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Well, you must be very vigilant regarding the Girl Scouts. I was a girl scout, and I was one of the leaders of my daughter's troop for many years. A lot of what they do is very subtle, and some is not so subtle. For example, I remember that there was a program put on for the older girls, and one of the sessions was put on by Planned Parenthood. Another time, at our local neighborhood end-of-the-year awards ceremony for adults, those in charge thought it was appropriate to hire a female impersonator to "entertain" us. They got blasted for it by many of us leaders, but they couldn't understand why we would be upset, even though the entertainer had some pretty off-color jokes.

You have to understand that, unlike the Boy Scouts, local troop leaders are not welcome at most Girl Scout camps, so you have no idea what may go on there.

Let me give you another example. Both of my sons are Eagle Scouts. When they went to camp, the troop leaders accompanied them. So at least we knew the men who were involved (my dear husband among them.) The camp that they went to always tried to have religious leaders, generally young men in training for the ministry, at the week-long camps to minister to the boys and leaders. At the camp my sons went to, there was usually either a Catholic priest or seminary student, a Protestant minister, and sometimes even a rabinical student. The camps usually went from Sunday evening to Saturday morning, but there was always one week that catered to those scouts who didn't travel on Saturdays for religious reasons.

Contrast that to my experience with the Girl Scouts. We had to drop our girls off on Sunday morning, which meant that our whole family couln't attend Sunday services that week, and their staff couldn't attend for the whole summer. There was no attempt as far as I could see to accomodate religious services. It just wasn't important to them.

One particular memory I had was of a massive 4-day campout here in the Los Angeles area with 15,000 scouts and leaders for the 75h anniversary of Girl Scouting. The planners had planned on having a "non-denominational" service on Sunday morning. At first they would not even permit a Catholic service to be held or the Catholic scouts to leave for a local service. When the Catholic troops threatened to boycott, they finally relented and begrudingly allowed a service at 6:30 or 7 am. I can't remember the exact time, but it was bloody early. It actually worked out fairly well for our troop, because the girls who decided to go to the planned non-denominational service had to skip some of the fun program to attend. Our service was so early that the fun stuff hadn't started yet.

One more thing. Did you know that the Girl Scouts have made the work "God" optional in their promise? Girls who don't believe in God can substitute another word if they like. Just some things for you to think about.

I trust what you say but support what I see here which to date is OK from my view of their efforts and my personal knowledge of the local troop leaders etc etc.

The "can't attend camp with your own leaders" thing is scary ! I put my trust in leaders I know, not someone I don't, for children too young to make important decisions a stranger is not one to rely on IMHO.

Good on ya for seeing the bad and reporting it. My local support for the little ladies & young men in Scouts and sports is pretty much limited to paying a hundred bucks for a bake sale item or to get my old truck washed by a bunch of paint scratchers :o)........

My donation is just telling em to keep the change , classes I teach regarding wilderness survival and a free copy of the little CATO pocket US Constitutions & DOI to each boy and girl......

Again Thanks for the info........Stay Safe !