Re: Camp Fire Girls in the 1950s

01/28/11 - posted by candis smyk hurlbut

I was a Girl Scout. My late sister, Cynthia, was a Camp Fire Girl. There were some similarities, but these are two different organizations.

Camp Fire Girls became just Camp Fire after they became an organization for both girls and boys in the same group. Girl Scouts is still only for girls, just as Boy Scouts is still only for boys.

Girl Scouts sell cookies. Camp Fire sells mints.

Girl Scouts earn badges. Camp Fire, at least the younger Blue Birds, earned beads, but I am unsure if they still do, or exactly what the older members earned when too old to remain Blue Birds. Someone help me out here?

Both organizations have summer camps, both sleepaway and day, outdoor activities in parks, community service projects, and education, while having lots of fun. Kind, unselfish adults gave much of their time and abilities as leaders of both organizations, and still do.

It depended upon what was available at the time a girl wanted to join, and perhaps what the adult(s) starting a group for their daughters preferred affiliation was. Sometimes, it depended upon what the girls wanted to join and/or which one their friends were already part of.

Girls Scouts, just like Boy Scouts, often were affiliated with a church or other house of worship which allowed the group to meet there since most Scouts, but not all, worshiped there. The organization never had a particular denominational requirement, and all beliefs were respected, but religious belief of some kind was part of the tradition and it was assumed every girl believed in something. These days, there are fewer church affiliations, and many churches no longer have Scouts as an regular activity for young people.