99 years ago, on March 12, 1912, Juliette Gordon Low organized two patrols of girls in Savannah, Georgia to start a bold, sweeping movement for the benefit of all girls. In fact, Juliette defined the “movement” as something sweeping in culture, bringing change, and uniting the world in a sisterhood of girls and women. She held strong to a vision for girls that included self-reliance, independence, and a willingness to do something every day for someone else. The challenges our girls face today are dramatically different from the ones girls faced 99 years ago. But, Girl Scouts remains at the forefront of building girls of courage, confidence and character, who make the world a better place.
Imagine how proud and excited Juliette would be to know that Girl Scouts will be celebrating 100 years of incredible memories and accomplishments in 2012, while preparing to launch our 2nd century of helping girls achieve their potential.
No other organization in the world offers the unique leadership skills and experiences that allow our girls to go farther in life, to become the leaders of the next generation, to bring about the changes the world of today needs.
As we prepare to meet the needs of girls in the 21st century, Girl Scouts of Northeast Texas recently made the commitment to embark on a long-term Property Master Plan process, reviewing in depth all six of our camps along with the East Texas Regional Center, to determine how we can bring this important body of assets into the 21st century, modernizing our camps, and providing a 21st century outdoor leadership experience for our girls. The Property Master Plan represents the first major step over the next several years in improving our facilities and the outdoor leadership experience for girls.
Four Town Hall meetings were held throughout our jurisdiction in early January, where volunteers, parents and older girls shared invaluable feedback regarding their visions for our future camps. Those were followed by email surveys to girls, parents, and volunteers. To date, over 1,800 responses have been received. I invite you visit the Property Master Plan page of our website frequently, located here for the latest updates, including key visions as reported at the Town Hall Meetings, analysis and trends ascertained from the surveys, and updates from our property consultants with regard to how we best leverage our resources and properties for the benefit of our girls.
This is truly an exciting time to be a Girl Scout! I hope you will join me as we celebrate both our past and look forward to our future.