Girl Scouts celebrate 100th birthday

Gravette troop receives awards at special anniversary meeting

Gravette Girl Scouts celebrated the 100th anniversary of the Girl Scout organization March 12, with their leaders, Elaina Soper, Heather Holland, Lori Johnson, Teresa Reynolds and Nancy Jones. A special guest was Marie Wadleigh, 88, of Bella Vista who became a Girl Scout when she was ten years old.
Gravette Girl Scouts celebrated the 100th anniversary of the Girl Scout organization March 12, with their leaders, Elaina Soper, Heather Holland, Lori Johnson, Teresa Reynolds and Nancy Jones. A special guest was Marie Wadleigh, 88, of Bella Vista who became a Girl Scout when she was ten years old.

— Gravette Girl Scouts last Monday evening, March 12, celebrated the 100th birthday of Girl Scouting in America.

The organization was founded by Juliette Gordon Lowe when that first group of young ladies met March 12, 1912, in Savannah, Ga.

A special guest, who also spoke to the girls at Monday’s meeting, was Marie Wadleigh, 88, who lives in Bella Vista. She joined Girl Scouts when she was a 10-year-old girl living in Alva, Okla.

Accompanying her to the meeting was her daughter, Debbie Lantz, a former Girl Scout, who also lives in Bella Vista.

The meeting Monday began with formation of the traditional Friendship/ Promise Circle precisely at 7:12 p.m., the same time that first Girl Scout meeting began a century ago.

The girls also recited the Girl Scout Promise and the Girl Scout Law.

Elaine Spear and Heather Holland were introduced as leaders of Brownie Troop 5613, as were Lori Johnson, leader of Junior Troop 5604, and Nancy Jones, leader ofCadette Troop 5497.

Awards were presented to members of the Brownie Troop, Dahlina Bates, Rebecca Jones, Alyssa Holland, Madelyn Soper and Nikki Barrett.

Receiving awards from Junior Troop were Jordan Reynolds, Vivian Reed,Hannah Ahalt, Lauryn Spear and Cassidy Ray.

Introduced from Cadette Troop was Millie Bramel and those receiving Silver Awards were Rachel Jones, Christy Bramel and Kylie Overturf.

A multi-panel photo depicting the history of GirlScouting was displayed, heritage items and information were viewed with interest, as was a vintage Girl Scout uniform owned by Mrs. Wadleigh.

A 100th anniversary cake was cut and served, along with punch to close the evening activities.

News, Pages 5 on 03/21/2012