe it wasn’t Girl Scouts or Camp Fire. Maybe it was you. It’s sad and unfortunate if you didn’t have leaders like I had or if you lived someplace not served by Girl Scouts or Camp Fire Girls. If they had known you were there, waiting for them, they would have found a way to reach out to you. I know they work hard to break through all the noise from groups vying for your attention.”
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Our fearless leader, Mrs. Haven "retired" so we gave her a silver platter. That's me, kneeling, to her right. We’re all wearing our ceremonial gowns.
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I know why I was irritated. I feel like I was born a Camp Fire Girl because my older sister and cousin were members first and my mother was a leader. I became a member under my own name as a Blue Bird and was a Camp Fire Girl all the way through Horizon Club in high school, and then a camp counselor at CFG camp while in college. I was able to accomplish every goal I set for myself as a Camp Fire Girl. In fact, Camp Fire is where I learned to set personal goals.
OK, here’s the truth. There are goals I did not accomplish. I still can’t sew. But I can build a roaring fire in a fire ring.
I attended an all-girls high school and belonged to an all-girls organization. (Camp Fire is now co-ed.) I also participated in many other activities that influenced me and helped me develop into the adult I wanted to become. Was it Camp Fire, Junior Theater, or one of my volunteer activities that had the biggest influence? Hard to say. I only know that without Camp Fire, I’d be someone else. We chose “Indian” names for ourselves in Camp Fire that were supposed to describe who we were, or hoped to become. I have my doubts about the authenticity of the “Indian” words I used, but the meaning described the type of person I hoped to be.
“Wi yo tanda: faithful, understanding, loving, respectful”
Camp Fire Girls can earn the WoHeLo Medalion. (Work Health Love. WoHeLo is used as a greeting, a farewell, and a wish to each other in Camp Fire.) Girl Scouts can earn Silver and Gold Awards. Girls earn these prestigious awards by completing self-designed service projects that are every bit as demanding and important to their communities as any Eagle Project I’ve ever seen. I’d say the work girls do to earn the Camp Fire Wohelo Medalion and Girl Scout Gold Award are equivalent to the work done for the Eagle Scout Award.
Maybe I should have worked to earn the Wohelo Medalion. I know my work in Camp Fire’s Horizon Club was probably equivalent but I wasn’t interested in awards. Perhaps I’m not the only woman who doesn’t feel the need to claim they are better than others by bragging about being Eagle Scouts. Or perhaps it’s irrelevant — when employers and society in general don’t value the achievements of girls and women. I know there are former Camp Fire Girls or Girl Scouts, with or without Wohelo or Gold Awards, working every day to change the world and make it better. I doubt they continue to list their youthful accomplishments on their adult resumes. I stopped listing mine after my first couple of jobs. Once someone is an adult, I guess I’m less and less impressed by something they did when they were 16. I mean, we should always be proud of our achievements, as I am of mine, but after a while what I did at 16 or 18 doesn’t prove anything about what I can do as an adult.
Perhaps the real problem here is not Boy Scouts, or Camp Fire (which has been co-ed for decades) or Girl Scouts. Perhaps the problem is that our society doesn’t value the achievements of girls like it does the achievements of boys. I’m pretty sure there’s enough boys and girls to fill the ranks of all these organizations. Let’s let these boys and girls all rise to the highest level they desire in the organization they choose, and be recognized by their peers, future educational institutions and employers as EQUALS. This requires a change in our institutions and employers regarding the equal value of achievements by boys and girls when they become men and women.
Still, good for the Boy Scouts. I hope it works out for them. As for me, I am a proud former Camp Fire Girl whose only achievement was hard work and sticking with a program I loved all the way through until I aged out. I am also a proud mother of three former Girl Scouts, one of whom decided to become a Lifetime Member and is now a troop co-leader while she writes her PhD dissertation. I’m proud of her for mentoring young girls. She’s not an Eagle Scout. She doesn’t have a Gold Award from Girls Scouts. She’s just a former Girl Scout -- correction, Lifetime Member of Girl Scouts — paying it forward.
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What can I say? It was the late 1960's. Of course I made a peace sign with my Citizenship Honor Beads. We earned honor beads for activities accomplished in various areas. Business, Citizenship, Creative Arts, Frontiers (think science), Home, Outdoors, Sports and Games.
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Finally; and by the way. You’re never too old to build a pinewood derby car and maybe start your own derby. Maybe find some young girls to mentor. All that cool stuff you think you missed as a Girl Scout? Go ahead! What’s stopping you?
Or contact your local city or county volunteer offices and find a youth organization that needs you.
WoHeLo,
"Wi yo tanda"
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This is my beaded headband that I made myself! I'm wearing it in the above photos. The pictographs were supposed to represent the names we chose for ourselves, but I think mine was just a pattern that I liked and was able follow on the loom. Thunderbird with geometric patterns. I have no record of why I chose the thunderbird or the patterns.
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| Two of my Camp Fire Books. |
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