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Girl Scouts celebrate centennial
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Trudee Davis of Austintown is historian of the Eastern Region of the Girl Scouts of North East Ohio. She’s displaying some of the Girl Scout uniforms she has collected, including ones from 1928 and 1919 at her left.
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Girl Scout uniforms from the past and present are on display in the museum at the former Lake to River Girl Scout Council office on Warren Avenue in Niles.
By WILLIAM K. ALCORN
alcorn@vindy.com
YOUNGSTOWN
The world changed in the last 100 years, but the purpose of Girl Scouts of America has remained constant: To make a positive difference in girls’ lives.
Barbara Bott of Canfield, a longtime Girl Scout leader, said that is why she has been in Scouting nearly all of her 71 years including 11 years as a Girl Scout.
Bott, recipient of the Thanks Badge, scouting’s highest adult honor, said she remembers with great fondness her first troop leader, Grace Kerr.
“She liked crafts and cooking. We didn’t do a lot of camping, but she always had great ideas for us,” Bott said.
The girls in Scouting are absolutely wonderful and love being scouts, she noted.
“You can see it from the expressions on their faces,” said Bott, who was twice leader of Troop 192 and also led Troop 861 and now helps with Troop 899.
But she said sometimes there is a difference in attitudes.
“In the past if an adult talked to you, that was it. Now, sometimes we have to go over it with them,” she said.
Bott, who grew up on Ravenwood Avenue in Youngstown and graduated from South High School, said her troops did more field trips and camping than she did as a Girl Scout.
She called her twin daughters, Christine Bott of Canfield and Lynn
Laurence of Wyandott, Mich., separately to ask them what they liked best about being scouts in their mother’s troop.
“I was surprised. They both said the same thing. They loved camping and creeking and service projects like being Santa’s helper at the Austintown Plaza, handing out presents.”
Bott, an employee at Chase Bank, and her husband, Walter, retired from Delphi Packard Electric in Warren, also have a son, Richard of Salem, and four grandchildren.
The closeness with the girls and making a difference in their lives is also why Trudee Davis of Austintown, who was a Camp Fire Girl when she was a child, said she is a Girl Scout adult volunteer.
Davis got started in Girl Scouts helping her daughter, Patricia Doyle of Austintown, with Troop 899 in Austintown.
“I just like instilling things in the girls now from back then, like manners and how to speak. We’re trying to bring back things that have been lost and encourage them to do service projects, such as putting U.S. flags on veterans’ graves at Tod Heritage Cemetery,” Davis said.
Davis, who is historian for the Eastern District of the Girl Scouts of North East Ohio, has put together a collection of Girl Scout uniforms, the earliest of which is 1919.
“I’ve always collected old Girl Scout stuff and have even bought some on eBay. I enjoy it. I like to learn,” said Davis, who has many items from her collection on display in a museum at the former Lake to River Girl Scout Council office on Warren Avenue in Niles.
Davis, 63, a graduate of Jackson-Milton High School and retired from Packard Electric, is married to Robert Davis. In addition to Patricia, she has three stepsons, Robert Davis III of Austintown and Keith and Kevin Davis, of Youngstown and Berlin Center, respectively; a son, Charles Davis of Austintown; and six grandchildren.
Davis said there are other differences between today and years past in Scouting.
Girls have so many things to do that they have to juggle activities, including Scouting.
Also she noted, with more mothers working, it is difficult to find adult leaders.
Sadly, she said, “there are a lot of girls on the waiting list to become Girl Scouts, but there are not enough adults willing to become leaders.”
SCOUTING THROUGH THE YEARS
Girl Scouts in America was founded in Savannah, Ga., in 1912, by Juliette Gordon Low. The first troops in the Mahoning Valley formed a few years later. Some significant dates and events in the area development of the Girl Scouts movement:
Mahoning County
1925 - Troop 1, the beginnings of Girl Scouting in Youngstown, was organized by Laura Roberts and Jean Pugh. The troop had eight girls and originally met at Trinity Methodist Church.
1934 - Youngstown Council receives its national charter.
Trumbull County
1918 - The first troop in Warren was formed with eight members. They spent a week camping that summer at a nearby lake. The troop lasted only a year.
1930 - Marae Ohl formed Troop 1, the only troop in Warren for six years. It grew from eight to 32 members.
1936 - Mrs. Elmer Hickox and Elizabeth Barbe organized Troop 2.
1942 - The Warren Council received its charter.
1956 - The Warren Council incorporated and served Bazetta, Bloomfield, Braceville, Bristol, Champion, Cortland, Fowler, Greene, Gustavus, Hartford, Howland, Johnston, Mecca, Mesopotamia, Southington, Vernon, Vienna and Warren.
Lake to River Girl Scout Council
1965 - Lake to River Council formed with the merger of the Massasauga, Warren Area, Youngstown District and Niles Local councils. The Council, with headquarters in Niles, had 10,000 Girl Scouts and 3,000 adult volunteers at the time of the merger.
1968 - The Council achieved its highest registration of 11,583 girls.
2007 - Lake to River merged with other councils to become Girl Scouts of North East Ohio that serves 40,000 girls and 14,000 adult volunteer members in an 18-county region, including Ashtabula, Columbiana, Mahoning and Trumbull counties.
Sources: The Vindicator, Warren-Trumbull County Public Library, The Girl Scouts of North East Ohio