Girl Scouts

The Girl Scouts are about much more than selling cookies. Just check out the Girl Scouts of Central Maryland's "Distinguished Women's Award Reception 2000" at the Baltimore Museum of Industry. Five local women leaders were honored for exemplifying Girl Scout values before a gathering of 250 folks. Honored were: Janet Marie Smith, who was president of Turner Sports and Entertainment Development; Jennifer Reynolds, vice chair and chief investment officer at Legg Mason; state Sen. Barbara A. Hoffman, a Baltimore Democrat; Jacqueline Thomas, Baltimore Sun editorial page editor; and Antoinette Ford, CEO of TelSpan Services Inc. Spotted in the appreciative audience: Barbara McNemar-Cummings, event chair; Lynne Battaglia, honorary chair; Deborah Dopkin and Jayme Dorf- Weinstein, event committee members; Sandra McNeal, Girl Scouts of Central Maryland board president; Pat Pittman and Marian Hwang, board members; Lisa Cid, Girl Scouts executive director; Leroy Merritt, CEO of Merritt Properties; Lynne Brick, president of Brick Bodies; Henry Rosenberg Jr., CEO of Crown Petroleum; Sandra Arnette, media relations manager with Bell Atlantic; Gail Kaplan, co-owner of the Polo Grill; and John Zaucha, president and CEO of Zaucha Interiors.

If you want to check the speed at which young girls are growing up, you can subscribe to Seventeen, which is actually read by 11-year-olds, or Cosmopolitan, the Bible of 16-year-olds. You can watch MTV or VH1 or BET and try to decipher the raunchy lyrics. You can check out Britney Spears' "Crossroads" on video or tune into The Osbournes. Or you can consider this fact: the launch last fall of the newest Junior Girl Scout badge was the most popular in memory. More than 60,000 8- to 11-year-olds have qualified for it in less than a year.

Having a gangly group of young scouts open Baltimore County Council meetings with a hurried Pledge of Allegiance isn't unusual -- if they're Boy Scouts.But last night, nine members of Girl Scout Troop 1106 earned a footnote in county history, stepping forward at the request of a councilman's wife to become the first troop of female Scouts to lead the pledge before the council."It seems sort of peculiar that we've never had Girl Scouts in here. What's wrong with us?" asked Lisa Keir, an aide to Towson Republican Councilman Douglas B. Riley, whose wife, Eileen, invited their 12-year-old daughter's troop to lead the pledge.

Girl Scouts everywhere learn about the land, its flora and its fauna. In Howard County, they're learning something else about their land, Camp Ilchester: It has a price.Campers, parents and volunteer Scout leaders who use the 38.4-acre camp in Ellicott City are trying to prevent the Girl Scouts of Central Maryland from selling 18.8 acres of the land to a developer.The Scouting group is losing the lease to its Baltimore headquarters in September and needs the money from the land sale to replace the facility.

YOU CAN'T avoid them. They're standing outside shopping centers, office buildings and grocery stores. They're little, sweet and darling and they have that cute way of begging that makes it hard to say no.The Girl Scouts are back hawking their wares once again.Normally, when you think of Girl Scouts, you picture these kids selling Thin Mints or roasting marshmallows in front of a campfire.Pleasant images of young girls giggling and pinning on their badges.Until now.The Seattle-based Totem Girl Scout Council has rocked the nation with its plan to change or make optional the portion of the scouting oath that refers to serving God.Holy Cow!

MEMBERS OF TWO Mount Airy Girl Scout troops bridged the generation gap Monday during an afternoon at Mount Airy Senior Center.Keeping with the Girl Scouts' goal of community service, 11 girls held a Christmas party and prepared a traditional dinner for senior citizens. They met their community service goals while providing holiday cheer and having fun.The Girl Scouts provided a festive twist to bingo with holiday bingo. While some of the girls called bingo numbers, the others helped the seniors fill bingo cards in the shape of candy canes, wreaths and snowmen.

CAMPING, COOKING, and community service are three ways to describe the activities of Girl Scouts of the North Carroll area.To find out more about Girl Scouts, attend an introductory meeting at 7 p.m. Sept. 28 at the North Carroll branch library. Girls from kindergarten through age 18 are welcome to join Scouts. The Scouting year is starting now and usually ends in June."We have 24 established troops. That's quite a few, with a dozen girls in each one," said Mary Ann Hoffman, who coordinates troops in the area.

BETWEEN SENIOR Girl Scout Troop 856 leader Barb Breeden and her assistant, Kris Smith, the two women have been Scout leaders for nearly a quarter of a century. In that time, they've watched their young charges grow from first-graders to high school seniors.In spring, while seven members from Troop 856 were busy with final exams before graduation, they had one more bit of Scouting business to take care of -- receiving Girl Scouting's highest honor: the Gold Award."People compare the Gold award to the Boy Scout Eagle Award, but it's very different," Breeden says.

HAMPSTEAD'S GIRL SCOUT Cadette Troop 1909 dressed in long skirts and lace Friday to serve dinner to 120 other girls from local Daisy, Brownie and Junior troops.The evening's Victorian theme had a purpose. Juliette Gordon Low, who founded the Girl Scouts, was born in 1860 during the Victorian era. And the girls had recently visited the Victorian-style, hands-on Belle Manor museum in Harford County.The dinner was held at St. Mark's Lutheran Church on Main Street.All the girls received corsages, made folded fans, sat for photographs in a "parlor" set up for the night and sang.

Girls in kindergarten through grade 12 and their parents are invited to a Girl Scouts Community 37 information night, starting at 6: 30 p.m. tomorrow at Four Seasons Elementary School. Community 37 serves Ridgeway, Odenton, Waugh Chapel and Four Seasons Elementary Schools. Come and sign up for a troop or to just find out how Girl Scouts work in the community. For more information, call Margaret Kaul at 410-674-7315.Ministry discussedA workshop/discussion based on "Survival Guides for Adults" by H. Norman Wright is being held from 7 to 8: 30 p.m. tomorrow and again Sept.