Girl Scouts celebrate 90 years

The girls in green who sold more than 17,000 boxes of cookies this year celebrated the 90th anniversary of Girl Scouting in America at an all-faiths church service Sunday.

More than 100 girls with patch-covered vests and sashes crowded into the Osage Centre with their parents and troop leaders to honor the organization's March 12, 1912, beginnings in Savannah, Ga.

Denise Stewart, executive director of the Girl Scouts of Otahki Council, said the certainty of a protective and motivating higher being has been at the heart of the organization since its beginning.

"After Sept. 11, the world realized what we have known for 90 years," she said. "Together, in love, there is great strength, differences should be celebrated and God's love will sustain us in times of despair."

Carrie Beth Padgett, an alumna of the Otahki Council who now lives in Tennessee, was the featured speaker.

In 1990, at the age of 21, Padgett was in a car accident that left her paralyzed and confined to a wheelchair.

"I cried the day I came home from the hospital because my parent's driveway was covered with cards from girls at camp welcoming me home," she said. "To know that little girls would think of that helped me to know I wasn't alone."

Padgett said even though her disability has physically kept her from doing the activities she participated in as a Girl Scout, it hasn't stopped her from enjoying the memories.

"Hiking the trails at Cherokee Ridge was one of my favorite things to do as a Girl Scout," she said with a shaky voice. "I hiked them so often that now I can just close my eyes and go hiking any time I want to."

Angie McClanahan attended the service with the members of third-year Brownie Troop 136.

"Girl Scouts make a world of a difference in a young girl's life," she said. "I was always a shy girl, and Girl Scouts helped me know I could do things on my own. It helped me develop independence."

Eight-year-old Natasha Chitwood, one of 10 members in McClanahan's troop, said she likes Girl Scouts simply because it is fun.

But it isn't always easy. Natasha said the hardest badge she has earned was the Senses Badge.

"We had to taste some things that people didn't really like," she said.

Today there are 3.6 million Girl Scouts in 140 countries around the world.

hkronmueller@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 128

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On the Net

More information about the Girl Scouts of Otahki Council is available at www.girlscoutsotahki.org or by calling 334-7741.