Is there an equilvalent to the Red/Green or Blue/Gold for Girl Scouts?

[purpledragon]

I was recently asked if the Girl Scouts had an equivalent to the Boy Scouts Red/Green and Blue/Gold. I have no idea, so I would like to hear from others.

 

Thanks for you responses.

 

 

[infoscouter]

I don't ever remember having an anniversary banquet as part of my Girl Scouting experience. I have heard of units having father/daughter dinners, either on a troop basis or on the service unit level. I do remember that we typically had a Court of Awards (similar to a Court of Honor in Boy Scouts) during March, which is Girl Scout Anniversary month. The only food involved was typically cookies and punch.

[ScoutNut]

Never heard of a Red/Green. Boy Scout Troops in this area hold various Court of Honor (COH), but I have never heard of one holding a Red & Green.

 

The Girl Scouts have a Scout Anniversary Week in March (3/9-15/2008), with GS Sunday 3/9, GS Birthday (96 yrs) 3/12, and GS Sabbath 3/15. However, GS Troops/Groups usually do not hold big dinners, or parties, to celebrate the anniversary. Other than celebrating GS Sunday/Sabbath, individual Troop/Groups might do some kind of small celebration or ceremony during a meeting. Service Units might also hold a larger anniversary event or ceremony, but that is up to the individual council and service unit.

 

Many GSUSA Troops/Groups do celebrate Thinking Day on Feb 22. Thinking Day celebrates the birthdays of founder Robert Baden-Powell, and his wife Olave, World Chief Guide. It is also a celebration of, and learning about, the different Girl Scout and Girl Guide organizations worldwide. This celebration usually includes picking a country and learning about it's Scouting organization. Including it's Promise, Law, uniforms, etc, and things about the country itself.

 

[purpledragon]

Thanks for the replies. I do not remember having a big Award Ceremony when I was a GS nor have we had one in the four years I have been involved as a leader.

 

I asked my question because we now have a sponsor (who also sponsors my son's BS troop) and they asked about our event that is similar to the BS R&G / B&G. That is when the sponsor group usually visits the troop and gives us our sponsorship check and sees the boys and learns about some of their accomplishments. Our sponsor wanted to have this same opportunity with our GS troop.

 

I had to think for a bit about this question and I was not sure if it was just this area or if all of GS did not have such an event. After thinking about it, I think our GS troop will celebrate such an event in March (as it follows all of the same logic as the BS February meeting does, except for the joint B-day which is celebrated by World Thinking Day in the GS community). Then I decided to post here to see if anyone had other information that I may not know about.

 

I appreciate the extra effort ScoutNut went to in the post. I am sure it will provide background information to anyone reading this who may not be as familiar on this topic.

 

On a side note, ScoutNut... here we have a "Red and Green" (for BS) and a "Blue and Gold" (for CS) the weekend after the Boy Scout Sunday in honor of scouting and this COH is a bigger one that the rest of the COHs held throughout the year. Council appoints a theme each year for this one COH. This years theme is "Chinese New Year".

[ScoutNut]

Actually, the Cub Scout monthly themes are picked by BSA National. Packs are not required to follow the National Themes, but BSA National does provide programing for them (Cub Scout Program Helps, Roundtable Helps, Den Meeting in a Box, patches and other products).

 

The Boy Scout program does not have the same type of monthly themes as Cub Scouts, but they do have a different skill focus each month that BSA provides some programing help for.

 

 

[ScoutNut]

duplicate post!(This message has been edited by ScoutNut)

[emb021]

What's a "Red/Green"? Never hear of this here in Florida.

 

Scout Troop will hold regular Court of Honors, which may or may not include a banquet of some sort. Usually 3-4 times a year. Venturing Crews will sometimes hold an annual awards banquet, Sea Scouts hold "Bridge of Honor". The time/place/theme of such events are ENTIRELY up to the unit, the councils have no involvement.

 

Blue/Gold Banquets are Cub Scout Pack award events, usually annual toward the end of the school year.

 

I am not aware of any scout unit doing anything special for Scout Sunday other then if their charter org is a church and attending a church service.

 

Districts and Council will usually have annual awards banquets.

 

As to Girl Scouts, I do know that some Girl Scout councils will have an annual award banquet or event, and will usually recognize the girls who got Silver or Gold at those events.

 

 

[sassafras]

As others have posted, and you know from experience as a Girl Scout and a leader, the organizations set up their troops differently. I remember many ceremonies I participated in as a Girl Scout. As a leader, my troop has done 3 or 4 ceremonies a year where we hand out awards. We try to base the ceremonies around Girl Scout Holidays (e.g. Halloween is Juliette Low's Birthday, Thinking Day on February 22 and also during GS week in March) Many GS troops do things differently. It is up to the leaders and the girls to decide how to handle such things. IF you have a new sponser for your troop, ask the girls if they would like to start a new tradition of a big ceremony once a year, and when it should be.

[Sephrina]

My local service unit holds a ceremony toward the end of the school year that combines a bridging ceremony where girl cross from one level to the next in combination with an awards ceremony where we recognize girls with significant achievements (bronze, silver, gold recipients, top cookie sellers etc) and our adults. Generally, we have kept it to cake or cookies and punch if we have refreshments at all.