GSEP On-line News

Program Corner

Each month the Program Department will feature new and exciting ideas for leaders to explore with girls. If you have any ideas to share, please send them to Sharon Pirelli at spirelli@gsep.org.

Founders Day Halloween was a special day for Juliette Gordon Low, founder of Girl Scouts of the USA, because she was born October 31, 1860 in Savannah, Georgia. A wonderful woman with vision, she believed in service to community, self-reliance for girls, and the importance of having fun. Help your girls plan a celebration in honor of her 147th birthday with resources compiled for you below:

· Service Project
Make up Birthday Boxes for children in need. Request donations of all the things needed for a birthday party: cake mix, frosting, candles, plates, decorations, favors, and such. Many families have leftover party supplies or mismatched items that they can no longer use. A local store may even donate the needed grocery items. Your girls will have fun sorting through the piles of donations to construct and gift wrap boxed birthday parties.

· Game
Juliette Low Kim's Game
As Published in the Oct. '97 edition of the JGL Newsletter

Kim's Game is a game Lord Baden Powell used to train his troops. It's a memory game. You have many objects out and then take away some. (We play that one team takes all the objects away and then the other team takes turns remembering all the objects) As they are "recalled", they are placed back in view.

Here are some things you can gather to tell of Juliette's life:
1. Tomato can: having nothing else on hand to put her honor pins in, Juliette grabbed an empty tomato can and carried the pins to a meeting in it.
2. Paper daisy: Juliette was called Daisy.
3. Rubber worm: Juliette loved fishing, in fact she would go out with the men after a formal dinner. It was not unusual for her to go fishing in her evening dress.
4. White glove: Juliette could be found cleaning the house in her evening wear.
5. Pearl necklace: Juliette sold her pearls to keep Girl Scouts running. She solely supported Girl Scouts in the United States for several years.
6. Rice: It was a piece of rice thrown for good luck that was the cause of Juliette being partially deaf in her one good ear. It lodged itself in the ear drum.
7. Teabag: Even though Juliette lived in a time when tea was served regularly, she spent 6 months drinking water (instead of tea) as a bargain with her butler to help him quit drinking.
8. Book: (especially a ghost story book): Juliette LOVED to tell stories. She wrote many stories herself and told ghost stories around the campfire.
9. Fish: Juliette was one of a very few people EVER outside the United Kingdom to be awarded the Silver Fish.
10. Cast iron trivet: Juliette tried many things. She was very good at most of them. The iron gates she forged with her own hands can still be seen at the "Birthplace" in Savannah, Georgia. Because of doing this demanding iron work, the muscles in her arms got very large. She had trouble making her evening dresses fit over the muscles.
11. A card with the word "Bonjour": At boarding school, Juliette learned French. She used to write letters home to her parents in French.
12. Jungle Book: Juliette was friends with Rudyard Kipling.
13. Battleship (I used one from the game): There was a Liberty ship named for her during World War II.
14. Pumpkin: Juliette was born on October 31, 1860.
15. Paint brush: Juliette was also very good at painting.
16. Turkey: Claiming decapitation was inhumane, Juliette chloroformed the Thanksgiving turkey. It was plucked (feathers pulled out of it) and put in the icebox (refrigerator). The next day when the refrigerator was opened to prepare it for dinner, it jumped out and scared the cook.
17. British Flag: Juliette loved spending time in England and Scotland. She had troops in both countries before coming to start Girl Scouts in the United States.
18. A picture of Lord and Lady Baden Powell: These were friends of Juliette's. Lord Baden Powell started Boy Scouts and got Juliette interested in Girl Guides. They were known as the World Chief Scout and the World Chief Guide.

After you explain each item, divide your troop into two teams. Then have one team close their eyes and the other team takes the items. Then the first team opens their eyes and takes turns saying what things were there (Maybe you could give extra points for explanation of significance). Then the other team gets to guess. Team with the most points wins. Two games will make it even. Switch who starts.