Washington – When she entered ninth grade, Macy Gutermuth carried with her a dark secret. She lived in fear that her classmates would learn it and that her social life in her Baltimore County town would come to a screeching halt. The secret? Macy, now 16, was … still a Girl Scout.
Saturday, at the 95th-anniversary party of Girl Scouts of the USA, Gutermuth learned she was not alone. Really not alone.
An estimated 150,000 Girl Scouts from all 50 states descended on the Mall for an afternoon singalong, capping off four days of activities that included Mystics and Nationals games. Kathleen Herles, the voice of Dora the Explorer, led old campfire favorites from a stage by the Washington Monument. Girls roved the area in packs, exchanging S.W.A.P.S. (Special Whatchamacallits Affectionately Pinned Somewhere), home-decorated pins made for sharing.
A large screen broadcast images of Girl Scouts of yore, and a grandmother assured her disbelieving granddaughter that yes, Scouts really did used to dress like that.
“It’s amazing,” says Macy, scanning the waves of “Still Singing After All These Years” T-shirts. “I had no idea there were so many of us.”
An estimated 2.7 million girls nationwide belong. But more than 2 million of them are 11 or younger; enrollment declines throughout middle school. Currently, there are only 103,606 Girl Scouts in the senior division, which includes grades 10-12.
