Wanted: Girl Scout Photos, Past & Present

By Annabeth Miller,
ShowMe Times Editor

Were you a Girl Scout? Did you sing around the campfire at Camp Latonka? Did you make s’mores at day camp? Have fun times with your troop? Go to Girl Scout Round-Up?

In observance of the 100th anniversary of Girl Scouting in America, the ShowMe Times wants to celebrate with a very special photo gallery featuring your photos of your Girl Scouting experience!

This March 12 will mark the 100th anniversary of when Juliette Gordon Low called her niece in Savannah, Ga., and declared: “I have something for the girls of the Savannah and all America, and all the world, and we're going to start it tonight!” And so Girl Scouting in America was born.

Girl Scouting came to the Bootheel as early as the 1920s when a “Lone Troop” was formed in Kennett. A troop was established in Dexter in 1934.

The Cotton Boll Girl Scout Council was established in 1948 and from that time until today literally thousands of girls and young women enjoyed the Girl Scout experience. From Peach Orchard to Puxico, Dexter to Deering, New Madrid to Naylor, the Cotton Boll Girl Scout Council took Girl Scouting throughout the region to make sure the program was available to every girl.

Girls enjoyed local troop activities, day camps, camp outs, Thinking Day ceremonies and Girl Scout Week carnivals. In the 1951, the council opened the gates to Camp Latonka, an established camp on Lake Wappapello. The camp celebrated 60 years of offering program to girls during 2011.

Today, the tradition continues with Girl Scouts of Missouri Heartland – a newly-formed council that includes Cotton Boll and four other Missouri councils.

So, send your photos – old and new – to the ShowMe Times. Just email your images to Annabeth Miller, SMT Editor, at amiller@showmetimes.com. Photos should be sent by or before March 7, 2012. Please add information about when and where the photo was taken and if possible, who is in the photo. 

Please, no photos sent by Facebook; we are hoping to unveil all photos in one gallery. If you have any questions, please contact Annabeth at 573.624.7469 or 573.421.7626. 

Photo Above: Cadette Girl Scout Troop 46 from Dexter trekked to Jefferson City in the early 1970s, and toured the State Capitol with the help of State Rep. Jim Spain of Bloomfield.