A slough of events are planned for and by the Havre Girl Scouts in celebration of several anniversaries.
This year is the 100th anniversary of the founding of Girl Scouts of the United States of America, and marks the 82nd year of Girl Scouting in Havre and the 70th anniversary of the construction of the Scout House on 5th Avenue.
The local Scouts have been busy in the last several years, with fundraisers to pay for a trip to the nation’s capitol for the national centennial sing-along. The next fundraiser is scheduled for Saturday in the Scout House.
Troop leader Sherri Simonson said the Scouts have held rummage sales, a car wash, a spaghetti dinner and silent auction, a “S’more-ology” event, two vegetable sales and three parent days out, along with the organization’s local wreath sale.
The Scouts also have done two community service projects, cleaning up debris blown from the Buffalo Court construction site south of District IV Human Resources Development Council, and serving at a Cub Scout Blue and Gold crossover ceremony.
“We’ve been busy, ” Simonson said, laughing.
The money will be used to help pay for taking the Havre Teen Troop to the national sing-along, scheduled for June 9 at the National Mall at the base of the Washington Monument in Washington.
Simonson said a local celebration of the anniversary, including a local sing-along, is in the planning stages.
The next event is a rummage sale scheduled from 8 a. m. to noon Saturday at the Scout House.
Future fundraisers include an Indian taco sale at the Havre Eagles Club April 14 from noon to 3 p. m., a car wash noon to 5 p. m. April 28 at Sherwin Williams and a flower sale at the Scout House May 19 from 8 a. m. to 2 p. m.
According to the website of Girl Scouts of the USA, the organization got its beginning in Savannah, Ga., on March 12, 1912, when Juliette “Daisy” Gordon Low assembled 18 girls for a meeting.
Low’s goal was to give girls an opportunity to “develop physically, mentally and spiritually, ” the site says. “With the goal of bringing girls out of isolated home environments and into community service and the open air, Girl Scouts hiked, played basketball, went on camping trips, learned how to tell time by the stars and studied first aid. ”
The site goes on to say that membership in the Girl Scouts includes more than 3.2 million girls and adults, with more than 50 million women who have participated in the organization.
The troops are active in Havre to this day.
The organization started with three troops in Havre, and the first Brownie troop, for girls 6 through 8, in 1939.
The Scout House was built over the summer of 1942 as a central spot to house Girl Scouting activities.
According to a 1983 Bear Paw Sentinel article, the original spot of the house — in what now is part of the Van Orsdel United Methodist Church — was donated to the city’s Girl Scouts in an act of the Havre City Council in 1940. Residents of Havre donated time and materials and constructed the building, with its grand dedication held Oct. 25, 1942.
The house later was moved south to its present location to make room for a new, larger Van Orsdel church after the original church burned down in the early 1950s, the Sentinel article says.
Simonson said the plan is to repaint the house this year, and she is scheduling a celebration of the building, likely in the fall.
