Free Republic

Tell me who you hang out with and I’ll tell you who you are. Anna Maria Chávez, CEO of Girl Scouts USA (GSUSA), offers this pithy saying as her favorite quote. In order to figure out who the Girl Scouts are, I suppose we must follow Ms. Chávez’ logic and look at the organizations that GSUSA associates with. A good place to start would be the World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts (WAGGGS). WAGGGS has member organizations across the globe, the largest of which is GSUSA, contributing approximately a quarter of the ten million members that belong to...

There is certainly no ‘waste not, want not’ badge for Girl Scouts of America, at least not in Southern California where over 13,000 boxes of the organization’s famous cookies were bulldozed to bits in a warehouse as bulldozer operators gleefully yelled ‘Goodbye girl scout cookies!’ After the May incident, when the cookies were sent off to a landfill, leaders of area food banks are up in arms about the so-called service organization's wastefulness. Bruce Rankin, Executive Director of Santa Monica’s West Side Food Bank, watched footage from CBS 2 in Los Angeles, and was shocked as two heavy-duty construction vehicles...

The local Girl Scouts council paid for a sign-language interpreter to attend Megan's Girl Scout meetings, a camping trip and other outings. But a federal lawsuit filed Wednesday on the 12-year-old's behalf alleged that the Girl Scouts abruptly disbanded Megan's Schaumburg troop early this year in retaliation for her mother's efforts to keep the 100-year-old organization paying for the interpreter. ....Megan, who has been deaf since birth, joined the Girl Scouts in kindergarten, her mother said. At the time, her mother requested that an interpreter be present at Scouting activities, and the Girl Scouts agreed to that, she said. But...

0 inShare Fr. Frank gives a blessing to Nicole, Madelyn, Gabe and Rochelle at the GirlScoutsWhyNot.com booth In addition to hearing Lila Rose speak at a general session during the National Right to Life Committee convention a few weeks ago, I also met Rochelle Focaracci and her daughter, Madelyn. Rochelle was a Girl Scouts troop leader, and Madelyn was a Girl Scout. In February 2009, though, one day after World Thinking Day, Rochelle and Madelyn left the Girl Scouts for good. Their reason for leaving was that in 2008, Rochelle had been contacted by her sister about a connection between...

Who’s calling the shots over at the Girl Scouts? And where’s the organization headed?The questions matter for two reasons. First, it’s cookie season. Any day now some cute little girls wearing green sashes and bright smiles will knock on your door and sweetly seek support for their projects, badges, and activities. Do you write the check or not? (Forget your craving for Thin Mints. Think rationally!) Should you support the Girl Scouts? Second, the Girl Scouts organization (GSUSA) is in trouble again. In recent weeks, they’ve drawn scrutiny for promoting biased resources (the left-wing Media Matters) and pressuring an employee...

People often talk about growing up in a time when they didn't have to lock their doors, when their children could go out and play without fear, and when everyone knew (and talked to) their neighbors. It was a time when groups like the Girl Scouts flourished -- when they were viewed as a wholesome club parents could allow their daughters to join without concern that their little girls would be corrupted by feminists with an agenda. As a matter of fact, parents and their daughters would often learn about the Girl Scouts from their churches. But times change, and...

Indiana freshman Representative Bob Morris is learning the hard way that the Girl Scouts of America is to the progressive agenda as the Komen Foundation is to Planned Parenthood, and the Catholic church (or so Obama presumed) is to an Obama abortion mandate. What is -- in one word -- cover. ....Full disclosure: I am as endeared to the doe-eyed keepers of the Thin Mint for which I would sell my soul most days as anyone. I cringed when I heard Morris's original remarks. It was just the crazy talk the left feeds upon -- and the right, consequently, takes...

BOISE, Idaho, March 1, 2012 (LifeSiteNews.com) – When Grace Swanke, 10, found out that Girl Scouts is entangled with Planned Parenthood, not only did she decide to quit her troop, but as someone who loved to sell cookies, she decided to make and sell her own brand of cookie, but with a pro-life twist. “The thing I enjoyed most about the girl scouts was selling cookies, and then I realized I could still sell cookies, I just had to bake them myself,” Grace told LifeSiteNews. Several years ago, a significant number of Girl Scout councils nationwide admitted to partnering with...

Yet another link between the Planned Parenthood abortion business and the Girl Scouts has come to light and it is giving pro-life advocates further pause about their involvement in the organization.Indiana Right to Life has learned the city of Bloomington, Indiana web site in 2009 reported the direct involvement of a Planned Parenthood “health and sexuality” educator in the development of a Girl Scouts program targeted to girls as young as five years-old.In its report on the 2009 Woman of the Year and Lifetime Contribution Award, the site notes that Anne Reese was nominated posthumously for the Lifetime Contribution Award....

There's an agenda behind those cookies the Girl Scouts sell, one bent on promoting communism, lesbianism and subverting "traditional American family values," according to an Indiana lawmaker. That's the reason Rep. Bob Morris, a Republican representing Fort Wayne, insists he won't go along with a resolution meant to honor the Girls Scouts on the organization's 100th anniversary. Morris owns a chain of nutrition stores, but it's not the fat and sugar in Girl Scout cookies that have him riled up. "After talking to some well-informed constituents, I did a small amount of Web-based research, and what I found is disturbing,...

Sometimes even the Washington Post gets it right. Last week the pastor of St. Timothy’s Catholic Church in Chantilly, Virginia, made national news. He banned the Girl Scouts from his parish because of the Girl Scouts’ connections to pro-abortion groups, including the international scouting group, the World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts (WAGGGS).A Washington Post writer, who called the parish decision “extreme,” rode to the Scouts’ defense, arguing that the “Girl Scouts say explicitly, repeatedly, at the neighborhood, regional and national level, that they have no stance on birth control or abortion.”Now that’s not the part the Post...

When Girl Scout cookie season starts up in your neighborhood, those earnest young saleswomen bearing boxes of sweets may be armed with a new secret weapon: a mobile credit-card reader attached to their smartphones. That's right people. The Girl Scouts have firmly entered the digital age, and our waistlines may never recover. Think of the implications: Before, if you saw a tempting table laden with Samoas and Thin Mints outside the grocery store, being low on cash could prevent you from buying a box or two, or five, or 10. Not anymore.

(CNSNews.com) – House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said Planned Parenthood’s relationship with the Girl Scouts of America is “very valuable,” Wednesday, at a congressional reception to commemorate the 100 year anniversary of the organization for young girls. Rep. Pelosi was featured at the reception with a group of female government leaders to promote the Girl Scout’s new initiative “To Get Her There,” which seeks to create “gender balanced leadership” in one generation.After the event CNSNews.com asked Pelosi: “The Girl Scouts has had some ties to Planned Parenthood, do you think that’s a valuable relationship to have working together?”“The Girl...

WASHINGTON, February 2, 2012 (LifeSiteNews.com) - When asked about Girl Scouts of America’s (GSUSA) connections to Planned Parenthood, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) said that the relationship between the two groups is “very valuable.” Nancy PelosiCNSNews.com asked the former House Speaker following a Girl Scouts-sponsored event, “The Girl Scouts has had some ties to Planned Parenthood, do you think that’s a valuable relationship to have working together?” “The Girl Scouts have relationships with many organizations, and, yes, I think they are all very valuable,” Pelosi replied. Pelosi had been featured at the reception to promote “To Get Her There,”...

Pelosi: Planned Parenthood Relationship to Girl Scouts ‘Very Valuable’ By Elizabeth Harrington February 1, 2012 (CNSNews.com) – House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said Planned Parenthood’s relationship with the Girl Scouts of America is “very valuable,” Wednesday, at a congressional reception to commemorate the 100 year anniversary of the organization for young girls. Rep. Pelosi was featured at the reception with a group of female government leaders to promote the Girl Scout’s new initiative “To Get Her There,” which seeks to create “gender balanced leadership” in one generation. After the event CNSNews.com asked Pelosi: “The Girl Scouts has had some...

It's time to resolve the problem at the top and quit picking on the kids, in hopes some vague message trickles up. Are you among those upset with the Girl Scout promotion of Planned Parenthood and boys joining Girl Scout because parents nurture the confusion of a 7 year old? There's been a recent campaign on the internet, to show those Girl Scouts just how upset we are by boycotting the annual drive to raise money for the Girl Scouts, buy refusing to buy their cookies. After all, 90% of the proceeds go to the upper strata of Girl Scout...

CHANTILLY, Virginia, January 25, 2012 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A Catholic parish in Virginia has banned local Girl Scout troops from parish facilities and the adjacent school over the international body’s ties to the Planned Parenthood abortion business. St. Timothy Catholic Parish in Chantilly says Girl Scouts will not be permitted to meet or wear uniforms on church property, including at St. Timothy School, which covers preschool to grade 8. The Girl Scouts have been under growing pressure as evidence mounts of their ties with Planned Parenthood, the world’s largest abortion provider. In June, Bishop James Conley of Denver warned that participation...

Girl Scouts will no longer be able to meet at a local church because of a connection with Planned Parenthood. Several Girl Scout troops in Chantilly, Virginia have been banned from meeting at a local Catholic church and a neighboring school.St. Timothy Catholic Church says that scouts won’t be allowed to meet or wear their uniforms on church property. The edict also applies to the adjacent St. Timothy School, which enrolls students from preschool to eighth grade.The decision stems from what the church calls an affiliation with Planned Parenthood by the Girl Scouts parent organization, The World Association of...

The Girl Scouts’ sleazy tango with baby-killer Planned Parenthood and its ilk has been going on for years, but its outreach to the gender-confused reached a new low with the admission of 7-year-old Coloradan Bobby Montoya, whose mother forced his acceptance by claiming he was a girl born in the wrong body. Fifty years ago he would have been placed with relatives while she was in the hospital for observation.

anuary 18, 2012 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Cathy Ruse’s article yesterday urging pro-life and pro-family advocates not to buy Girl Scouts of America (GSA) cookies, both because of the organization’s ties to Planned Parenthood and an overall “progressive” agenda, has ignited quite the debate. Not only is the article LifeSiteNews’ most read article of the week, it has also drawn an enormous amount of commentary, both supportive and critical. Lots of readers agree that GSA’s ties to Planned Parenthood disqualify its cookie initiative from receiving support, while others argue it’s unfair to tar the whole organization with the actions of some GSA...