Kaw Valley Girl Scout Council Records

Abstract: Records of the Kaw Valley (Kan.) Girl Scout Council. The collection consists of information concerning awards, membership, badges and patches; Board reports and meeting minutes, as well as various committee records and financial records; scrapbooks and newspaper clippings; event programs and forms; personnel information and information concerning Girl Scout alumnae; newsletters, annual reports and other publications, both local to the region and from the national organization, as well as anniversary histories; activities and camp information; photographs, slides, and other audio-visual materials, etc. The records are for the Council as well as for individual Brownie and Girl Scout troops within the Kaw Valley region, and the majority of the records date from the 1970s to the 1990s.

Administrative History: Girl Scouts were founded in 1912 by Juliette Gordon Low in Savannah, Georgia, during a larger movement across the United States to form clubs for boys and girls focused on building skills and character, often in an outdoor environment. 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. In partnership with committed adult volunteers, girls develop qualities that will serve them all their lives, like leadership, strong values, social conscience, and conviction about their own potential and self-worth.

The Girl Scout program was started in Topeka at Clay School in 1916. In 1931 the Dover, Shawnee County camp was officially named Camp Daisy Hindman, and in 1937 the Topeka Girl Scout Council organized high school girls, starting Senior Scouting. In 1954 the Kaw Valley Council officially formed out of the merger of the Topeka Girl Scouts with six other counties; other troops in the region continued to join the council. In 2007, Kaw Valley, Mid-Continent, and Midland Empire Councils all merged to form the Girl Scouts of NE Kansas and NW Missouri.

[Girl Scouts of NE Kansas and NW Missouri. "A History of Girl Scouts of NE Kansas and NW Missouri." http://www.girlscoutsksmo.org/history.asp (accessed 12 November 2009).]

[Girl Scouts of the U.S.A. http://www.girlscouts.org/who_we_are/ (accessed 12 November 2009).]

Associated materials: Associated materials in the Photographs and Audiovisual collections.