One woman who has helped shape my life is Juliette Gordon (“Daisy”) Low,the founder of the Girl Scouts. On March 12, 1912, in Savannah, Georgia, she organized the very first Girl Scout troop, after working as a Girl Guide leader in England. Currently, more than 1.7 million women have been through Girl Scouts, along with over 750,000 adults, helping girls build character, courage and confidence to make the world a better place.

She was so committed to Girl Scouts that she wore her Girl Scout uniform everywhere. Always. She recruited girls wherever she went. In 1979 she was honored by being inducted into the National Women’s Hall of Fame. Now she is honored in the Smithsonian American Women’s History Museum in Washington, D.C.

I began as a Brownie and continued with Girls Scouts through junior high school. Part of what we did at that older “Cadet” stage was for each of us to teach a half dozen inner-city elementary-age girls a few outdoor skills and then be their group counselor one weekend for their first-ever outdoor camping experience.

What I liked the most about Girl Scouts was learning and doing things for badges about trees, wildlife and the natural world, alongside my mom, who was a lover of the outdoors practically from birth. One day, when our family was driving out of Tuolumne Meadows (Yosemite’s high country), we stopped at a gas station. While Dad was getting gas, Mom and I hiked up a trail so I could name 40 different species of trees, to complete a badge requirement. What a wonderful memory of our time together!