New Exhibit Marks 100th Anniversary of Girl Scouts!

Archives | 02/02/2012

Legacy Museum on Main is planning a new exhibit, Celebrating 100 Years of Girl Scouting.  The museum needs photographs, documents, and artifacts about Girl Scouting in West Georgia and East Alabama which can be displayed from mid-February until the end of May. 

From the first Girl Scout meeting when founder and Georgian Juliette “Daisy” Gordon Low assembled eighteen girls in Savannah, Georgia, on March 12, 1912, Girl Scouts of the USA has a membership of over 3.2 million girls and adults today.  Low believed that all girls should have the opportunity to develop qualities that would serve them all their lives, like leadership, strong values, social conscience, and conviction about their own potential and self-worth. Her goal was to bring girls out of home environments and into the community and the outdoors. Today the programs have changed, but their purpose has not.  With a commitment to diversity and inclusiveness, a major focus on community service and a willingness to tackle important societal issues, the Girl Scouts have over fifty million alumnae in the U.S.

Girl Scout Councils have a long history of activity in the region.  First Methodist Church sponsored a Girl Scout troop as early as 1927.  The LaGrange Girl Scout Council had an original charter date of 1930, disbanded in 1933 and re-formed in 1940. In 1952, it merged into the Pineland Council of West Georgia, which merged into the Pine Valley Council in 1958.  This Pine Valley Council had already expanded with the absorption of several West Georgia Councils.  By 1966, the Pine Valley Council grew to fourteen counties and, in 2008, merged with the Northwest Georgia Girl Scout Council to form Girl Scouts of Greater Atlanta. 

The museum seeks loans from former Girl Scouts and Girl Scout families.  Suggested items includes uniforms and handbooks, personal mementoes, old camping equipment, unique badges, Roundup and special event patches, noteworthy pins, exemplary awards, collectable items such as publications, calendars, magazines, games and songbooks, cookie-related items and newspaper articles.  The museum would also like to feature photographs of Girl Scouts and Scout leaders in Scout uniforms for a special local Girl Scouts wall.  If you have any of these items to loan, please contact the museum at 706-884-1828.

Legacy Museum on Main is located at 136 Main Street in LaGrange.  The museum is open Monday through Friday 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Saturdays 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.  Admission is free of charge.