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[music]
Good evening
and welcome to All Together with the Girl Scouts.
I'm Violet Apple and i'm the host of the show.
The Girl Scouts have been building girls of courage, confidence, and character who
make the world a better place for more than a hundred years.
Girl Scouts of Eastern Massachusetts
serves more than forty one thousand girls and eighteen thousand volunteers
and it is continuing to grow.
This vibrant girl development organization continues on with a very
very strong program
and today we are very pleased to have with us Ruth Bramson,
the CEO of Girl Scouts of Eastern Massachusetts
to talk about some of the exciting times as many of the exciting things that are
going on
with Girl Scouting. Welcome Ruth.
[Ruth] Thank you. I'm happy to be here
[Violet] Ruth, before we get into talking about the Girl Scouts,
I would like to talk a little bit about your background and what brought you to
this point in your career. Why the Girl Scouts? What made you get to this
point?
[Ruth] Well for many years I had been in human resources field.
I've had a career that spans more than thirty years including corporate jobs
and jobs in state government,
and also a lot of work with non-profits but all
of those jobs focused on helping people become the best they could be.
That's what human resources people do,
and as I finished
my last merger and acquisition, which was
with a five billion dollar corporation,
I felt like it was time for me to
reflect on what I wanted to do next and the opportunity to serve as the CEO
of the Girl Scouts of Eastern Massachusetts was presented to me.
And when i heard about all the exciting changes that were being made
to make the Girl Scouts more relevant today to girls,
I was very excited, and I was particularly excited about the effort
that we're all going to begin to make
to reach all girls.
And so when given this glorious opportunity, I took it, and I need to tell you
that after almost four years,
it's the best job I ever had.
[Violet] That's fantastic, and it sounds like you came to the organization at an
incredible time, because it seems like
there was not only changes going on but
the organization is embarking on a very historic time period.
I know in 2012 something special is going to happen. Would you
tell us a little bit about that?
[Ruth]I'd love to. 2012 is the 100th anniversary of the Girl Scouts of America.
The Girl Scouts were founded in 1912 in Savannah, Georgia, by our very
famous founder Juliette Gordon Low,
and she wanted to create an organization that would reach all girls.
What's interesting about Juliette is that she was deaf,
and so she was particularly interested in reaching girls who
were challenged in some way.
And so our new initiatives, a lot of which are revolving around
girls who have challenges, whether mental or physical,
reflects our founder's great desire to reach all girls.
So we're going to be doing a lot of exciting things around the 100th anniversary
[Violet] It's wonderful. I know that
with all the programmatic changes we've been hearing about in the Girl Scouts it
seems like
volunteers and girls, everyone is all excited.
Talk a little bit about how you're gonna celebrate this 100th year.
That's a big,
pretty large endeavor, so how are you going to go about
celebrating it? [Ruth] Well this is a great milestone for the Girl Scouts
and for Girl Scouts of Eastern Massachusetts, of course we want to be
part of the excitement.
And so part of that revolves around reaching both adults and
corporations and of course our girls to be part of the celebrations. So right now
we have several exciting things on the calendar. We are having a gala event
on March 29th at the Fairmont Copley Hotel, which will be an
evening event for adults.
The Copley itself is celebrating its hundredth anniversary, so we are
excited to partner with them, as well as with the Red Sox, who are celebrating the
100th anniversary of Fenway Park.
[Violet] Outstanding. [Ruth] So we're very excited about that and then of course we have a
wonderful initiative around environmentalism, conservation and saving the planet.
You know the planet is the only place you can get Girl Scout cookies.
[Violet] I did hear that once, and I know later on in the show we're gonna have an
opportunity to talk a little bit about Girl Scout cookies
and the impact it has on girls so...
[Ruth] So the zoo event... oh, I'm sorry [Violet] No, I was just going to ask you what kind of events
are girls going to participate in for the hundredth? [Ruth] The one that we're
very excited about with the New England Zoo uh... will be uh... on Earth Day
this year. It's a follow up to the event we had last year on the same day
and we're expecting lots of um... girls to be there and do work with the animals
as well as to work upon
projects that reflect saving the environment and on being aware
of conservation.
So that's going to be a great event, and then in June
we're planning a tremendous camporee
down at the Barnstable Fairgrounds
uh... where we're going to have
girls from not just
the Eastern Massachusetts area but all across New England will come in for the
weekend
to celebrate with us for the hundredth anniversary and we hope to get
girls in the thousands who are going to be with us that day. [Violet] Well it
certainly sounds like there's a lot of really great things going on.
Can you tell us, Ruth,
You know this is a great opportunity to tell our viewing public
why should we invest in girls.
[Ruth] Well
that's a question I could go on for hours about but I have to tell you that
girls today
have a difficult road to travel. It's not easy to be a girl today. There are
challenges in being the smartest, the prettiest, the most athletic.
There are challenges in the way the media portrays girls and
the uh... images that they feel they have to live up to and we believe that
uh... people need to invest in girls not just because
they're girls, but because they're the next generation of women leaders and also
women mothers, women engineers and scientists, and whatever career they choose.
[Violet] Thank you, Ruth, for being here.
When we come back we're going to be discussing the Girl Scout cookie sale.
What would you like to say about the cookie sale?
[Ruth] I would like to say that there's nothing better than the Girl Scout cookie sale
and that's a very good way for people to start to invest in girls
because the cookie sale is an entrepreneurial venture for these girls.
They spend a lot of time on planning their marketing strategy,
vying for locations,
and on getting out there and talking to people about why Girl Scouting is
important. So please support these girls especially during these cold months
coming up.
[Violet] Thank you so much for being here.
When we come back we're going to be talking with some volunteers about the
Girl Scout cookie sale and about what it means to be a volunteer. Thank you.
[music]
Hi, welcome back. And we are joined by Diane Hendershott, she's
a troop leader in West Roxbury,
and Adele Mathieu and she is a troop leader in Brookline.
Thank you for joining us and being here today.
[Diane] Thank you for having us.
[Violet] These are two really great volunteers in Girl Scouting. They put a lot of time and effort
into the organization
and they're gonna talk to us a little bit today
about their experiences and we're going to talk also a little bit about the
cookie sale.
But I think I'm going to start out with Adele and ask Adele how long
have you been involved in the Girl Scouts
and uh...
how--you know--what do you find really important If someone was thinking about
volunteering, what would you like for them to to think about?
[Adele] Well i've been involved since I was a Brownie
in the early sixties
and um... I have two daughters and since they became of the right age to be
Girl Scouts I enrolled them
and um... became their leader and uh...
if you're thinking about being a volunteer
I think the -- think about the girls
and what you're going to be doing for them.
The girls that are involved in Girl Scouting are a lot of
fun
and they're just really good to be with, and it's wonderful to be teaching them.
And the other thing that I would say is it's really important to take the
trainings
that the council gives
because then you know what to do.
And if you get stuck, call the council,
ask another volunteer. [Violet] So many times I hear volunteers saying that
they joined the organization because uh... of their children but they get
a lot out of it
themselves and really love it,
and it sounds like you've really also really have enjoyed
your time in Girl Scouts. [Adele] Yes, it's a lot of fun.
I wouldn't be-- a lot of the skills that I have today I would not have had if
I hadn't been in the Girl Scouts. [Violet] That's fantastic.
Thank you so much for all that you're doing for our girls.
And uh... I'd like to just turn to Diane for a minute. Diane, I know that you've
been involved with the cookie sale or
are really getting involved more with the cookie sale, but you've been a volunteer for
some time, so talk a little bit about the cookie sale. When does the cookie sale
start?
[Diane] The cookie sale actually starts this year on December 9th,
which is the earliest it's actually
[Violet] Oh, wow, that sounds fantastic. And so how did you get involved
been in the past few years. So you can get your cookies in time for Christmas.
with the cookies? How did you
come to get involved with that part of
the Girl Scouts? [Diane] Well, if you're a leader
in Girl Scouts, if you're a troop leader, then cookies go with it.
It's a way to raise
money for your troop, to be able to
go on outings,
overnights,
to take up the different programs that Girl Scouting offers and take advantage
of it.
Uh... and it's the only way, really, to raise money for the troops.
So the troops earn money when they sell cookies, the Girl Scouts are in a way to
provide those programs.
So it's a wonderful way to do it.
[Violet] That's fantastic.
So talk a little-- what would you say are some of the best opportunities, are some of
the fun activities that your girls have
in your troops have been able to participate?
Would you like to talk a little bit about that Adele?
Uh... not just-- we fund almost
all the activities that we do through our cookie sales so that girls themselves,
the families don't have to pay a lot of extra money
for them to participate in Girl Scouts and um...
we've done things like uh...
in the past they've done a karaoke night-- they rented out a karaoke studio.
The camping trips are financed through our cookies uh...
Camping out at the
overnight at the Science Museum.
[Violet] So it sounds like the cookie sale is not just uh... another thing that girls do,
but it's
something that they're actually earning their own
way and it teaches them probably a lot of responsibility. This is what we want to
do as a troop in order to do that,
what do we have to do to make that happen? The cookie sale
is one of those avenues that they go through that helps them...
[Adele] Yes. [Violet] ...to make that happen. It sounds like it's a really great
way to teach girls a little bit about finance and business as well.
So, uh... thank you so much for joining us tonight.
We will be back in a little-- in a short while
with troop 75084. These are some lovely, lovely Daisies from Hyde Park.
[music]
[Violet] Welcome back. And my final guests this evening are the lovely Daisies
from troop 75084 from Hyde Park
and they're here with us today, and they're going to talk a little bit about
the Girl Scout cookie sale.
And I think this is the first year you're gonna sell Girl Scout cookies
uh... as Daisies.
So, I-- there's all different types of Girl Scout cookies, so
I think there are
Thin Mints,
Caramel Delites,
Peanut Butter Patties,
Shortbreads,
Lemonades,
Peanut Butter Sandwiches, Shout Outs
and Thanks-a-lot.
That's eight different types of Girl Scout cookies.
So I want you to tell me which one is your favorite Girl Scout cookie? Which one
do you like best, Kaisha? [Kaisha] Peanut butter.
[Violet] You like the peanut butter! Okay, Jordan, how about your favorite one?
[Jordan] My favorite is... [Tiffany, whispers] Lemonades. [Jordan] ...lemonades [Violet] Oh, so you like the lemonades?
and Tiff-- [Jordan] No, actually, I like this one.
[Violet] Oh, she likes the Lemonades, but she really also likes the Caramel
Delites.
And Tiffany,
which one is your favorite cookie?
[Tiffany] I like the Lemonades.
[Violet] You like the Lemonades as well?
And I'm just gonna have
Oh, T'Kya likes the Caramel Delites
That's a very, very popular cookie. A lot of people like the Caramel Delites.
And you know what other cookie they like a lot?
They like the Thin Mints.
Lots of people like that. [Girl] I do, too.
T'Kya hold up which is your favorite cookie?