FOTM has been alerting our readers to the leftist orientation of Girl Scouts USA (GSUSA). See:
- “Five reasons NOT to buy those Girl Scouts cookies,” Feb. 10, 2014.
- “Girl Scouts, ‘Buy our cookies, or else!’,” Feb. 20, 2014.
It seems the wariness of Christians and conservatives about Girl Scouts is having an impact. According to the AP, Girl Scouts USA’s “cookies are crumbling,” beset by problems of declining membership and revenues, a dearth of volunteers, rifts between leadership and grassroots members, a pension plan with a $347 million deficit, and an uproar over efforts by many local councils to sell venerable summer camps.
GSUSA membership has declined from 2.8 million in 2003 to 2.2 million in 2013, while the number of adult volunteers has seen a similar decline, from 986,000 to 890,000.
Happily, parents now have an alternative to the pro-abort Girl Scouts — the pro-life Christ-centered American Heritage Girls (AHG)!
Patriot Action Net reports that, though dwarfed in size compared to the GSUSA, American Heritage Girls has seen its membership increase more than 40% over the past few years, now standing at 32,000 members in 14 countries across the world, including the United States where, as of early 2012, the organization had 17,000 members in 44 states.
American Heritage Girls this week unveiled a new “Respect Life” merit badge for girls to earn.
Patti Garibay, executive director of American Heritage Girls, said AHG members had been pushing for a way to honor girls’ involvement in pro-life activities: “They really wanted to have something that would recognize those efforts … there was even a troop up in Michigan that created their own patch. Garibay said the new badge fits perfectly with American Heritage Girls’ “biblical worldview that respects life” — not just the lives of unborn babies, but also the elderly and disabled.
American Heritage Girls members can earn the patch by participating in any pro-life activity, such as helping collect diapers for a pregnancy care center, participating in a March for Life rally or volunteering at a hospice house.
Click here for American Heritage Girls’ website.
~Eowyn
