w - -W 7f 9 Page 4-Sunday, March 23,1980-The Michigan Daily The Michigan Daily-Sunday, A Girl Scout Promise On my honor I will try to serve God, my country, and mankind, and to live by the Girl Scout law. A.differentjamboree: These Girl Scouts are no girls Daily Photo by PAUL ENGSTROM Emily Goldsworthy reads from a songbook during the bi-monthly meeting. By Howard Witt HEY DON'T wear uniforms. They can't sell cookies. And they're not the least bit interested in flirting with Boy Scouts. But they do go on camp-outs, earn merit badges, and dutifully recite the Girl Scout Pledlge. They are members of Girl Scout Troop No. 777. And most of them are over 80 years old. Twice a month, nineteen elderly women at the Chelsea United Methodist Retirement Home enter the world of Girl Scouting commonly reserved for the adolescent and pre-teen set. It is not a world in which the National Girl Scout Council thinks oc- togenarians belong-these "Senior Citizen Scouts" are not officially recognized by the national organization. Yet Troop No. 777 has proven that the traditional Girl Scout program can be specially adapted to meet the intellectual and recreational needs of aged women. To attend a meeting of Troop No. 777 (the women chose "777" for its lucky qualties and they smile as they assure you it has nothing to do with their ages) is to glimpse elderly people overcoming the often for- midable obstacles of age and infirmity. Though the living situation in retirement homes is popularly conceived as suffocating, depressing, and moribund, it is actually surprisingly difficult to grow depressed in the basement recreation room where meetings are held. As the women start gathering in the rec room twenty minutes before the scheduled meeting time, the first, very physical ob- stacle the troop encounters becomes evident. Old people quite often have trouble walking. Some of the women move carefully with the aid of walkers, and some walk methodically with canes. "People now wait longer to come live in the Home; they live with their families longer. They're not quite in as good shape (as the healthier 65-year-olds who sometimes move into homes directly upon retirement)," reflects Connie Amick, the middle-aged Ann Arbor Girl Scout leader who started Troop No. 777. The soft-spoken Amick has not been afraid to face the realties of working with the elderly, and this -resolve certainly ac- counts for much of the troop's success. "When we first started the program, we talked with the women to see what they wanted to do. We all decided that if we were only going to do things everyone could participate in, we would end up doing nothing," she said. senior troops in the country: the others are in Toledo, Grand Rapids, and Great Palls, Montana. Amick soon discovered that many problems unique to the elderly demand an understanding of, and sensitivity to, the aging process itself. Much more is required of the prospective senior citizen Girl Scout leader, she learned, than the mere token courtesies often shown the elderly. The discoveries ranged from the slightly humorous-"making announcements about the troop in the dining room doesn't work because not everyone hears them"-to the painfully empathic-"If you walk with a walker, you think twice before you'll walk all the way down the hall to see a movie or attend a meeting." Outside activities in the winter months present another problem that is not im- mediately obvious-there is always the real danger of someone slipping and falling. A broken leg or hip for an elderly person often means permanent incapacitation. For this reason, this February meeting of the troop was indoors. The women carefully tie on their bright yellow neckerchiefs-these substitute for the full Girl Scout uniform that many cannot afford-and talk with one another eagerly about the afternoon's program, which is to include a presentation of the troop's Color Guard. Although a few of the women have been Girl Scout leaders, most of Troop No. 777 had never had any contact with scouting until Amick came along. "But we're not playing house," Amick is accustomed to ex- plaining. "We're not trying to relive our childhoods. It's supposed to be a mind- stretching type of thing." The Color Guard ceremony is just formal enough to have required some practice. When everyone seems ready, Amick, suggests the seven ceremony leaders come to the front of the room and begin. Everyone salutes the flag and recites the Pledge of Allegiance that is so indelibly marked in their minds; these women, one must remember, went to school at a time when every day started with the Pledge. Then comes the Girl Scout Pledge, printed in large letters on a sign near the flag: "On my honor, I will try to serve God, my country, and mankind, and to live by the Girl Scout law." Finally, a patriotic poem is read, and faltering, high-pitched voices join a halting piano rendition of "The Battle Hymn of the Republic." AT FIRST, it seems this rather mawkish ritual is one childish Girl Scout ceremony these women could do without. After all, adults do not normally display such patriotic mummery. But in fact, this ceremony and everything else the troop does is decided by the women them- selves, who seem to enjoy every moment of it. The women are sensitive to condescen- sion; several especially praise Amick for never treating them like children, as many people tend to treat the elderly. It must be, then, that the wisdom of age frees these women from worrying about how they might appear. They do what they want. . There were, of course, -residents of the Home who thought an elderly Girl Scout troop was silly and were too embarrassed to join at first. Yet the troop grew steadily, and as more residents learned of the Scouts' ac- tivities, they came to join. Several men in the Home even expressed interest in the troop, but no one has yet at- tempted to start an elderly Boy Scout troop. Troop No. 777's activities are open to all residents of the Chelsea home, in keeping with one of the group's original purposes. The troop was organized at a low-activity ebb in the history of the Chelsea home. Aside froman occasional crafts class; there was not much for the residents to do. That has changed in recent years, with the creation of several new crafts classes, an exercise program, Washtenaw Community College extension courses, discussion groups, and field trips. Now troop members find their time taken up with so many ac- tivities that the formerly weekly meetings have been reduced to twice a month. The troop's activities center around the earning of merit badges, just as do the, programs of younger Girl Scouts. "Most of the time we're learning, going new places, meeting people; hanging it on badges works very well," Amick observes. F THE (YOUNG) Girl Scouts are any- thing like Boy Scouts, their merit badges are usually valued as much for their display and status value as for the achievements and completed projects they represent. For the women of Troop No. 777, however, the circular cloth patches are ac- tually rather incidental. Instead, the women emphasize enjoyment of the activities associated with earning the badges. It takes about three months to earn a badge. Recently members of the troop have -earned the animal kingdom badge for the study of ornithology; the plants and herbs badge for learning about edible wild plants; and the weather badge for creating an operating outdoor weather station. Curren- tly the troop is working toward completion of the musician's badge: The women will learn about unusual instruments and create several of them; study the libretto of a Gilbert and Sullivan production and then at- tend its performance; visit the University's- Stearns rare instrument collection; and hear a performance of the Ann Arbor Sym- phony Orchestra. The badges they have earned seem to in- dicate a group preference for outdoor, natural experiences, and this is in fact the case. Despite the physical disabilities of some, the women have been on hayrides, visits to farms and nature preserves, and short camp-outs. Last fall the troop held a cookout at a Girl Scout camp south of Ann Arbor with members of the Toledo senior citizen troop. The women in that all-black troop have formed close ties with the all- white Chelsea group; last Christmas Troop No. 777 travelled to Toledo for a special program. On this gray February afternoon, however, there is no opportunity for outdoor activities, and progress toward the musician's badge has been suspended for a special showing of several Girl Scout film- strips. It is during the showing of these filmstrips that the atmosphere of the meeting comes closest to depressing. There is an irony in 80- year-old women spellbound by a 1950s film- strip entitled "Girl Scouts Around the World." It is almost painful to watch these elderly women-who will most probably live out the rest of their lives in this Home-as they hear about "girls just like you travelling around the world." And it is sobering to consider that these women were already senior citizens when the humorously dated fashions and automobiles in the filmstrip were in vogue. BUT ALMOST as quickly as one begins to grow saddened by the human mortality and vulnerability filling the room, the women begin to emerge as individuals. They are thinking none of the melancholy thoughts of a pitying observer. Indeed, they are enjoying the films and reminiscing about trips they have taken in their own lives. One particularly outgoing woman- curiously: named Loy 'Love-happily - recounts her adventures on a trip to Mexico she once took. She laughs warmly as she recreates the Christmas Eve play she saw in a crowded mountain village: "The houses were stacked together so closely that' the angels had to be in the next backyard to be 'on high."' Love is as full of life as any of these women could be. She wants anxiously to get off of her walker, "so I can go play bumper pool-there's some pretty stiff competition here." She only recently had to stop her summer volunteer work at a 'muscular dystrophy camp. When she returned for a visit last summer, she received a standing ovation from campers and staff. Daily P Mildred Grams and Emily Finch look on as Lou Love open patriotic poem. Clearly the residents of this retirement home are not unhappy. One troop member just returned from a birthday dinner with her family the day of the meeting, and judging from her smile, it was anything but an unpleasant experience. Another three- year veteran of the troop, Emily Finch, ex- plains rather surprisingly, "people come here (to the Home) because they want to be independent from their families." Even without many of the common trap- pings of the conventional Girl Scouts-the sale of cookies, that Girl Scout staple, is for- bidden by Home rules-Troop No. 777 has captured the essence of Girl Scouting: comradeship. "Because of the troop, there is much more mutual support," Amick ob- serves. "They build each other up. That's a reason for having the troop even if it doesn't do anything else." HE FINAL order of business at the meeting is a discussion of a special program at Briarwood Mall. The Huron Valley Gir an exhibit for th Awareness Week decide if it wants tions of these eld not too unlike tho troop faced with could be a proble one woman sugf to mingle with ofl "It's a wonderful do it," a third per. It is at last deci bers will go with the exhibition. "I we're scouts, questions;" Fine women stand in a unique type of c woman "thinks a her foot, and sque next to her. Th everyone heads o try, and mankind. f= .' i