98 Fun Facts About Girl Scout

Who founded the Girl Scouts of the USA?

Juliette Gordon Low was 51 when she started the movement in 1912, and she paid most of its bills out of her own pocket in the early years.

A 1911 meeting with which British war hero inspired the founding of the Girl Scouts a year later?

Robert Baden-Powell had already launched the Boy Scouts. He befriended the Girl Scouts' future founder, who worked with girls' groups in Britain before sailing home to start her own.

In which city did the first Girl Scout troop in the United States meet in 1912?

Savannah, Georgia was the founder's hometown. The house where she was born is now a museum owned by the Girl Scouts, and troops travel from across the country to visit it.

Which sense had the Girl Scouts' founder largely lost by the time she started the movement in 1912?

Hearing: ear injuries in her twenties left her almost totally deaf, yet at 51 she criss-crossed the country recruiting leaders and girls for her new movement.

Which shape is the official emblem of the Girl Scouts?

A trefoil is the Girl Scout emblem, and the shortbread cookies called Trefoils are baked in the very same outline.

What is the highest honour a Girl Scout can earn?

The Gold Award only got that name in 1980, after decades under other titles. It goes to older girls who lead a project that keeps helping their community.

The Girl Scouts belong to a world association that pairs their name with that of which other movement?

Girl Guides is also what the first American troops were called in 1912, before they took the name Girl Scouts a year later.

Which Girl Scout level covers kindergarten and first grade?

Daisies are named for the founder, whom an uncle nicknamed Daisy as a baby; she answered to it for the rest of her life.

Which Girl Scout cookie is baked gluten-free?

Toffee-tastic is certified gluten-free, its production line cleaned and tested between runs, and it is sold only in some parts of the country.

Which Girl Scout level covers girls in grades 11 and 12?

Ambassadors are the newest of the six levels, split off so that Seniors now cover only ninth and tenth grade.

Which school grades do Girl Scout Brownies cover?

Second and third graders are Brownies. At first the Girl Scouts were meant for girls of ten and over, so the Brownie level was added for those still too young to join.

Which Senior programme, running from 1941 to the 1970s, was built around aviation?

In July 1942, 29 troop leaders from 15 states met in Philadelphia for its leadership training.

What did the United States issue in 1948 to honour the founder of the Girl Scouts?

A postage stamp carried her portrait 21 years after her death. She had kept her final illness a secret and gone on working for the movement almost to the end.

In which state is the Onondaga Reservation, where an early Native American troop of Girl Scouts formed in 1921?

New York is where Onondaga girls formed their troop, and a year later girls from the Mexican American community of Houston, Texas, started one of their own.

Our Chalet, a world centre where Girl Scouts can stay, sits in the Alps of which country?

Switzerland's Our Chalet was the very first world centre, open since 1932 beside the ski village of Adelboden, so visiting girls can climb in summer and ski in winter.

What do Girl Scouts call the ceremony that marks a girl's move up to the next level?

Bridging ends with a welcome: girls who have moved up are greeted with the Girl Scout handshake, made with the left hand because it is nearer the heart.

The first known Girl Scout cookie sale took place in 1917 at a high school in Muskogee, in which state?

Oklahoma's Muskogee troop baked the cookies at home and sold them in the school cafeteria; commercial bakeries did not take over the baking until the 1930s.

What festive name did the troop behind the first known Girl Scout cookie sale, in December 1917, go by?

The Mistletoe Troop did the baking themselves and sold the cookies in their high school cafeteria that December.

In 1922 the Girl Scouts' own magazine printed a recipe for which simple cookie, urging troops to bake and sell it?

Sugar cookie recipes like that one, sent in by a Chicago Girl Scout director, kept girls baking at home with their mothers and selling door to door through the 1920s.

What did Girl Scouts sell during World War II, when baking ingredients ran short?

Calendars needed no rationed ingredients. Troops also sold war bonds and tended Victory Gardens while the shortages lasted.

Which city's Girl Scouts were the first to sell commercially baked cookies, in 1934?

Philadelphia's council had sold home-baked cookies from the windows of the city's gas and electric company a year earlier, before turning to a commercial bakery.

ABC Bakers is one of two companies licensed to bake Girl Scout cookies; which is the other?

Little Brownie Bakers and its one rival are all that remain of a crowded field: 29 bakers held licences in the late 1940s, 14 in the 1960s and four by 1978.

Once the baker is paid, who keeps the money from a box of Girl Scout cookies?

The local council and troop keep all of it, paying for camps, trips and projects that the girls in each troop choose for themselves.

Exploremores, a Girl Scout cookie launched in the mid-2020s, takes its flavour from which ice cream?

Rocky road is the model: the sandwich cookie is filled with chocolate, marshmallow and toasted-almond creme, and its name nods to the Girl Scout spirit of exploration.

Why can the same Girl Scout cookie go by two different names?

The bakery decides the name: each council buys from one of two licensed bakers, so the box can read Samoas in one town and Caramel deLites in the next.

Which Girl Scout cookie sandwiches peanut butter between two oatmeal cookies?

Do-si-dos share their name with a square-dance move. The call comes from the French dos-à-dos, 'back to back', which is how the two dancers pass around each other.

Which Girl Scout cookie was added in 2017, a century after the first known cookie sale?

S'mores came out as two quite different cookies under one name: one a chocolate-coated graham square, the other a sandwich cookie with a marshmallow-style filling.

Which girls' organisation, founded two years before the Girl Scouts, turned down a merger with them?

Camp Fire Girls were then the bigger movement and said no. The group later opened its doors to boys and is known today simply as Camp Fire.

Whom did the Girl Scouts' founder phone in 1912 to announce 'we're going to start it tonight'?

Her cousin Nina Pape took the call, in which the founder said she had something for the girls of her hometown, 'and all the world'. Eighteen girls signed up.

Roughly how many boxes of Girl Scout cookies are sold in a normal year?

About 200 million boxes are sold in a season of barely four months, by more than a million girls, none of whom is required to take part.

Beyond raising money, what is the stated aim of the Girl Scout cookie programme?

Improving financial literacy is the point: girls set sales goals, handle the money and decide as a troop how to spend what they earn.

What do Girl Scouts earn for completing tasks and mastering skills?

Badges now reach far beyond camping and first aid: girls can earn them in robotics, cybersecurity and space science.

In the Girl Scout Friendship Circle, what is passed from hand to hand around the ring?

A squeeze travels from hand to hand around the circle, which stands for an unbroken chain of friendship linking girls all over the world.

Which honour did President Obama award the Girl Scouts' founder posthumously in 2012?

Presidential Medal of Freedom: the country's highest civilian award went to her 85 years after her death, to mark the Girl Scouts' 100th birthday.

What was the name of the magazine that the Girl Scouts published for much of the twentieth century?

The American Girl printed the 1922 recipe that set troops baking and selling cookies, a fundraiser the magazine suggested years before any national sale existed.

What was the founder of the Girl Scouts buried in, at her own request, in 1927?

Her Girl Scout uniform had a message from the movement's national officers in its pocket, calling her 'the best Girl Scout of them all'.

Who sets the price of a box of Girl Scout cookies?

Each regional council sets its own price, so the same box can cost more in one town than in the next one over.

The Girl Scout Law ends with a pledge to be what 'to every Girl Scout'?

A sister: the Law has been rewritten several times, but that phrase has been there since the 1913 handbook called a Girl Scout 'a sister to every other Girl Scout'.

Which future first lady was president of the Girl Scouts from 1922 to 1925?

Lou Henry Hoover led the Girl Scouts twice. It was during her second term, in the 1930s, that the leadership approved a national plan to bake and sell cookies.

Girl Scouts' Founder's Day falls on the founder's birthday, which is also which holiday?

Halloween, October 31, is the day she was born in 1860, so Founder's Day parties often come with costumes as well as birthday cake.

Which designer, famous for film title sequences, created the Girl Scouts' 1978 logo?

Saul Bass also designed some of America's best-known corporate logos. His Girl Scout mark was new in 1978, and by the next year it was appearing on the cookie boxes.

What colour vest do Girl Scout Juniors wear?

Green marks the Juniors. Younger girls wear blue and then brown, and the oldest levels all share khaki, so one vest can last from sixth grade to graduation.

The Girl Scout Law opens with a vow to be 'honest and' what?

Fair completes the first line, 'honest and fair'. The 1913 original opened differently: 'A Girl Scout's honor is to be trusted.'

Pax Lodge, a world centre that welcomes visiting Girl Scouts, is in which capital city?

London's Pax Lodge, in Hampstead, opened in 1991 and is the third world centre the city has had: the first welcomed visiting girls back in 1939.

What is the Girl Scout slogan?

Do a good turn daily has been the slogan since 1912; the first handbook asked for 'at least one good turn to somebody every day'. 'Be prepared' is the motto instead.

During World War II, Girl Scouts collected which kitchen waste for the war effort?

Cooking fat was saved in cans and handed in along with scrap metal, part of a war effort that also had troops tending Victory Gardens.

Sally Ride flew first, but which former Girl Scout became the first American woman to walk in space?

Kathryn Sullivan made that spacewalk on her first shuttle mission, and on her second she helped deploy the Hubble Space Telescope.

The three raised fingers of the Girl Scout sign stand for the three parts of what?

The Promise pledges service to God and country, help for other people and life by the Girl Scout Law; members may swap the word 'God' for one that fits their own beliefs.

Which Forest Service mascot shared posters with a Girl Scout for the first national Roundup in 1956?

Smokey Bear appeared beside a Girl Scout on two Forest Service posters, and about 5,000 girls from all 48 states camped at the Michigan gathering.

The 1947 Girl Scout Handbook said willingness to serve is not enough in explaining which motto?

Be prepared means knowing how to do the job well, even in an emergency, as that handbook put it; Boy Scouts use the same motto.

When a Girl Scout makes the three-finger Girl Scout sign, which finger does the thumb hold down?

The pinky is tucked under the thumb of the right hand, and the same sign accompanies the Girl Scout handshake.

The Girl Scout handshake uses the left hand because that hand is said to be nearer to what?

The heart is the reason given: the left hand lies closer to it and signifies friendship, a greeting shared with scouting movements worldwide.

Girl Scout Leader's Day falls every April 22, a date it shares with which environmental observance?

Earth Day has been held on April 22 since 1970, the same date Girl Scouts set aside to thank the volunteers who lead their troops.

Which 1989 Shelley Long comedy grew out of its producer's time leading her daughter's Girl Scouts?

Troop Beverly Hills flopped in cinemas but became a cult favourite, with Long as a socialite who moves a rained-out camping trip into a luxury hotel.

During World War II, Girl Scout troops ran courier services using which everyday form of transport?

Bicycles carried the messages, and troops also ran Farm Aide projects and grew Victory Gardens.

In 2025, the final year of the American Women series, the Girl Scouts' founder appeared on which US coin?

The quarter carried her on its reverse in 2025, closing a four-year programme that put twenty notable women on the coin.

At a Girl Scout Week fundraiser, the movement's founder dropped pamphlets onto a crowd from what?

An airplane was her platform, in the same week that Girl Scouts celebrated the very first Founder's Day.

The Girl Scout mission speaks of building girls of courage, confidence and which third quality?

Character completes the trio; the mission says such girls go on to make the world a better place.

After respect for authority, the Girl Scout Law has girls vow to use what wisely?

Resources is the word, in a line that follows vows to respect yourself, others and authority.

Since 1993, Girl Scouts may replace which word of their pledge with one that fits their own beliefs?

God stays in the official wording, but convention delegates voted 1,560 to 375 to let each member use a term true to her own faith.

World Thinking Day, when Girl Scouts think of girls in other lands, falls in which month?

February 22 was chosen in 1926 because the founder of scouting and his wife Olave shared that birthday.

Girl Scout Week opens with Girl Scout Sunday and closes on a Saturday named for what?

The Sabbath gives the closing Saturday its name, and the week always takes in March 12, the day the movement began in 1912.

In SWAPS, the little keepsakes Girl Scouts trade at gatherings, what does the final S stand for?

Somewhere ends the full name, Special Whatchamacallits Affectionately Pinned Somewhere, for tokens often pinned to hats and jackets.

Which Girl Scout ceremony welcomes a new member into the movement for the very first time?

Investiture is when a newcomer receives her membership pin, while a rededication lets existing members renew their commitment.

Each year of Girl Scout membership is marked on the vest by a small golden pin of which shape?

A star with six points is added for each year, set on a coloured disc that shows which level the girl was in.

Which Girl Scout level covers girls in ninth and tenth grade, the first years of high school?

Seniors sit between the middle-school Cadettes and the final level, and a girl's level is set by her grade on October 1.

Introduced in 2001, the highest award a Girl Scout Junior can earn is named after which metal?

Bronze is the Juniors' top honour, earned through a team project of about 20 hours each that benefits the community.

Girl Scouts who earn the movement's top award may receive what benefit on enlisting in the military?

An advanced rank recognises the award's 80-hour community project, and some colleges offer scholarships to recipients too.

Girl Scout travel programmes for older girls, once called Wider Opportunities, now go by which name?

Destinations range from kayaking in Alaska to learning how NASA works, and girls take part as individuals instead of with a troop.

Which Girl Scout programme for older girls was launched in 1934 as an answer to Sea Scouting?

Mariners registered 12 units by the end of 1934; the programme still runs in a smaller form, though many girls now join the coed Sea Scouts instead.

Our Cabaña, a world centre that hosts visiting Girl Scouts, stands in Cuernavaca in which country?

Mexico was chosen over sites in Panama, Cuba and Arizona, and the centre opened in 1957.

Sangam, a world centre for Girl Scouts opened in 1966 beside the Mula River, is in which country?

India hosts the centre in the city of Pune, and Sangam means 'coming together' in Sanskrit.

Which Union general, a friend of her uncle, visited the Girl Scout founder's family in 1864?

William Sherman called on the family even though her father was away fighting for the Confederacy, and arranged an escort to take them north.

The Kinzies, grandparents of the Girl Scouts' founder, were among the first settlers of which city?

Chicago counted the Kinzies among its pioneers, and her grandmother's frontier experiences found their way into Girl Scout traditions.

The first Girl Scout headquarters was what kind of converted building behind the founder's home?

A carriage house was remodelled into meeting rooms, with the lot outside used for drills and basketball.

In 1913 the Girl Scouts opened their first national headquarters in which American city?

Washington housed the office that sold the new handbook and insignia, until the headquarters moved north a few years later.

The Golden Eaglet, in which the Girl Scouts' founder appeared, was the movement's first what?

Movie audiences could see the founder on screen, since she both worked on the picture and appeared in it.

Which British writer, whose wife was related to her mother, was a guest of the Girl Scouts' founder?

Rudyard Kipling came to the parties she hosted at her Warwickshire home during her years as a society hostess in England.

Besides the Girl Scout emblem, the movement's founder patented a liquid container to go with what?

Garbage cans were the unglamorous subject of her utility patent, one of two patents granted to her.

How Girls Can Help Their Country, the first Girl Scout handbook, adapted a British guide to building what?

The Empire was the cause in the British original, itself based on Scouting for Boys; the American edition appeared in 1913.

Which humorous poet, whose father rented the Girl Scout founder's home, later put it in a poem?

Ogden Nash's father also paid the rent on the building where the first troops met, making him one of the movement's first benefactors.

In 1944 the United States named which kind of wartime vessel after the founder of the Girl Scouts?

A Liberty ship, one of the mass-produced cargo carriers of World War II, was launched in her name with hull number 2446.

The Girl Scouts' founder formed her first patrol of girls in 1911 near her home in which country?

Scotland came first: she had the girls there learn to spin wool and care for livestock so they could support themselves.

The Girl Scouts' founder, a keen metalworker, designed and built which feature of her English home?

Its iron gates were her own work; she also painted and learned woodworking during her years in England.

The Girl Scouts' founder rented Castle Menzies in 1914 to shelter refugees from which country?

Belgium had been invaded in the war's first days, and she let a displaced family live in the castle for a time.

In World War I, Girl Scouts made smokeless candles so that soldiers in the trenches could do what?

Heat their food was the aim, and the same troops knitted clothing for soldiers and made scrapbooks for the wounded.

Which former president gave Girl Scouts family silver in 1918 to be melted down for the war effort?

Theodore Roosevelt handed over a silver plate so it could be turned into cash for the war, months before his death in January 1919.

In the 1950s Girl Scouts filled pouches of essentials, called Kits, for civilians in which country?

Korea was at war, and the pouches, nicknamed Kits for Korea, held items its citizens badly needed.

A 2012 Girl Scout centenary party, the Great Girl Gathering, filled which giant shopping centre?

Mall of America, in Bloomington, Minnesota, hosted the two-day celebration, which was planned for 140,000 girls.

An appeals court ruling on Girl Scout mergers likened a local council to a franchise of which chain?

Dunkin' Donuts was the judges' comparison when the Manitou council in Wisconsin sued to stop its merger, and the council survived.

Retired rear admiral Marsha Evans left the Girl Scouts' top job in 2002 to lead which organisation?

American Red Cross leadership followed her four years at the Girl Scouts, capping a career that began with nearly 30 years in the Navy.

The world body that unites Girl Scouts with kindred movements was founded in 1928 in which country?

Hungary hosted the founding conference at Parád, though the association's headquarters are now in England.

USA Girl Scouts Overseas traces its start to a troop of 18 girls registered in 1925 in which city?

Shanghai's troop registered under the name Lone Troops on Foreign Soil, at a time when Girl Scouting had also reached Syria.

Before leading the Girl Scouts, engineer Sylvia Acevedo worked at NASA on which space probe's team?

Voyager 2 was her assignment at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and she traced her love of science to stargazing on a childhood Girl Scout trip.

Dorothy Stratton, Girl Scouts chief in the 1950s, led which service's women's reserve in wartime?

The Coast Guard made her its first woman officer in 1942, and she coined the reserve's name, SPARS, from its motto Semper Paratus.

In 2017 the Girl Scouts joined Palo Alto Networks to create 18 new awards in which field?

Cybersecurity is the company's own trade, and the 18 new insignia were promised by September 2018.

Which Christian youth group did Ohio parents found in 1995 as an alternative to the Girl Scouts?

American Heritage Girls began with 100 members and accepts only leaders who agree with a Christian statement of faith.

Mercedes McNab, later Harmony in Buffy the Vampire Slayer, played a Girl Scout in which 1991 comedy?

The Addams Family gave her a first notable role selling cookies, and she returned in the 1993 sequel as a snobbish summer camper.