Girl Guides

But I've always been very community-minded.

I'm involved with Girl Guides and have been for over 25 years and numerous organizations.

And I just felt when I moved to this community, it was an opportunity on a small scale, or so I thought, to be involved in making a difference in my community.

Now, I know Girl Guides is a little bit of a passion for you because you've been talking about it a little bit.

So I'm just going to ask the follow-up question to that is, when you look at municipal government and the service that you give back to your community, do you try to instill that upon the younger generation who's going through Girl Guides right now?

Absolutely.

So Girl Guides in Alberta does what's called an Alberta Girls Parliament, which is an opportunity for our older teenage girls in the organization to participate in a mock government.

And I've certainly been had an opportunity to meet with them and to share what it's like to be a female mayor.

On October 31st, 1860, a woman named Juliette Gordon Lowe was born in Savannah, Georgia.

As the founder of our Girl Scout movement, most of us here at Girl Scouts know her affectionately as Juliette, or by her family nickname, Daisy.

We see her name on badges, uniform sashes, and history posters.

But today, we're stepping away from the polished portrait on the wall.

I know our regular listeners are used to hearing our incredible cadets, seniors, and ambassador Girl Scouts in the interviewer chair.

But for this Founders Month special, I wanted to take us on a deep dive retrospective.

How did a woman living in a Victorian society that favored strict social limits build a movement that transformed millions of lives across the globe? Today, we're breaking down three specific chapters in Juliet's life where she faced immense personal hurdles, and we're examining the exact moments where her humor, generosity, and resilience proved that she was completely unstoppable.

Let's start with an aspect of Juliet's life that many may not know about, her struggles with her health and her hearing.

She then founded the Girl Guide organization.

In America, in March 1912, the first patrols of girl guides were enrolled by miss juliet low in savannah georgia In 1913, the national headquarters were established by her in Washington,

D.C., and Miss Edith Johnston became the national secretary.

The name Girl Guides was then changed to Girl Scouts because the object of the organization is to promote the Ten Scout laws, truth, loyalty, helpfulness, friendliness, courtesy, kindness, obedience, cheerfulness, purity, and thrift.

The movement then grew and spread in a remarkable way.

In 1915, a convention of Girl Scout leaders from most of the large cities was held, and a National Council was formed, composed of delegates from the cities or communities where more than 100 Girl Scouts were enrolled.

community demonstration.

Through their scout activities, through participation in the actual business of life, cut down to the capacity of youth, these girls are being trained for citizenship in a school of service, a school that stresses the rights of the individual less than his responsibilities.

It kind of looks like a badge.

I was talking to Winter, who's a programmer on Practical Lace, and she was saying she was in Girl Guides and that it looks kind of like a Girl Guides or a Scouts badge.

And I was like, that's what we were going for.

Yeah, exactly.

And then last one from me, Davo.

In another life, in the 2000s, me and you were Girl Guides because October 22nd, Girl Guides, big gig.

Now you've got Rachel doing what looks like the same as like the GAY set or the other stuff at the time, like the hat, maybe slightly more conservative, but not really more of an outfit.

And I'm like, this is the time when like literally you would do the same show at GAY and then at Girl Guides.

Like who's your audience? 10 year old girls, 20 plus gay men.

That's the overlap.

I was

very lucky at the early years of me moving to the UK that I got both.

And this is my first year as a Girl Guide leader.

And the Girl Guides organization is, is it's just incredible, you know, putting time into kids that as, um, as young as five and six year old group, um, the youngest group is five and six year olds.

But

yeah, I think, I think there's something in that space that's calling me something with nonprofit organizations,

Debbie attended the local primary school where she excelled academically, showing early interest in creative pursuits like cooking and hospitality, making treats for family gatherings.

Her extracurriculars included Girl Guides and local drama clubs, where her outgoing personality shone, earning her the description generous and adored by everyone.

In 1973, she enrolled at a Bromley comprehensive secondary school, continuing her academic excellence with top grades in English, home economics, and business studies.

By 1981, at the age of 20, she relocated to Edinburgh, Scotland, for a trainee hotel manager position at a mid-sized hotel, a bold move supported financially by Arthur.

So, but you're right.

Did we think like all these years later in 2026 after the Supreme Court ruling and after the HRC code of practice has been laid that we are still here with a government that has no intention of actually implementing any of it? But you were saying there, Lucy, about the Girl Guides, and I know that that was one of the charities that you looked at within the report.

So I was wondering, let's maybe move on to that.

And I know that you've selected 19 charities to look at.

We know it from people who've used the services of those charities.

We know it from people who've not wanted to use those charities because they've gone beyond their charitable objects.

And we're also very conscious that, you know, Girl Guides and Women's Institute, those are big organisations with money, possibly in-house lawyers, money to pay for lawyers who can get good advice.

And of course, we saw that as we were writing the report.

Like I said, I first heard about the founder of the Scouting movement, Robert Baden-Clay, by listening to an episode of a true crime podcast, weirdly enough.

And Robert eventually asked his older sister, Agnes, to begin the Girl Guides.

I was fascinated, like I said, to learn about the Baden-Powell family history and their influence on Scouting, and I thought that you all might enjoy it as well.

I'm also gonna get a little bit into some controversy and problematic points of the organization throughout its history, so strap in, get your old Girl Scout vests on if you can find them, and enjoy the episode.

As you can imagine, in order to understand the Girl Guides, which would become the Girl Scouts in the United States, you first got to understand who the founder of the Scouts movement was.

Robert Baden-Powell was born Robert Stephenson Smyth Powell on February 22nd, 1857 in Paddington, London, England, I always think of the bear, to Baden Powell, a professor of geometry at the University of Oxford and a priest for the Church of England.

I'm not sure how that works, as I always was told that a priest had to be celibate, but maybe a priest for the Church of England is different? I don't know.

As Agnes grew into adulthood, she showed a real talent for music, just like her brother, but Agnes played the organ, piano, and violin.

And remember, starting next Friday is JOTA weekend.

Listen out for Scouts and Girl Guides on air and make a contact with them.

For WIA National News, I'm Alan VK2COD in Sydney.

Now back to you Graham.