Date: Fri 25-Apr-1997

Publication: Bee

Author: SHANNO

Illustration: I

Location: A13

Quick Words:

Girl-Scouts-Ober-Gollenberg

Full Text:

(final Girl Scout series segment, gollenberg/Wood/Ober, 4/25/97)

Girl Scouting's Legacy-

Girl Scouting Reaches Across The Generations

(with photos)

The following is the final installation in a series of stories on Girl Scouts

past and present which was started in the April 4, 1997, edition of The

Newtown Bee. The series has been presented in observation of the 85th

anniversary of Girl Scouting in the United States.

BY SHANNON HICKS

All of my Girl Scouts are grandmothers now!"

Dolly Rogers isn't kidding when she says this. Mrs Rogers is a former Girl

Scout leader and Council member, and considering she began teaching Girl

Scouting during the early years of World War II, that would put her surviving

Girl Scouts well into their sixties by now.

Mrs Rogers has not slowed down much, either. At age 92, she is still quite

capable of driving herself around and taking care of herself in the Heritage

Village/Southbury condo where she lives on her own.

A few weeks ago, Mrs Rogers and Rosemarie Gollenberg, a former Scout of Mrs

Rogers' (and a resident of Newtown), sat down and recalled their scouting

days. Mrs Rogers has kept in touch with a few of her scouts; a few live in

Newtown, others remain in the Trumbull area.

"Oh, I didn't think I'd ever be talking about Girl Scouts again," Dolly Rogers

laughed. She and Rosemarie have remained in close contact, having bridged the

space between leader and scout, becoming friends through time.

A leader of Trumbull Troop 34, Dolly had trained to be a teacher, taught for

two years, and then married. At age 36, when her daughter Marion was the right

age to become a scout, Dolly became a leader.

Troop 34 met at the Trumbull Firehouse. Dolly remembers there were not many

activities for girls to do after school at the time, so troops were very

large. Dolly figured she, and her other co-leaders, kept track of nearly 55

girls.

"Everybody came all the time, too," Dolly enthused. "We didn't have to worry

about attendance."

"For me, it was such a thrill to have this to go to," Rosemarie said.

Once her daughter had graduated from Girl Scouting, Dolly did not stop being

associated with scouting. After joining the Girl Scout Council, she eventuagly

became president of the Bridgeport Council, which encompassed seven towns.

Working in scouting administration never seemed to be Dolly's cup of tea,

however.

"It wasn't as much fun as being a leader," Dolly shared. "The most fun,

really, was with the girls."

Like her former leader, Rosemarie Gollenberg did not put a halt to her Girl

Scouting career once she stopped being a scout. During the early 1960s she

first became a Cub Scout Den Mother. Rosemarie has two sons, both of whom

achieved Eagle Scout status (her grandson will reach the same honor this

year).

In 1967 she became a leader for her daughter's troop, which met at Dodgingtown

Firehouse. She continued as a leader for over a decade.

"I think, besides my parents and the church, you may have had the greatest

influence on me," Rosemarie told Dolly.

"I remember thinking how much I wanted to be like you."

Like Returning To School

Many adults can relate to this experience: an elementary or middle school

seems so much smaller when revisited as a grown-up. Desks and chairs are

remarkably small, lockers are much shorter than memory had them, even rooms

that seemed cavernous while growing up are no longer as large as they once

seemed.

For Jennifer Ober of Newtown, her return trip to childhood was when she

visited Camp Francis, an area set aside for use by scouts in Kent, a few years

back. The last time she had been to Camp Francis, Jennifer was a Girl Scout;

when there two years ago she was a leader of one of her daughter's Girl Scout

troops.

"It was exactly the same - the same trees were there, the same run-down

storage shed was there," Jennifer recalled recently. "Except the dining room,

which was so much smaller!," she laughed. "It even smelled the same."

Jennifer Ober is a mother of three girls - Bethany, 10; Mary Grace, 8; and

Claire, 6. A lifelong resident of Newtown, she was a Brownie in second and

third grade (her troop met at Sandy Hook School) then a Junior Scout from

fourth to sixth grades.

"I think it was probably the only extra-curricular, after-school activity

available to girls at the time," Jennifer said. "There weren't a lot of girls

who played a lot of sports, and there weren't after-school activities. I

joined with a number of friends."

Sallie Schwerdle, who remains very active in Newtown, and Jean Smith were

Jennifer's leaders when she became a Junior.

"They were a great pair," Jennifer said. "Sallie would bring her guitar and

play a lot of music, and Jean always got us to go hiking, and collect

firewood. They were exact opposites for each other, but they were perfectly

matched for this. Sally was the one with a little more of a nurturing nature,

while Jean got us going with the activities."

Speaking of a nurturing setting, Jennifer's mother was one of her Brownie

leaders, along with a Mrs Briggs.

When she grew up and became a mother herself, Jennifer gave two of her own

daughters the same opportunity. All three of her daughters have followed in

Mom's footsteps, becoming Scouts.

In the fall of 1992, Jennifer became a Brownie leader for daughter Bethany's

troop. She stayed with the troop for the three years Bethany was in it.

Bethany is now a Junior in Troop 433.

(Mary Grace did not have the chance to be under her mom's tutelage, but she

has stuck with the Girl Scout program, too. Like her sister Clare, Mary Grace

was a Daisy; now she is a Brownie in Troop 147.)

"There were plenty of girls who were interested in forming a troop," Jennifer

said of her first experience as a leader, "It was just a matter of someone

stepping forward to be a leader. And a friend of mine said `I'll do it if

you'll do it.'"

That friend was Kim Weber, and together the two handled putting a troop

together, registering the girls, and getting prepared for a September start.

"It's an overwhelming package, and we had very little time to get it

together," said Jennifer, a nurse with the Bethel VNA whose first-aid training

helped her with leader certification.

Last fall she began working with Clare's Brownie troop. When it came time for

Clare, the youngest daughter, to move from Daisy to Brownie, Jennifer heard

one of the leaders was moving out of town. Troop 93, Clare's current Brownie

troop, most likely would not continue unless it found a second leader.

"I remember thinking `Oh, I had so much fun with Bethany's troop. That brings

back good memories,'" Jennifer said. So she joined on as co-leader of Troop

93, working with Wendy Tavella. And the two older Ober daughters, Bethany and

Mary, enjoy helping Mom at meetings with their younger sister.

"It's easier the second time around," Jennifer remarked. "I know the crafts

that work, and those that don't. I sort of tested things out the first time."

Re-reading the books and knowing what works the second time around... Sort of

like going back to school.

Good For Kids

A leader of Newtown Brownie Troop 174, Peg Wood thinks Scouting is good for

kids. A former Girl Scout, she knows.

She was encouraged by her mother to join Girl Scouting. "My mom said it would

be fun, there would be activities, I would be able to meet other girls," says

Peg. She became a Brownie in 1958.

Her troop met once a month, at cabins built for the Boy and Girl Scouts in the

vicinity of St. Rose School. A former student of St. Rose, Peg remembers

walking through the woods from the Church Hill Road school to get to the

cabins for meetings.

During the meetings, the girls would learn about camping, building fires,

lessons in making different crafts. And of course, there were overnight

camp-outs at the cabins, which were not very comfortable.

"They were very big, and wooden. Typical cabin-ish looking, 1940s cabins," Peg

said. "I'd say 25 of us could fit inside one.

"There were no beds. There were no chairs. We brought our own sleeping bags

and slept on the floor.

"I think I did that, once."

Newtown continues to play host to Girl Scouts, of course, although the St Rose

cabins no longer exist. These days, Girl Scouts meet generally at schools,

community centers or churches. Troop 174 - the troop Peg co-leads, and of

which her daughter Dora is a member - meets at Head O'Meadow School's

cafeteria.

Last month, Troop 174 visited Edmond Town Hall to visit with First Selectman

Bob Cascella. In addition to visiting the offices of the town, the girls were

presented with a proclamation by Mr Cascella, announcing Girl Scout Week in

Newtown.

Fast Facts:  A 1991 survey indicated that 64 percent of women of distinction

were once Girl Scouts. Newtown Bee arts editor Shannon Hicks was a Girl Scout

for four years.

When Juliette Gordon Low invited 24 girls to tea in Savannah, the birthplace

of Girl Scouting in America (GSA), the girls became the first Scouts in the

United States. Mrs Low's niece, Daisy Gordon, was the first registered member.

By 1915, total membership in GSA was estimated to be 5,000. By 1940, the

number had reached 633,206. Today, there are more than 3 million members of

Girl Scouts of the USA, making it, according to Girl Scouts USA, the world's

largest voluntary organization for girls.

Newtown alone is home to 50 troops, representing over 550 registered Scouts.