Scary "Christan" alternative to Girl Scouts

[clibbyjo]

Funny you would mention that, I just read a post from a new Christian homeschooler looking for an American Heritage group. Good luck!!

Roots and Shoots is also a secular program and it is for boys and girls. I was one of the leaders when my kids did it and we had some really cool things. My favorite was the "Anything that goes" competition where the kids had to build vehicles out of recycled products and ride them down a hill. It was so hysterical the things kids came up with,one of the funniest classes we ever had. :dance:

I would recommend Roots and Shoots if you are looking for something with an environmental twist as well.

[No Fun My Babe]

I forgot to mention this in my previous post, but my ex's daughter was in Girl Scouts. I did a lot of activities with her, such as nature hikes, bake sales, arts and crafts, confidence building exercises and the like.

Did I miss the free birth control hand outs and the field trips to abortion clinics?

Her mom and I were always very involved in the activities, and no one ever excluded us for being teh gays or made her daughter feel weird about having two women raise her. Equality, those evil, sinful bitches!

[Witsec7]

I spent 18 years in the GS from Brownie to Senior Scout. My DD was involved with Campfire and 4H. Campfire was great, out lesbian kids and camp counselors, no one blinked an eye. Rainbow Days was a diversity program designed by our Campfire. 4H more specialized, she didn't want to do team sports (only child) had excellent eye hand coordination so she joined 4H Sharpshooters-no killing involved :D

[Elle]

http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/metro/christian-based-alternative-to-girl-scouts-grows-in-st-louis/article_4a33c906-b33c-5507-8ee2-498992578e53.html

So we've talked about the backlash against the Girl Scouts because they are highly inclusive in who the allow as members. This is an article on the alternative group "American Heritage Girls" which formed in 1995, in response to GS-USA allowing substitutions for "God" in their pledge. There's a terrifying quote from one of the moms who has her daughter in the Heritage group:

To me, that says everything that's wrong about the groups we talk about here. The idea that you must be forced into a common mold, no matter who you are. We've always talked about it, but seeing it stated so plainly gives me chills.

Shanna missed the point of Girl Scouts until a lesbian spoke? I'm alarmed at how she's admitting that girls loving themselves is a bad thing.

[clibbyjo]

I spent 18 years in the GS from Brownie to Senior Scout. My DD was involved with Campfire and 4H. Campfire was great, out lesbian kids and camp counselors, no one blinked an eye. Rainbow Days was a diversity program designed by our Campfire. 4H more specialized, she didn't want to do team sports (only child) had excellent eye hand coordination so she joined 4H Sharpshooters-no killing involved :D

We did Cloverbuds and my daughter still works the petting zoo at the farm show every year because her best friend is still in the 4H horse club. My boys would LOVE the sharpshooters,but the only club around here was more into raising money than anything else. Did you help run it? I have been thinking of starting something similar without any of the fundraising stuff.(All my liberal, hippy ,homeschool friends have boys who love guns lol. :)

[Wolfie]

*cough* Campfire *cough*

Yep, I would say campfire. I was very active as a youth, and I'm still in touch with the remnants of my local council. We're trying to save it- so I can put people in Northern CA in touch with the right people if they want to start a club.

[Wolfie]

I am Lutheran - grew up in the Missouri Synod (though currently am ELCA). I grew up hearing how batshit crazy WELS is :lol:

I was a Campfire Girl and I loved it - I'm actually pretty bummed that there is no Campfire in NC (at least the last time I checked).

Contact nationals, and see what they say.

[Elle]

I'm a little indifferent to GirlScouts now. I loved it as a kid, but I was a leader for 2 years and it absolutely sucked. No one paid their dues, the two sisters whose dues were supposed to be payed by GS were not, of course all that is par for the course. The two things that really bugged me were selling cookies (if you didn't sell five million boxes you were made to feel like crap), and the other leaders. They pretty much ate, slept, and breathed GirlScouts and they expected everyone else to do the same. It was completely ridiculous. We also had an amazing council head and she was replaced because the numbers for our council weren't increasing enough. It was so business oriented that it just didn't feel right after awhile. (Also, I don't camp.)

My troop leader was a fat bitch and I swear Ursula was based on her. Seriously she had us trained to fetch her cans of Pepsi when as soon as she ran out of the one she had already (that's why I have no problem calling her a fat bitch instead if just bitch, she wouldn't get off her own ass to get her own damned Pepsi or just not have one for a few minutes). When it came to cookies, most of us didn't even try since she routinely ordered 5,000 boxes from each of her daughters. See, she and her husband were wealthy. So they could afford 5,000 boxes from each kid at $2.50 a box, and they would do it so their girls would win awards. There was one day we were at a lake for an event, and the winning team got a prize. My team won, and we each got one cookie out of one sleeve of Thin Mints. Since her garage was loaded with boxes, we thought the 10 of us should have gotten at least one whole box to split. And for our cooking badge, we made dinner for her family and went home before they ate it.

She was a bad leader.

[Wolfie]

I spent 18 years in the GS from Brownie to Senior Scout. My DD was involved with Campfire and 4H. Campfire was great, out lesbian kids and camp counselors, no one blinked an eye. Rainbow Days was a diversity program designed by our Campfire. 4H more specialized, she didn't want to do team sports (only child) had excellent eye hand coordination so she joined 4H Sharpshooters-no killing involved :D

Oh, and one more thing about Camp Fire, since it's co-ed, no big deal if a transexual child is involved. (there were lesbian and gay teens and adults involved when I was a youth in the 80's and 90's too)

And my mom still laughs that an activity at one conference I went to was putting condoms on cucumbers.

[Witsec7]

We did Cloverbuds and my daughter still works the petting zoo at the farm show every year because her best friend is still in the 4H horse club. My boys would LOVE the sharpshooters,but the only club around here was more into raising money than anything else. Did you help run it? I have been thinking of starting something similar without any of the fundraising stuff.(All my liberal, hippy ,homeschool friends have boys who love guns lol. :)

No I wasn't involved in 4H outside of driving the kiddo or baking for an event. We lived rurally at the time on 45 acres and kept animals so she could have done the animal thing but she wanted to shoot. The only other shooting programs were redneck NRA bullsheit. They shot at an indoor 22 range at the local uni. (I actually shot there on my lunch hours, on days I wasn't swimming.)

Her Dad and I were Hippys with guns, but the NRA was too much for us. Maybe you could get one of your group certified as an instructor? Or call the local State Police, they often have range time and instruction time for youth. A big part of the shooting is the liability ins and finding a range. We eventually built an indoor range for her after she placed high in some state competitions.

Wolfie: my DD had a crafts project using condoms at camp one year!! Campfire is cool.

[mockingbird]

I posted my GS rant on here awhile back but in short my council was and is still extremely disorganized and unhelpful. It was so bad that our service unit (two towns) almost switched councils. We voted against that and now we are blacklisted for being traitors (unofficially, but if you bring up the "bad" SU at the council EVERYONE knows who you're talking about). I highly enjoyed the actual troop experience though. We had a great leader (my mom, but she did a good job, lol) and had lots of fun. Even though we didn't all stay close friends, if some of us are in town the girls in my troop will get together and catch up. We are almost like a family. I also got to do some things outside my troop like go on a national trip to Philly.

One thing I like about GS versus BS is that it seems to have a wider range of activities... most of the BS badges seem to be focused on either outdoor skills/activities or practical skills (like business). There's not a lot of options if you're a more indoor type person. My GS troop, for lack of a better word, was very girly. For example, we only "camped" in cabins or houses that had running water toilets, NOT latrines (ew!); we did a patch about self-image and had a Mary Kay consultant come to a meeting to talk about how to apply makeup in a flattering way, etc. On the other end of the spectrum, there was a "high adventure" troop in the area that did things like white water rafting and more um, rugged camping. Haha. (Not all troops are organized by interest. In our case, the troop started in my elementary school and our interests just lined up and the other one was a special interest Cadette/Senior troop created to organize those type of events for the region. If you had another troop you didn't have to join their troop to participate in their activities.)

GS troops don't have to be tied to a church or other organization. Most of the ones in my area meet at schools but they aren't affiliated with the schools, it's for convenience. I think you might have to be affiliated with an organization for BS, but not sure if that's specifically religious groups.

[misslady]

I was a Girl Scout. I liked everything except selling cookies. I'm very shy around strangers and I hated selling cookies. What made it worse was my mom was cookie chairman and we had hundreds of boxes of cookies in our garage. I used to make my sister sell my cookies. She was a natural.

As for Boy Scouts, they've really aligned themselves with the religious right because they hate teh gheys and the ghodless. In the Mormon church in the USA (don't know about anywhere else) Scouting is very much a part of the youth program for boys. (In fact, US Scouting is dominated by Mormons.) In the 1960s/70s, the Mormon church had requirements that for boys to hold certain positions within their Scout troops, they had to be ordained to various positions within the Aaronic priesthood. The problem was that you couldn't be ordained to the priesthood prior to 1978 if you were African-American. There was a lawsuit and voila! the rules were changed. (Amazing how that occurs, no?)

And for Mormon girls? There's nothing equivalent to Scouting. I don't know how many men I've told off over the years over this obvious discrimination.

There's a WELS church down the street from me, and I've been tempted to drop in on a Sunday just to see how whack it is.

I never likes selling cookies either.

The Mormons do have "Personal Progress" for "young women", which I think is sort of meant to be Scout-ish. The highest award is the "Honor Bee". Read more here: personalprogress.lds.org

[Kelya]

I never likes selling cookies either.

The Mormons do have "Personal Progress" for "young women", which I think is sort of meant to be Scout-ish. The highest award is the "Honor Bee". Read more here: personalprogress.lds.org

I did some of the Personal Progress program at my ill fated Mormon Camp experience. Total bullshit compared to actual Scouting.

When I was in a tiny town in the Czech Republic, starving and trying to find the train station, the ladyfriend and I stumbled onto a scouting gathering- a bunch of young women singing carols, a few playing instruments, and selling hot chocolate in front of a shelter and fire in the middle of the town square. It was very sweet looking.

[pfamilygal]

My hs friend keep trying to get my girls to join their troop. Considering she's the leader and she thinks that girls should stay at home under their dad's authority until marriage, I will be keeping me brilliant, creative, strong daughters far away from them!

[shesinsane]

In the Mormon church in the USA (don't know about anywhere else) Scouting is very much a part of the youth program for boys. (In fact, US Scouting is dominated by Mormons.) In the 1960s/70s, the Mormon church had requirements that for boys to hold certain positions within their Scout troops, they had to be ordained to various positions within the Aaronic priesthood. The problem was that you couldn't be ordained to the priesthood prior to 1978 if you were African-American. There was a lawsuit and voila! the rules were changed.

Sorry to go off topic, but that's the story behind the line from the (great musical) Book of Mormon "that in 1978 God changed his mind about black people." I knew about the sudden change but am surprised the Boy Scouts were a factor in it.

Back to the Girl Scouts, love those Trefoil cookies. :)

[anniebgood]

Our ELCA church has sponsored a Scout Troop for more than 50 years, they've done service projects and kept the grounds pretty neat. No GS troops though.

My husband led Cub Scouts and Boy Scouts and their troop was sponsored by a Methodist church close to the ELCA church. That troop disbanded after some problems between the kids and parents. Basically two ADD kids were in the troop, off their meds, and their grandmother who they lived with wouldn't help with the activities. I was teaching Special Ed at the time and had one of the boys in a class, he reminded me of a spider who didn't want to leave the ceiling.

Back to topic,

When my husband was in Amway, his sponsors told him how wonderful Royal Rangers and Rainbow Girls at the local AOG church. It was on Wednesday night when they'd have their "plan meetings" so they wouldn't be bothered by having to find a sitter while they were hawking products. The kids got out of it after we moved to a new city. Then Scouts happened. My daughters Scout Leader was a type A personality whose children had to excel at everything, and didn't do much to encourage the other girls. I helped sell fireworks, did my time at the cookie stand, and when my daughter said enough of this, she stopped going.

[Fun-Dee]

My GS troop, for lack of a better word, was very girly. For example, we only "camped" in cabins or houses that had running water toilets, NOT latrines (ew!); we did a patch about self-image and had a Mary Kay consultant come to a meeting to talk about how to apply makeup in a flattering way, etc.

My daughter was in Girl Scouts through high school. My cousin was the leader, so I was very involved with the troop. We used to call them the shopping Girl Scouts. (As opposed to the camping Girl Scouts) They camped occasionally, but any activity was usually followed by several girls asking "Can we stop at the mall?"

I was a third generation Camp Fire Girl. I tried putting my daughter in Camp Fire, but I did not like the leaders much, and didn't like the way they ran things. My cousin offered to put my daughter in her GS troop, and we never looked back. I agree though that a troop is only as good as it's leader.

[faeriequeene]

I was a girl scout for 10 years. Loved every minute of it. Would do it again in a heartbeat. The American Heritage girls sounds really stupid. And I was brought up Catholic.

[LIzzieB]

I wish we had Girl Scout cookies in Australia. I just googled Samoas and they look SOOO GOOOOD.

[TudorRose]

AHG is weird. One of my friends was considering it for her daughter, but there's no AHG troops nearby. She did find a Daisy Troop, tho, and signed her up.

[nimerha]

I wish we had Girl Scout cookies in Australia. I just googled Samoas and they look SOOO GOOOOD.

Later tonight, I can send you a link to the PERFECT Samoa recipe. They're super easy to make and taste exactly like the real thing. Now if only I was able to replicate ThinMints and Tagalongs, my life in cold, socialist, godless Europe would be ever so much easier.

[IReallyAmHopewell]

I wish we had Girl Scout cookies in Australia. I just googled Samoas and they look SOOO GOOOOD.

There are "copycat" recipes if you google. You don't have Girl Guides?

[snarkbillie]

Later tonight, I can send you a link to the PERFECT Samoa recipe. They're super easy to make and taste exactly like the real thing. Now if only I was able to replicate ThinMints and Tagalongs, my life in cold, socialist, godless Europe would be ever so much easier.

http://www.instructables.com/id/Tagalon ... es-Recipe/

[freejoytoo]

There are "copycat" recipes if you google. You don't have Girl Guides?

I'm in the UK, not Aus, but we don't have cookies either. We have Brownies, which is the British version of Girl Scouts - I think Australia has the same?

[nokidsmom]

I am Lutheran - grew up in the Missouri Synod (though currently am ELCA). I grew up hearing how batshit crazy WELS is :lol:

I was a Campfire Girl and I loved it - I'm actually pretty bummed that there is no Campfire in NC (at least the last time I checked).

I am ELCA as well. Have some WELS relatives so hear you about that...experienced it first hand.

Was a Girl Scout all the way from Brownies to Seniors. Actually spent my last 4 years as a dual Girl Scout / Boy Scout. Our troup was a Mariner unit as well as a Sea Scout (Boy Scout) unit.

Learned a lot but those last 4 years was a great way to meet guys. Met my boyfriend that way...lol