Girl scouts for single moms and their girls

[dustyelbow]

Girls Scouts make effort to reach more African-Americans
by Leslie Boyd, LBOYD@CITIZEN-TIMES.COM
published June 18, 2006 12:15 am
Reader Feedback: Comment on this article | Register here

ASHEVILLE — Michelle Galloway was starting to worry about her older daughter, Lyric. She was acting out in school, and Galloway wasn’t certain how to help her focus and reach her potential.

Then both her daughters said they were interested in joining the Girl Scout troop at Hall Fletcher Elementary School.

In this past school year, Lyric Galloway, 10, made the A-B honor roll every term and Autumn Dukes, 9, made the A-B honor roll in the final term.

“They’re more focused, more confident,” Galloway said. “I think their involvement in Girl Scouts had something to do with that. Everything changed.”

Galloway, a single mom, used to worry that her daughters might not be exposed to the things she wants them to learn and understand. She doesn’t have a car and can’t afford to take them on trips to cultural centers. Now, she says, she believes they’ll get what they need to succeed, and she has offered to volunteer with the Scouts.

Few African-Americans

What’s odd, though, is that more African-American parents and girls don’t take advantage of what Girl Scouting has to offer, Galloway said.

“There are about 1,000 girls in scouting in Buncombe County, but only about 50 are African-American,” she said. “That just doesn’t reflect the population here. It bothers me.”

Perhaps parents don’t understand the power of mentorship, confidence-building and teamwork on a child’s life, she said.

“I know I was a Girl Scout and I loved it,” she said. “I was an only child, and these girls were my sisters.”

Pisgah Council CEO Molly Keeney, who joined the council in the fall of 2005, said she has asked Asheville Mayor Terry Bellamy to help reach out to African-American girls and their parents.

“We’ve asked for her help in building African-American leadership and membership,” Keeney said. “We plan to reach out to the predominantly African-American churches in addition to the schools.”

Keeney said she believes Girl Scouts learn skills and build friendships that they keep with them the rest of their lives.

“The mission is to build girls of courage, confidence and character,” she said. “There isn’t as much of that as there used to be, so it’s important for girls to have a place they can go for that.”

Introducing pastimes

Keeney learned to sew as a Girl Scout and sewing continues to be a favorite pastime.

“It planted that seed,” she said. “I made a straight-shift jumper, and I sewed it all by hand.”

Lyric Galloway discovered she could cook by earning her baking badge.

“I baked an apple pie,” she said. “We put it in the freezer and we had it for Thanksgiving.”

Autumn, who also earned a badge by baking an apple pie, loved learning origami and making animals out of the colorful paper.

Some of the badges — baking, for example — are as old as the organization itself. Others, like the breast cancer awareness badge, are new additions that strive to keep up with the interests of modern girls.

Scouts can earn badges in various sports, arts and crafts, business knowledge and intellectual pursuits.

“Some people might think that the Girl Scouts are goody-goody or that they think they’re all that,” Galloway said. “That’s just not so. It helped me, it’s helping my girls, and everyone is welcome.”

The organization is open to anyone who wants to be involved, Keeney said.

“We don’t exclude,” she said. “If there’s a question, we lean toward inclusion.”

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

I guess the church aint working.

Neither is the community.

My question is Girl Scouts ready for our community with its myriad of problems?

It may be a step, and those cookies they sell are like the M&M candies I see our youngsters sell.

Mmm. Maybe Girl Scouts will represent a new WHOLESOME competition for the sweets for a dollar.

 

[dustyelbow]

Photo: http://cmsimg.citizen-times.com/app...Ref=AR&Profile=1001&maxW=800&maxH=600&title=2
credit: John Fletcher, JFLECTHER@CITIZEN-TIMES.com
Michelle Galloway with her daughters, Autumn Dukes, left, and Lyric Galloway, at their home in Asheville. Galloway was a Girl Scout growing up and her daughters are in a troop at Hall Fletcher Elementary School.

 

[Queenie]

Yeah...I was a Girl Scout. Back in the day when I was a kid, it was common in the Black community for girls and boys to join a troop...although we were racially segregated still. As I got older though and had my daughter, I began to wonder whether that was the right path to follow with her or not. Even though the skills learned are good and useful, they were things my mother was teaching me anyway as were most other Black mothers doing with their daughters I knew growing up. But as a woman, the troops were.....so.....white.

I didn't want that for my daughter. I wanted to teach her more than just about how to be a good domestic...how to cook, sew, make a bed, etc. I didn't want to emphasize or teach her how to assimilate among white folk and fit into their culture and learn only what they thought was important to know. I wanted my daughter to experience what it was like to be among a group of girls like herself, learning about her African ancestral roots and experiencing her rights of passage. Of course, there was no collective group that existed like that back then, so instead of putting her in the Girls Scouts, we read books written about African by African American authors and I taught her whatever I could about who she was as a Black woman/child.

Maybe this wasn't the best way to think about the Girl Scouts, but it was a decision I've never regretted making.