Which organization, famous for their cookies, was founded in the year 1912?
And the answer: Girl Scouts.
Girl Scouts was founded on March 12, 1912, in Savannah, Georgia by Juliette Gordon Low. Home baking and selling cookies door-to-door began as early as 1917. In the 1920s and 30s, sales would go nationwide using a simple sugar cookie recipe.
Juliette Gordon Low got the idea for Girl Scouts in 1911, when she met the founder of Boy Scouts, Sir Robert Baden Powell. Inspired by the notions of teamwork and sufficiency that Powell urged upon his Scouts, Low decided to form a parallel female group with its own unique attributes. Low herself had spent time as a nurse in the Spanish-American war, thus the founder realized that she could teach the skills that she had gathered throughout life to aspiring young girls. At her home in Savannah, Low created The American Girl Guides.
With her first troop of 18 passionate women, Low taught basketball, military drills, nursing skills, camping, hiking and more. Soon enough, the troop felt they had graduated to the title of "Scouts," and in 1913, Girl Scouts of the USA was created. At the time, this was a novel opportunity for young women. Although women in the United States couldn’t yet vote and were expected to stick to strict social norms, encouraging girls to embrace their unique strengths and create their own opportunities was game-changing.
Over the years, the Girl Scouts organization has grown rapidly. Following their volunteer work in World War I, Girl Scouts began to gain recognition on a national scale— a fact that only grew over time. By the 1920s, there were over 150,000 Girl Scouts (and counting) in America. Today, there are over 2.5 million members worldwide.
Learn more about Girl Scouts here.
