Frontier Girls as an Alternative to Girl Scouts
Girl Scouts have been a part of American life for more than a hundred years. Most women today have wonderful memories of earning badges, going camping, singing Christmas carols, and learning a variety of useful skills within their scout troop.
According to the Girl Scout website, “Juliette “Daisy” Gordon Low assembled 18 girls from Savannah, Georgia, on March 12, 1912, for a local Girl Scout meeting. She believed that all girls should be given the opportunity to develop physically, mentally, and spiritually. With the goal of bringing girls out of isolated home environments and into community service and the open air. Girl Scouts hiked, played basketball, went on camping trips, learned how to tell time by the stars, and studied first aid.”
Over the years the Girl Scouts have consistently changed their program in an attempt to keep up with the times and keep girls involved. Unfortunately, the newest program to evolve, Journeys, is no longer a good fit for many families seeking the traditional Girl Scout experience. For families searching for an alternative to Girl Scouts, we created Frontier Girls Clubs.
Frontier Girls is a scout like youth program for girls ages 3 – adult that we offer as an alternative to the Girl Scout program. We focus on patriotism, traditional values, community service and a love of learning. Patriotism is a character trait we take very seriously in Frontier Girls. All meetings begin with a formal flag ceremony and girls are taught a proper respect for both flag and country. We are also a strong supporter of our military personnel and veterans. Frontier Girls Clubs dedicates an entire section of its program to teaching the girls good character traits such as honesty, responsibility, modesty, and joy, and encouraging them not only to participate in community service projects, but to organize their own.
Through our youth program for girls, Frontier Girls Clubs offers over 1200 individual badges. With the invention of the Internet, most families, even in rural communities, have access to unlimited information, if not in their own homes, then at least through the public libraries. Because of this access to information, we are able to offer badges on virtually any subject a girl wishes to learn about. Girls today have more opportunities than at any other time in our history. Their interests vary from basic home skills and crafts to cutting edge science and technology. Whether a girl wants to learn about dairying and farming, or about aviation and rocketry, we offer badges for just about anything.
Frontier Girls Clubs are very flexible for busy families today. Our program is designed to work with multiple ages in a single troop, all working on the same badge at the same time, but at differing skill levels. Some troops are
large with a wide age range, while others are small and may consist of a single age group. Some troops meet every week, some just once a month. Many of our troops work closely with local Boy Scout or Cub Scout troops. Frontier Girls honors the badge requirements of other programs as long as they are age appropriate. Troops can therefore work alongside their local Boy Scouts and use their requirements to earn a badge through Frontier Girls.
While Girl Scouts still has a lot to offer the girls of today, each family is different and should research the various scouting style options that are available today. Frontier Girls is just one. Before making a decision for your family, you may also wish to look into:
Campfire
4H
Missionettes
Little Flowers
Spiral Scouts
Pilgrims of the Holy Family
Earth Scouts
Keepers of the Faith
Pioneer Clubs
Good luck and happy hunting!