The Girl Scouts of the USA turns 110 years old on March 12, 2022.
In the 1930s, individual Girl Scout troops began to group together as councils or associations.
Adults worried over how to keep older girls engaged, and GSUSA responded with innovative programming.
High school girls now had their very own membership pin, whose design inspired the Gold Award pin. The successful Mariner program would lead to other challenging programs for Senior Girl Scouts, including wing, horseback, and hospital aide.
The entire organization also began to incorporate civil-defense activities, which would come in handy in the 1940s.
I’ve been a Girl Scout since 1937 and lived through all this. Thanks for writing it so well. Barby Pulliam – barby@barby.com
Under the Mariner pin it says 1938-1963, but I was in a very active Mariner troop, the M.S.S. Spray from 1967-1970. After that, I was a co-leader for the troop until 1981 and someone else took over for at least another year or two. I don’t know about the rest of the country, but there were active Mariner troops in California long past 1963!
You’re right that the Mariner program continued well into the 1970s. The pin design changed over the years. See them here: https://www.vintagegirlscout.com/girl-scout-mariner-pins
I too was in an active Mariner troop, the M.S.S. Simba Troop 213 of the Orange County Council, from 1979-1982. We participated annually in GAM on Newport Back Bay, competing in all the water and other mariner events. I still have my 1979 Mariner pin, as well as 4 GAM patches.
GSUSA stopped supporting Mariners as a national program in 1963, but many councils with active Mariner crews kept them going. It just became harder to find the snazzy blue uniforms. In 2017 GSUSA announced a new version of the Mariner program for today’s girls.
Thank you Ann for posting Looking Back as we celebrate 110 years This is an asset for our upcoming display