Girl Scouts from St. Louis area tour Cape

Ambassadors of Cape Girardeau and Bollinger counties greeted the 130 Junior Girl Scouts and adult volunteers from the Greater St. Louis Council who toured the area Saturday.

Attractions included the Glenn House, Old St. Vincent's Church, the Red House Interpretive Center, the riverfront murals, shopping on Main Street, free ice cream from Port Cape restaurant and the Bollinger Mill State Historic Site.

Georgia Weihe, a 36-year Girl Scout volunteer and veteran of four trips to Cape, said that although council executives picked the Cape Girardeau tour for its river heritage, "Cape is first on our list. Everyone is most gracious and super nice."

Shannon Pantukhoff, Greater St. Louis program manager, said, "We do an evaluation so we can listen to what the girls say [about the tours]. People here are more than welcoming."

At the Glenn House, the 8- to 11-year-olds learned how families spent their leisure time without TVs, Game Boys or computers. Scouts learned that families participated in sing-alongs, poetry readings and storytelling.

Glenn House docent Barbara Port described the Glenns' lifestyle and people of the period with similar status.

"Their days began by giving orders to the workers and then they spent the afternoons doing handiwork like that displayed on the wall," Port told them.

Scouts discovered that the room with eastern exposure to the sun was used for sewing because it provided the best lighting.

"I would've liked to live back then," said Kate Gilfoil, 9, of St. Charles, Mo. "I just think it's really interesting. It would've been fun to go the World's Fair."

Red Hat Society members, Sons of the American Revolution and Red House docents greeted Scouts with a special display of the 27 historical U.S. flags flying in front of the Red House. The flags depict the changes in the flag design from 1777 to 1960.

Once inside archivist Jane Randol Jackson explained to the girls that on Lewis and Clark's journey, Lewis wrote 12 pages about Cape Girardeau, displayed for them to see.

She added that four on the Lewis and Clark journey returned to Cape to settle after the journey's conclusion.

cpagano@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 133