June 18, 2012 2:37 PM
No to Girl Scouts, Yes to American Heritage Girls
The loss of the Girl Scouts as a trustworthy institution - now just another agenda-driven leftist tool for capturing the minds and imaginations of our young people - has been remedied by the steady growth of American Heritage Girls, a faith-based but non-denominational resource with 20,000 members and 425 troops in 46 states.Since the Girl Scouts have proven themselves inclined to sabotage girls' purity and innocence by hyping sex (See Healthy, Happy and Hot), many parents may wish to pull their girls from local programs and start their own AHG troops. More information in this comprehensive article:
Christ-centered scouting program builds 'women of integrity'
Related articles:American Heritage Girls experiencing rapid growth
Hovered around several tables in the cafeteria of St. Joseph School in Cottleville, more than a dozen fourth-grade girls were carefully squeezing thick lines of white icing along pieces of foam board. Giggles erupted as one snuck a finger's taste of icing. Another managed to lace some in her hair as she pushed it back to work on her design.
The girls were receiving a lesson in the fine art of cake decorating from professional decorator and baker Melanie Coyne, a woman from the neighborhood. As members of American Heritage Girls, they were working toward earning a badge in cake decorating, one of more than 240 badges that the organization offers.
This year, St. Joseph became the first parish in the Archdiocese of St. Louis to host an American Heritage Girls troop. Founded in 1995 by a group of parents in Cincinnati, Ohio, who were seeking a wholesome program for their daughters, American Heritage Girls provides a faith-based, Christ-centered scouting program for girls ages 5-18. Its mission is "building women of integrity through service to God, family, community and country."
Like other scouting groups, girls are afforded opportunities for leadership and character development, but executive director Patti Garibay, who helped found the organization, said that American Heritage Girls places a priority on weaving faith into those experiences, leaving them with another way in which they can live and grow in their faith in their everyday lives.
"Here they're going to be well-armed not only understanding what their faith is all about, but also how to put legs on that faith and how to talk about that to other people," Garibay said last week in a phone interview from Cincinnati. "It's a great way really to teach girls that their faith shouldn't just be something that's put on the shelf until Sunday -- it should be lifelong, all the time, and woven throughout your life and your experiences," said Garibay.
Read more at St. Louis Review
Comments
Another group that is similar to American Heritage Girls is the Frontier Girls. I spent almost 2 years trying to get an American Heritage Girls group up and running but was unable to find a group to serve as a sponsor organization so instead I am starting a Frontier Girls troop for my daughters and other local girls. They are both an excellent option if you are trying to avoid Girl Scouts and I say that as someone who was involved in Girl Scouts for over 12 years and earned the Gold Award. It truly breaks my heart that I am unable to share something with my daughters that played such an important role in my life.
Posted by: Cheryl | June 18, 2012 2:58 PM
