Thank you so much for reading. In just a few short weeks I will be traveling to the World Association of Girl Guide and Girl Scout's (WAGGGS) African World Center where I will be participating in a Leadership Conference with Young Women Leaders from around the world. I will be supporting the Ghana Girl Guides by participating in community action projects and planning to connect them with Heritage Academy, a school that currently does not have access to Girl Guiding, so that we can build a sustainable Girl Scout Program through the school. I will run some WAGGGS programming focused on nutrition and self esteem for young girls at the school as well as, a leadership development program with a focus on Feminist education for the teachers. I will be collecting reusable and disposable menstrual products. If you can donate anything at all or share with those who can, the link to support is here.
I attended my first in person event as a National Volunteer Partner of Girl Scouts of the USA in April of 2022, the same year I was celebrating twenty years with the Girl Scout movement. My first assignment as an NVP should I choose (and I did) to accept was as the photographer for our conference at the Edith Macy Center affectionately known as "the university in the woods". Located in Westchester County, New York State and named after the Chair of the Girl Scout National Board of Directors from 1919-1925. The website says that ,"Macy was the site of the first United States International World Camp in 1926, the last Girl Scout gathering attended by Juliette Gordon Low, propelling forward her advocacy of internationalism for Girl Scouting only one year before her death. During this Camp, participants designated February 22nd as World Thinking Day." For those of you that are new to Girl Scouts, World Thinking Day is a way to celebrate the international diversity of the Girl Guide and Girl Scout movement.
During our time together we recognized and awarded a few select volunteers for their service, success, and leadership both in Girl Scouting and in life.
At the end of the conference we gathered in the Great Hall for a traditional Girl Scout pinning ceremony. For those of us who were experiencing our first trip to Macy, we would receive a small brass lamp pin with the word 'Macy' on it.
After the ceremony it is tradition for those who receive their pins (and those who want to spread joy) ring the bell outside. I enjoyed getting to ring it as well as photograph others experience it.
At the very end I took a quick series of photos that I felt summed up the conference so well. From the window inside I watched two millennial NVPs ringing the bell, embracing one another, and jumping with joy, not only was the image framed by the window, but two NVPs of an older generation stood with their backs to me while they chatted, and at the end one reached across to the other to pat her on the back. The three photos together represented to me the beauty of our intergenerational movement and how we are all committed to working side by side, year after year, to build girls of courage, confidence, and character to make the world a better place.
Thank you so much for reading. In just a few short weeks I will be traveling to the World Association of Girl Guide and Girl Scout's (WAGGGS) African World Center where I will be participating in a Leadership Conference with Young Women Leaders from around the world. I will be supporting the Ghana Girl Guides by participating in community action projects and planning to connect them with Heritage Academy, a school that currently does not have access to Girl Guiding, so that we can build a sustainable Girl Scout Program through the school. I will run some WAGGGS programming focused on nutrition and self esteem for young girls at the school as well as, a leadership development program with a focus on Feminist education for the teachers. I will be collecting reusable and disposable menstrual products. If you can donate anything at all or share with those who can, the link to support is here.
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