At Great Escape, we have opening and closing ceremonies, and we perform skits. Most ceremonies are original, please use them. Some are adapted from traditional skits and ceremonies posted on the Internet by members of the Scouting community for use by other Scouts and Guides.  Some have been adapted to suit an adult community.Great Escape 2019 Pinecone Opening Ceremony –

Good Morning Girl Scouts!

Please join us in our Flag Ceremony

Please join me in reciting the Girl Scout Promise and Law. Promise and Law.

7. What a glorious weekend and what glorious weather we are blessed with this year! One of our Great Escape traditions is that each year we choose one symbol of fall to celebrate and think about. This year’s symbol is the pine cone.
8. It’s always a joy to come upon a pine cone when walking through a wood or a park, or even in one’s own yard (unless you are the one who has to clean them up off the lawn!)
9. Pine cones come in many shapes – long and slender, short and almost round, some are smooth, and some are prickly. When I asked my husband for his thoughts about pinecones, he said “be careful when picking them up, don’t grab them hard.”
10. The ones we find on the ground are almost all female. They contain seeds. Male pine cones are usually smaller than the female cones, and produce pollen in the spring, then dry up and wither.  The female cones stay on the tree, growing, until they are ripe. Sometimes that takes years.
11. The cones stay furled up, protecting the seeds, until there’s enough heat to cause them to open and drop their seeds on the ground. For some cones, the heat of spring or summer day is enough to cause them to bloom. For some, only the extreme heat of a forest fire suffices.

The cold hard cones, not being wards to time,

Will leave their mother only for good cause;

Will ripen only in a forest fire…

I knew the Phoenix was a vegetable.

William Empson, 1930

9. sometimes the seeds are eaten by birds, the protective coating digested, the seeds themselves allowed to drop back to the ground where they may sprout and grow a new tree.

Some animals collect and cache the seeds.  Forgotten seeds may sprout and grow a new tree.

10. A pine cone on the ground may look dead, but each spine may be protecting a little seed. Falling from the tree is not death, but the beginning of new life. This weekend, let us take a minute to celebrate this Great Escape, this weather, our camps, and the beginning of another cycle of life for the pine cones, for those who celebrate Rosh Hashanah, and for all of us Girl Scouts.

Scarecrow Ceremony Great Escape 2018

Good Morning Girl Scouts! Please join in our Flag Ceremony

Please join me in the Girl Scout Promise and Law. All say Promise and Law.

Color Guard Dismissed

Welcome to the 2018 Great Escape.  Once again we meet at our beautiful Camp, Wabasso, in the crisp New Hampshire fall air.   One of our Great Escape traditions is that each year we choose one symbol of fall to celebrate and think about.  This year’s symbol is the scarecrow.

A scarecrow is an imitation of a human being, but despite that, the scarecrow does an important job.

The Scarecrow

By Walter De La Mare (adapted)

All winter through I bow my head

beneath the driving rain;

the North Wind powders me with snow

and blows me black again;

But when that child called Spring, and all

his host of children come,

some rapture in my rags awakes;

I lift void eyes and scan

the sky for crows, those ravening foes,

of my strange master, Man.

I watch him striding lank behind

his clashing team, and know

soon will the wheat swish body high

where once lay a sterile snow;

soon I shall gaze across a sea

of sun-begotten grain,

which my unflinching watch hath sealed

for harvest once again.

In the beloved classic, the Wizard of Oz, the scarecrow felt inferior because his head was stuffed with straw, but with his questions such as “I wonder if” and wise counsel “It occurs to me” it becomes apparent (perhaps after a child has viewed it many times) that he’s the wisest of  Dorothy’s counselors.

A Proud Scarecrow

An old scarecrow stood with her arms akimbo,
Thinking her dull life was now in limbo,
She somehow, never seemed to scare the crows,
She had tried hard enough, heaven knows.

Her coat was torn and there were many more
Holes, where the crows had searched for straw.
Her hat was looking limp and out of shape,
Her shirt in the front, had begun to gape.

Then one day she found she was being moved,
Into a very large building, it was proved,
A place where important things can be found,
Where people stand and admire, and look around.

A Museum that’s dedicated to our Country Art,
And a scarecrow her age, just had to be part
Of this collection, that was here for all to view,
An exhibit that stated that ‘she’ was ‘New’.

In all her tatters, she stood straight and tall,
Not minding all the stares, no, not at all,
For her new life she felt, just couldn’t be beat,
Now she’s a proud scarecrow, feeling so complete.

© Ernestine Northover (adapted)

Our new Girl Scout year begins on Monday.  One of the themes for GSUSA this year is battling “Imposter syndrome.”  Imposter syndrome is a psychological pattern in which an individual doubts their accomplishments and has a persistent internalized fear of being exposed as a “fraud”.  Like the scarecrow in the Wizard of Oz, women and girls often internalize the feeling that inside, they are not as smart or as useful or as competent as they appear on the outside, that, like a scarecrow, they are not ‘real.’

But as the poems we’ve just read point out, scarecrows are useful and beautiful.  They are real, and so are we, and so are our girls.  We are not imposters, we are competent and powerful, inside and out.  Like Dorothy’s scarecrow, we are wise – in the next Oz book, the scarecrow becomes the ruler of Oz.  When you see a scarecrow this fall, remember that we and all women and girls are real– beautiful, useful and wise, no matter how we appear.  Be a proud scarecrow!

Great Escape Opening 2017 – Pumpkin Ceremony

ONE PERSON SHOULD BE DRESSED TO REPRESENT THE PUMPKIN THE OTHER DRESSED AS A GIRL SCOUT. THEY WILL ALTERNATE THEIR LINES.

GIRL SCOUT: HI, I AM A GIRL SCOUT.

PUMPKIN : PLEASED TO MEET YOU, I AM A PUMPKIN.

GIRL SCOUT: DO YOU WANT TO BE FRIENDS?

PUMPKIN: DO YOU THINK A PUMPKIN AND A GIRL SCOUT CAN BE FRIENDS?

GIRL SCOUT: SURE WE CAN, LETS GET TO KNOW EACH OTHER.

PUMPKIN: I BEGAN AS A SMALL SEED PLANTED IN MOTHER NATURE’S RICH SOIL

GIRL SCOUT: I BEGAN AS A SMALL EGG IN MY MOTHER’S WOMB

PUMPKIN: EACH DAY I SAVORED THE NUTIENTS OF THE LAND, BASKED IN THE WARMTH OF THE SUN, AND SOAKED THE RAINWATERS

GIRL SCOUT: EVERY DAY LOVE, FOOD AND SHELTER WERE BESTOWED UPON ME UNCONDITIONALLY

PUMPKIN: EACH DAY MY ROOTS GREW STRONGER AND MY STEM FORCED ITS WAY THROUGH THE EARTH ND REACHED FOR THE SUN

GIRL SCOUT: EACH DAY I LEARNED NEW THINGS, DEVELOPED MY ROOTS AND REACHED FOR THE ARMS OF MY FAMILY FOR SUPPORT

PUMPKIN: AND SOON MY FRUITS BEGAN TO SPRING FROM MY STEM AND I WAS VERY GREEN

GIRL SCOUT: AND SOON I WAS ON MY FEET DISCOVERING NEW THINGS BUT I WAS STILL VERY GREEN

PUMPKIN: I HAVE GROWN BY LEAPS AND BOUNDS, MY VINE IS STURDY, MY LEAVES ARE BILLOWING IN THE BREEZE, MY FRUIT IS BRIGHT AND I SHALL BE HARVESTED.

GIRL SCOUT: I CAN STAND ON MY OWN, I HAVE GROWN UP. I HAVE MANY ABILITIES AND TALENTS TO SHARE AND TO HARVEST.

PUMPKIN: THE FARMER APPROACHES ME, AND HE GENTLY PICKS ME AND PLACES ME AT THE FARM STAND. HE TELLS ME…”YOU ARE A BEAUTIFUL PUMPKIN, AND YOU ARE NOW READY FOR THE WORLD, I DO NOT KNOW YOUR FUTURE BUT YOU WILL REAP THE JOY FROM OTHERS”

GIRL SCOUT: GSUSA APPROACHES ME, SHE PICKS ME TO ATTEND TRAINING AND SHE SAYS, “YOU ARE A SPECIAL PERSON, YOU ARE NOW READY TO BE A LEADER I DO NOT KNOW YOUR FUTURE BUT YOU WILL REAP THE JOY FROM MANY.”

PUMPKIN: A SMILING PRECOCIOUS CHILD CHOOSES ME FROM THE PATCH, THE CHILD EXCLAIMED TO ALL WHO COULD HEAR, “THIS PUMPKIN IS PERFECT FOR ME, I AM SO LUCKY TO HAVE FOUND YOU.”

GIRL SCOUT: A SMALL GROUP OF GIRLS ANXIOUSLY WAIT TO MEET ME. I EXCLAIMED TO THESE EAGER GIRLS THAT I WILL BE THEIR LEADER, I AM NOT PERFECT BUT WE ARE LUCKY TO BE TOGETHER

PUMPKIN: AND ON OCTOBER 31^ST I WAS CARVED, MY SEEDS SCOOPED AND SET ASIDE, I WAS GIVEN A LIGHT AND PLACED OUTSIDE TO LIGHT THE PATH FOR OTHERS

GIRL SCOUT: ON OCTOBER 31^ST JULIETTE GORDON LOW WAS BORN, SHE WAS THE BEACON OF LIGHT FOR GIRL SCOUTS AND SHE ASKED OTHERS TO FOLLOW HER PATH

PUMPKIN: THE CHILDREN ARE ENJOYING MY SPIRIT AND MY LIGHT ALLOWS THEM TO SEE THEIR WAY IN THE DARK AS THEY CONTINUE TO CELEBRATE

GIRL SCOUT: MY SPIRIT HAS BECOME CONTAGIOUS, THE GIRLS IN MY CHARGE DO NOT FEAR THE DARK AND THEY ARE MY LIGHT AS I CONTINUE TO SERVE

PUMPKIN: MY FRUIT WILL BE FED TO THE BIRDS AND SMALL CREATURES SO THEY CAN BE NOURISHED, MY SEEDS WILL BE PLANTED FOR THE CYCLE OF LIFE TO CONTINUE

GIRL SCOUT: I WILL FEED MY KNOWLEDGE TO MANY MORE GIRLS SO THAT WE CAN BUILD GIRLS WITH CONFIDENCE COURAGE AND CHARACTER AND KEEP THE GIRL SCOUT MOVEMENT ALIVE

PUMPKIN: WE ARE MORE ALIKE THAN WE ARE DIFFERENT

GIRL SCOUT: LIKE THE PUMPKIN WE COME IN ALL SIZES, SHAPES AND COLORS WE ALL HAVE MUCH TO LEARN AND SHARE.

AS WE CELEBRATE THIS WEEKEND LET US NUTURE EACH OTHER THROUGH OUR SHARING OF OUR GIFTS, ESPECIALLY THAT OF FRIENDSHIP

AS WE JOURNEY THROUGH THIS WEEKEND LET US LIGHT THE WAY FOR EACH OTHER, BE THE SUNSHINE FOR EACH OTHER SO THAT WE WILL NOT FEAR THE DARKNESS

AND FINALLY LET US FOLLOW JULIETTE GORDON LOW AND BECOME OUR BEST SO WE CAN BE GREAT GIRL SCOUT LEADERS

Great Escape Opening Ceremony 2016 – The Acorn Ceremony

Good morning everyone!  Welcome to the Great Escape, 2016.  This is the largest GE turnout ever and we are grateful that all of you traveled here this weekend.  We will begin the GE with our traditional flag ceremony.  (FLAG Ceremony)

Today is just the second day of fall.  I gave slips of paper to some people containing ‘fall words.’  If I gave you a paper, starting with the inside of the spiral, please read the words.

For the last couple of years, we’ve chosen a yearly symbol of fall to be our theme for the Great Escape.  This year we’ve chosen the Acorn.

The Acorn – by Joseph Enright (adapted)

An acorn on an oak tree grew,

The wind around him gently blew,

It whispered to him softly

‘Some day from mother

You’ll be free

To grow and be a mighty tree.

‘Who’? ‘Me’? A mighty oak’?

The acorn thought it was a joke.

Cruel autumn wind whistled round

And knocked the acorn to the ground.

A little girl scout passing by

The tiny acorn she did spy

She picked it up but let it fall

Down a nearby rabbit hole.

All winter long it lay inside

Soon it withered and turned dry.

In the spring a shoot of green

From the acorn could be seen.

It grew and grew, as years rolled by

Soon it reached up to the sky.

So it was a tale come true

A mighty oak

From the acorn grew.

Girl Scouting is a a mighty oak that grew from a little acorn.

Please join us in the Girl Scout Promise

Please join us in the Girl Scout Law.

Whether you think that the acorn was the meeting of Baden Powell and Juliette, or Juliette’s telephone call to her cousin Nina, or any of many other coincidences and occurrences, we need to remember that not every acorn will become a tree.  Some will become food for the squirrels and chipmunks, some will be crushed under feet or wheels, some will rot and return to the earth.  But the more acorns, the more oaks.  When you recite the promise and the law, remember that a Girl Scout’s good deed is like an acorn –you never know which acorn will turn into a mighty oak, but all of them will nourish some creature or the earth.

Please join us in singing the first verse of “This little light of mine.”

Acorns into Mighty Oaks

When I leave this world I hope
I leave a better place
Where deeds I’ve done
And paths I’ve trod
Have helped the human race;
Where seeds I’ve sown will blossom still
And trees I’ve planted grow
From acorns into mighty oaks.

I hope I’ve made it so.

To leave the world without a trace
No footprints in the sand
No memory in a loved one’s heart,
No mark upon the land,
No legacy to show you cared,
No promises to keep,
Must surely make it hard to face
Our long eternal sleep.

Let’s sing “Girl Scouts Together”

Fall words

Fall

Autumn

Woods

Orange

Red

Yellow

Brown

Acorn

Sheaf

Corn

Pumpkin

Squash

Turning

Oak

Maple

Drifting

Raking

Windy

Rainy

Equinox

Hickory

Aspen

Umber

Burning

Sienna

Sepia

Apples

Leaves

Spiders

Squirrels

Chipmunks

Cool

Frosty

Potatoes

Halloween

Thanksgiving

Misty

Pears

World Series

Chrysanthemums

Leaves

Great Escape 2015 Opening Ceremony

Johnny Appleseed Ceremony, September 26th

Good Morning Girl Scouts. Welcome to Great Escape 2015. As usual we’ll begin with a flag ceremony.
Girl Scouts Attention
Color Guard Attention
Color Guard Advance
Color Guard Post the Colors
Girl Scouts, Salute the Flag of your country.
Please join us in the Pledge of Allegiance.
Pledge of Allegiance
Color Guard, dismissed.

Please join us in the Girl Scout Promise
Please join us in the Girl Scout Law.
Please join us in singing Girl Scouts Together

Today is the 241st birthday of a man who is an exemplar of “making the world a better place.” This native of Massachusetts ranged widely across the Eastern United Sates leaving gifts wherever he went, and is celebrated in song and story, but he’s gotten a reputation among Girl Scouts as a bringer of bad weather. So this year let’s work on reversing the curse on the name of John Chapman, more commonly known as Johnny Appleseed.
The apples and trees that Johnny provided were not what we’d think of as eating apples; instead they were crab or cider apples. After the end of the Revolutionary war and the travails of the new nation of the US, imagine being a wife and mother in the frontier settlement areas of Western PA, Ohio and Indiana. What are you and your children going to drink? Water carries disease; if you are lucky enough to have a milch cow, the milk is needed to feed calves, and to make into cheese and butter for winter. And of course, the cow only gives milk until she is dried off and ready to conceive again. Apple jack, apple cider that’s put in wooden casks and buried until needed is the best drink for women and children because it retains the nourishment of fruit but doesn’t spoil. And apple cider vinegar is still prized for household and cooking use.
So Chapman, who had learned the orchardist’s trade in Massachusetts, moved from town to town, collecting apple seeds from the ‘pomace’ left over from cider pressing at established mills, buying land, establishing nursery orchards, hiring locals to tend them and moving on to the next place where people were starting to settle. He’d come back, sell the orchard and the trees, and move on again.
Johnny was a member of an interesting church, the New Life or Swedenborgian church, which argued that salvation was earned by good works and living the commandments, rather than faith in or the grace of God. So, as he traveled he preached and gave away everything he could; he was a vegetarian and tried to avoid killing any living creature, even a mosquito. He was a friend to everyone he met.

Johnny’s actions are an example of a project that makes the world a better place and is sustainable. The descendants of those trees still dot the verges of highways – if you know where to look among sunken cellar holes and along country roads – in spring you’ll see blossoms, in summer green leaves, bright cra bapples in fall and birds feeding on fallen fruit during a winter thaw.
This weekend we will use the apple as a symbol of being a friend to all as was John Chapman. Please take a moment to put your name on your apple and stick it on the photo board. Savor fall, friends and foliage in New Hampshire – grab your buddies, take a photo and celebrate John Chapman’s gifts of food, drink, beauty and friendship to all.

Please join us in singing “Make New Friends.”

Great Escape 2014 Opening Ceremony

Weaving Webs of Friendship

Flag Ceremony

Speaker 1 : Welcome. We are happy to see so many of you here this year, new friends and old. This ceremony grows out of a get-acquainted activity from one of our Girl Scout Journeys. But because our theme this year is “Weaving Webs of Friendship” we are going to change it a bit.

Speaker 2 The spider who weaves the web of life is an important creature in the mythologies of many cultures, including African cultures, where spider is known as Anansi, the trickster, Classical Greece, where the weaver Arachne is changed into a spider because she boasts that her weaving is better than that of a Goddess’, and in this quote from a Native American legend Spider says”

This is the truth of the web of life, said Spider.

Colorful. Vibrant. Creative. Loving. Connected. Magical. Alive.

How are you weaving the web of your life?”

Speaker 3: I have a large ball of yarn here. I’m going to start it off with the person on my right. Please wrap the end around your left hand (if you are right handed) and unroll some of the yarn. Now, I’d like you to look around the circle, and try to find someone you don’t know. If you can, please throw the ball to her, saying your name, and a word that you think expresses a quality of a good friendship. Then we’ll continue around the circle until we’ve woven a friendship web, the web of Great Escape this weekend.

Weave the web. When it’s woven say:

Speaker 4 Chief Seattle said “Teach your children what we have taught our children – that the Earth is our Mother. Whatever befalls the Earth befalls the sons and daughters of the Earth. If we spit upon the ground, we spit upon ourselves. This we know. The Earth does not belong to us, we belong to the Earth. This we know. All things are connected like the blood that unites one family. All things are connected. Whatever befalls the Earth befalls the sons and daughters of the Earth. We did not weave the web of life; We are merely a strand in it. Whatever we do to the Web, We do to ourselves.”

So that we remember that we are the spiders who weave the webs of life and of friendship, this year we invite you to do two things. First, find one or two or many friends and take a picture with this photo board. Secondly, cut out one of these spiders and put your name on it. Then attach it to this board using the yarn from the web we’ve woven today and one of these push pins!

Please join us in singing a song that expresses our interconnectedness as GS :”Girl Scouts Together.”

Inspiration: Spider Web

During this activity, each person will tell her name and share something special about themselves. Give the girls a moment to think about what they wish to say. The leader, holding a ball of yarn, begins by stating her name and something special about herself, “My name is Sue and I like to sing.” While holding onto the end of the yarn, she rolls the ball to another person in the circle. After that person gives their name and something special about themselves, they hold the yarn while rolling the ball to another. Continue until everyone has been introduced and a spider web is created. To unravel the web, the last girl tosses the ball of yarn to the connecting person while saying that person’s name and special quality. Continue until the web is unwound.

Caller/MC commands:

Girl Scouts Attention

Color Guard Attention

Color Guard Advance

Color Guard Post the Colors (Put the US flag in the middle stand.)

Girl Scouts, Salute the Flag of your country.

Please join us in the Pledge of Allegiance.

Pledge of Allegiance

Color Guard, Dismissed.

1st Speaker:  Girl Scouts, please raise your hand in the Girl Scout sign and join me in reciting the Girl Scout Promise: On my honor, I will try, to serve God and my country, to help people at all times, and to live by the Girl Scout Law.

2nd Speaker:  Please join me in reciting the Girl Scout Law. I will do my best to be honest and fair, friendly and helpful, considerate and caring, courageous and strong, and responsible for what I say and do, and to respect myself and others, respect authority, use resources wisely, make the world a better place, and be a sister to every Girl Scout.

If you are asked, “When is Girl Scout Week?” Of course you will say “In March, when Juliette made that telephone call, over a hundred years ago now.”

But what if you are asked “When is the Girl Scouts’ month?”  Will you answer with me, “October, of course!”

From October 1^st, when we begin the Girl Scout year, to October 31^st, when we celebrate our Founder’s natal day, October is full of excitement for Girl Scouts.

Let us say with Anne of Green Gables,

“I’m so glad I live in a world where there are Octobers.”

 October is a month of beginnings and endings.  Beginnings like the excitement of a new Daisy Girl Scout, about to learn the Promise and Law, to earn petals to decorate her blue tunic.  Beginnings like the new leaders, who can’t believe in their ability to manage a troop of more than 5 or 6.

Endings like Halloween, where the fall dies in a rustle of leaves and candy wrappings.

Beginnings like a crisp blue and orange day that calls us to go swinging along the open road.

 There is something in October sets the gypsy blood astir:

We must rise and follow her,

When from every hill of flame she calls,

and calls each vagabond by name.”

― William Bliss

 Endings like the bare trees of November, the leaves of flame all on the ground.

We vagabond old Girl Scouts with our old vagabond stoves – October calls our names and brings us back to the Great Escape.  Those bright leaves of October have our names written on them!  When you look down on the ground and see the delicate veins on a yellow maple leaf, or look at the red sumac plumes as you walk down the path, your name is written on them in the invisible ink of October.

 Autumn flings her fiery cloak over the sumac, beech and oak.”

― Susan Lendroth, Ocean Wide, Ocean Deep

 As we release the Hundredth Anniversary Flag, look for the leaf with your name on it.  (Open flag, release leaves.  All find their leaf).

As you walk around today, look on the ground for two or three more leaves that are calling your name!  Bring them all to the dining hall at lunch time, and we’ll put the leaves with our names on them together to help us remember October and the Great Escape.

 October, baptize me with leaves! Swaddle me in corduroy and nurse me with split pea soup. October, tuck tiny candy bars in my pockets and carve my smile into a thousand pumpkins. O autumn! O teakettle! O grace!”

― Rainbow Rowell, Attachments

 This is your chance to be baptized with the leaves of October!  Kick up a pile of leaves and remember what it was to be five or six, like those new Girl Scouts, and jump into an ocean of leaves.  Jump into our weekend and grab a fistful of new friends as if they were a fistful of leaves – and never let go!  Swing along with a swagger in your step as if you were an eight year old Brownie with a beanie on your head!

Sing: Swinging along….

Thank you all for coming.  This concludes the Opening Ceremony.

2010 Great Escape Ceremonies.

Juliette Low 150th Birthday Ceremony

Please join me in the Pledge of Allegiance.

Please join me in singing the first verse of “America the Beautiful”

Please join me in reciting the Girl Scout Promise.

This Month, we celebrate the 151^st birthday of our founder, Juliette Low. In March, we celebrate the 100^th anniversary of the founding of Girl Scouting in the USA.   That means, that when Juliette Gordon Low founded Girl Scouting, she was 51 and ½ years old,

No one is too old to be a Girl Scout!

Daisy Low spent the rest of her life, 15 years, working to spread Girl Scouting to every corner of America, nourishing the Great Movement of which we are all, members.

Our best work may still be ahead!

Although Daisy came from a rich family, she was completely deaf.

So Girl Scouts is open to all!

Juliette’s hobby was ironworking, forging iron over a blazing fire with hammer and tongs. The gates she made for her family home still guard her birthplace in Savannah Georgia.

She proved there’s nothing a Girl Scout can’t do!

The work we do, the things we learn, the friends we make, the ideas we bring to Girl Scouting, are the continuation of Juliette Gordon Low’s vision..

Daisy’s work continues today.

Please join us in singing Hail, hail, the Gang’s all here!

Hail, Hail, The Gang’s All Here

Hail, hail, the gang’s all here,

Never mind the weather, here we are together;

Hail, hail, the gang’s all here,

Sure we’re glad that you’re here, too!

Hail, hail, the gang’s all here,

We’re a bunch of live ones, not a single dead one;

Hail, hail, the gang’s all here, Sure I’m glad that I’m here, too!

Thank you all for coming to the Great Escape. As we learn new things and make new friends today, let us do it in the spirit of our Founder, Juliette Gordon Low, who was never too old to work and to learn.

Closing Ceremony

Let us go home today, refreshed from our weekend and ready to return to the demands of home and family, work, community and Girl Scouting.

Let’s remember to celebrate with other girl scouts and friends, the 100^th anniversary of Scouting for Girls in the United States.

Let us remember that we are part of a worldwide movement. We are a fellowship of girls and women who know that women are strong, capable of changing the world. We are a fellowship of followers of the founders, Baden Powell and Juliette Low.

Please turn to the women on your left and right, shake their hands, and bid them goodbye. until next year, when we will gather at the 30^th annual Great Escape.

Let us now sing this farewell song.

FAREWELL

(Tune- Auld Lang Syne)

The time has come to say farewell
But we’ll recall this day
And friendships made or here renewed
Will go with us on our way.

To part does not mean to forget
And we shall meet again
Another time, another place
To join hands friend to friend.

Now here’s my hand
My Girl Scout friend
And give your hand to mine
We’ll make a chain of friendship true
And all our hopes entwine.

True Girl Scouts we will not forget
You in our hearts remain
Another time, another place
We’ll join hands once again.

 THE CAMPFIRE ASHES CEREMONY

 

1956:     Germany – Order of the Arrow Council Fire, Camp Freedom

1956:     Scotland – International Jamboree

1957:     Germany – Order of the Arrow Council Fire, Camp Freedom

1957:     England – World Jamboree, Sutton Colfield

1958:     Switzerland – International Scout Chalet, Kandersteg

1958:     Germany – Order of the Arrow Council Fire, Camp Freedom

1959:     Germany – Order of the Arrow Council Fire, Camp Freedom

1959:     USA – National Junior Roundup

1960:     USA – Wood Badge #134, Schiff Reservation, NJ

1961:     USA – Roundup

1962:     Switzerland – Our Chalet, Adelboden

1962:     USA – Roundup

1963:     USA – All States Campout

1964:     USA – All States Arizona Project

1965:     USA – Senior Campout

1965:     USA – Roundup

1965:     USA – Shadow Ridge Campout

1965:     USA – Cadette Campout

1965:     USA – All States Campout

1965:     USA – All States Arizona Project

1965:     USA – Camp Mary White

1966:     USA – Cadette Campout

1967:     Canada – with Lady Baden-Powell

1967:     Brazil – Second Pan American Jamboree, Rio de Janeiro

1968:     Taiwan – Jungle Survival

1968:     Taiwan – Camp McCauley

1969:     USA – Camp Chimney Park, Longs Peak Council, Wyoming

1970:     USA – Wood Badge R1-11, Adams Pond Camp, Boston Council, MA

1970:     Germany – Training Camp, Schwetzingen Forest

1970:     Germany – Diamond Jubilee Camp – Petershof, Odenwald

1970:     England – Diamond Jubilee Camp, Lancashire

1971:     USA – Wood Badge R1-11, Adams Pond Camp, Boston Council, MA

1971:     Belgium – Training Camp LaFresnaye

1971:     Holland – Whitsun Camp, Dwingeloo

19 71:    USA – Camp Covered Bridge, Louisville, KY

1972:     Germany – Camp Juliette Low, Rhein-Hein

1972:     Germany – Junior Campout

1972:     Germany – Camp Lachenwald

1972:     Belgium – Chievres Training Camp

1972:     Germany – NAGA Training Conference, Garmisch, March

1972:     Germany – Siegenburg, May

1972:     Germany – Munich, October

1972:     USA – Little Roundup, Peoria, IL

1972:     USA – Camp Covered Bridge, Louisville, KY

1973:     Mexico – Our Cabana, Cuernevaca

1973:     USA – Arizona

1973:     USA – Wood Badge NE – I-7, Training Center, Old Colony Council, MA

1973:     Germany – Training Camp, Friendship Acres

1973:     Belgium – Training Camp, Abbaye de Maredsous

1973:     Germany – Training Camp Idenheim

1973:     Germany – Resident Training Camp, Idenheim

1973:     Germany – Siakein

1973:     Germany – Secahaupt, Junior Troop 632, June

1973:     Germany – Secahaupt, Leader Training, August

1973:     Germany – Munich Troop Campout, October

1973:     Belgium – Abbaye de Nared Training Camp

1973:     Germany – Greirdship acres Training Camp

1973:     Germany – Idemear Training Camp

1973:     Germany – Camp Zerus

1973:     Germany – Camp Lachenwald

1973:     Belgium – LaFrasnaye Resident Leader Training

1973:     Germany – Berlin French American Cadette Campout

1973:     Germany – Heidelberg Day Camp, Schwetsingen Forest

1973:     USA – Wood Badge Training, Region 4, Buckskin Res. WVa

1973:     USA – Camp Rough River, Old Kentucky Home Council, KY

1973:     USA – Philmont Training Center, NM

1973:     USA – National Jamboree West, Farragut State Park, ID

1973:     Lichtenstein – Guide and Junior Campout

1974:     Germany – Camp Lachenwald

1974:     Germany – Heidelberg, Trainers Training

1974:     USA – Pennsylvania

1974:     Switzerland – Our Chalet, Adelboden

1974:     Germany – Camp Lelback, Senior Campout

1974:     France – German/French/American Campout, Vogesen

1974:     Germany – District Hilltop Day Camp, Stuttgart

1974:     Germany- Cadette Encampment, Stuttgart

1974:     Switzerland – Camp Training, Our Chalet, Adelboden

1974:     USA Wood Badge NE-I-8, Training Center, Old Colony Council, MA

1974:     Germany – Munich

1974:     Germany – Camp Dahn

1974:     England – Keys to Partnership Conference, Oxford

1974:     Germany – Outdoor Training, Camp Dahn

1974:     Germany – District Conference, Camp Taho, Kaiserslautern

1974:     Germany – Training Conference, Zwingenberg Youth Hostel

1974:     England – Our Ark, London

1974:     Columbia – Third Pan American Jamboree, Bogota

1974:     Germany – Wood Badge Training, NE-III-9, Camp Freedom

1974:     Luxembourg, Camp training, Vianden

1975:     England – UK Conference, Green Magic, Baden-Powell House

1975:     Germany – Hostel Bash, Mandersheed

1975:     Germany – Leader Campout, Schwetzingen Forest

1975:     Germany – All Junior Campout, Schwetzingen Forest

1975:     Germany – Heidelberg Day Camp, Schwetzingen Forest

1975:     USA Badge NE-I-31, Sayre Reservation, Boston Council, MA

1975:     Belgium – Intercamp ’75 (Six Nations)

1975:     Germany – Wood Badge Training, NE-III-9, Camp Freedom

1975:     Germany – Klondike Derby, Heidelberg

1975:     Norway – 14^th World Jamboree, Lillehammer

1975:     Germany – 6^th grade Junior Campout, Schwetzingen Forest

1975:     Germany – Leadership Development Training, Schwetzingen Forest

1976:     Germany – District Spring Camporee, Lamperthein Woods

1976:     Germany – Wood Badge Training, NE-III-32, Camp Freedom

1976:     Germany – Wood Badge Training, NE-III-33, Camp Freedom

1976:     Germany – Order of the Arrow Conference, Camp Freedom

1976:     England – Wood Badge Training, NE-III-34, Gilwell Park

1976:     USA Wood Badge, NE-I-38, Sayre Reservation, Milton, MA

1977:     USA Portage Spring Camporee, Fort Dearhorn, Chicago, IL

1977:     USA Campfire, Pompeii Community Camp, Park Forest, IL

1977:     USA National Jamboree, Moraine State Park, PA

1977:     USA Campfire, Troop 56, Two Rivers Council at National Jamboree

1977:     USA Wood Badge, NE-I-48, Sayre Reservation, Milton, MA

1978:     USA Campfire, Pompeii Community Camp, Park Forest, IL

1979:     USA Wood Badge, NE-I-68, Sayre Reservation, Milton, MA

1979:     USA Girl Scout Day Camp, Hopkinsville KY, July

1979:     USA Leader Weekend, March

1979:     USA Leader Weekend, Camp Piedmont, Murfreesboro, TN, November

1980:     USA Camp Piedmont, Sister Troop Weekend Troop 281, 267

1980:     USA Camp Chanyata, Sarasota, FL (Flag Burning)

1980:     USA Eastern Camporee, West Point, NY

1980:     USA, Wood Badge, NE-I-83, Sayre Reservation, Milton, MA

1980:     USA Greater Boston Council Camporee, Massasoit, Plymouth, MA

1981:     USA Leadership Development Training, Sayre Reservation, Milton, MA

1981:     USA A.I.S. Pow-wow, Glens Falls, NY

1981:     USA Wild Goose Camp, Storer Reservation, Greater Boston Council

1981:     USA Indaba Training TLTC, Adams Pond, Storer Reservation

1981:     USA Cedar Hill Girl Scout Camp, Waltham, MA

1981:     USA LBL Campcrafter ACA Adult Instructor Workshop

1981:     USA LBL Campcrafter Workshop

1982:     USA Hauchens Day Camp, Bowling Green, KY

1984:     USA Session I Bear Creek Aquatic Camp Kentuckiana GSC

1984:     USA Patriots Trail World Conference Demo Patrol, Cedar Hill, Waltham, MA 5/19

1984:     USA Prairie Trail MS

1984:     USA Scranton, PA GS

1984:     USA Edith Macy – World Conference Demo Patrol Encampment 7/21/84

1986:     USA Cedar Hill, Waltham, MA Reopening Ceremony 6/22/86

1986:     USA Leaders’ Great Escape, Camp Favorite, Brewster, MA

1989:     USA Basic Troop Camping Training, Cedar Hill, Waltham, MA 5/6/89

1990:     USA Basic Troop Camping Training, Cedar Hill, Waltham, MA 4/28/90

1991:     USA Camp Virginia, Bolton, MA 10/12/91

1992:     USA Camp Favorite, Brewster, MA 10/92

1993:     USA Camp Wabasso, Bradford, NH 5/22/93

1994:     USA Camp Menotomy, Meredith, NH 4/14/94

1995:     USA Camp Favorite, Brewster, MA 5/20/95

1996:     USA Camp Favorite, Brewster, MA 5/10/96

1997:     USA Camp Menotomy, Meredith, NH 5/17/97

1998:     USA Camp Virginia, Bolton, MA 5/17/98

1999:     USA Camp Wabasso, Bradford, NH 6/5/99

2010:     USA Camp Maude Eaton, Andover, MA 6/12/2010

2011:     USA Camp Maude Eaton, Andover, MA 5/1/2011

2012:     USA Canoe Cookout, Concord, MA 9/16/2012

2013:     USA Tents Up, Wind in the Pines, Plymouth, MA  4/13/13

2013:     USA Camp Training, Camp Favorite, Brewster, MA 5/11/13

2013       USA The Great Escape, Camp Wabasso, Sutton, NH 10/5/13

SKIT:  A TRAGEDY OF THE FAR EAST

CAST: KING OH MY, QUEEN GOODNESS, PRINCE WHAT AH, PRINCESS BLOOMING, GARDENER PONG, NARRATOR

SPEECH: ON HEARING ONE’S NAME REPEAT IT – SAY, ME OH MY, ME PONG AND SO ON.

DRESS: JAPANESE STYLE : KIMONO, FAN, PARASOL, GARDENING GLOVES, TROWEL, STRAW HAT, CROWNS.

PROPS: BOTTLE OF WEED KILLER, KNIFE, SWORD, POTTING SHED LABEL, ROSE BED LABEL.

ACTION: ONLY IN LAST PARAGRAPH AS EACH CHARACTER FALLS ON EACH OTHER.

Long ago, in a rich Eastern Kingdom, there lived KING OH MY and his beloved wife QUEEN BLOOMING. The apple of their eye was their only child, the beautiful PRINCESS BLOOMING.

KING OH MY and his wife, QUEEN GOODNESS were very ambitious for PRINCESS BLOOMING and had arranged her betrothal at the tender age of six, to PRINCE AH, the heir of a neighboring kingdom – and now, ten years later, PRINCE WHAT AH was on his way to claim his bride. This did not please PRINCESS BLOOMING one little bit, for she was in love with the palace gardener, PONG and what is more, GARDENER PONG was also in love with PRINCESS BLOOMING.

GARDENER PONG was very sad because he knew that very soon his beloved PRINCESS BLOOMING would be leaving the land of her birth and going with PRINCE WHAT AH. GARDENER PONG knew he could not live without PRINCESS BLOOMING and decided to put an end to his life. He crept into the potting shed and stole some of the quick acting weedkiller which had just been ordered by KING OH MY, drank some, and died instantly. His body lay in the rose bed among the favorite flowers of PRINCESS BLOOMING. Meanwhile PRINCESS BLOOMING, sitting in her room in the palace, could no longer stand the sight of all the preparations being made for the arrival of PRINCE WHAT AH so she went for a walk in the garden, hoping to see GARDENER PONG once more to tell him of her undying love and to say goodbye. Of course she saw the body of PONG and knew at once why he had done this terrible thing. She said, “If my beloved PONG cannot live without me, then I cannot live without him.” Then she too crept to the potting shed , stole some of the weedkiller ordered by KING OH MY, then lying down so that her body covered that of PONG, she too took her life.

PRINCE WHAT AH had by now arrived, and , eager with longing to see his beautiful bride, PRINCESS BLOOMING, he strolled into the garden and came across the bodies of GARDENER PONG and PRINCESS BLOOMING lying in the rose bed. Now PRINCE WHAT AH could not return to his kingdom without PRINCESS BLOOMING. Just fancy, PRINCESS BLOOMING had preferred GARDENER PONG to himself!! So, he drew forth his knife, which he always carried in his belt for such occasions, and killed himself – throwing his body on top of PRINCESS BLOOMING, who was on top of GARDENER PONG.

KING OH MY and QUEEN GOODNESS were beginning to get impatient for the return of PRINCE WHAT AH and PRINCESS BLOOMING, so off they went to look for them. What a sight met their eyes!! The rose bed was ruined!! Now he could not show his prize blooms in the Rose Exhibition. This was unbearable. KING OH MY quickly drew his sword, smote QUEEN GOODNESS, who fell on top of PRINCE WHAT AH who was on top of PRINCESS BLOOMING – on top of GARDENER PONG. Then he killed himself and fell on top of QUEEN GOODNESS, on top of PRINCE WHAT AH, on top of PRINCESS BLOOMING, on top of GARDENER PONG.

Thank you for your applause. Our players will now introduce themselves to you once more.

OH MY GOODNESS WHAT A BLOOMING PONG!!! Each person says their name along the line.

_______________________________________________________________________

( have prepared beforehand a bunch of sticks (may be spray-painted silver or gold, enough for one for each participant, plus enough sayings about friendship for each one.  Or, if doing it outside, seed the area with enough sticks.)

Once, a group of friends were having an argument. They made so much commotion that Sally, the older sister of one of the girls, came over to see what was the matter. She listened quietly as each one accused the other. “She’s not being fair”, said one. “It’s my turn”, said another. “No, it’s my turn”, said another.

As Sally listened, she began to stoop down and pick up some sticks that were lying on the ground. Finally, the friends grew quiet, watching her. Sally gathered all the sticks together in a bundle and tied it with a string. She handed the bundle to each girl. “Can you break this bundle of sticks?” she asked. Each girl, in turn, tried to break the bundle, but not one of them could

Then Sally untied the bundle and separated the sticks. To each friend, she gave one stick. “Now”, she said, “see if you can each break a single stick.” Of course, the single sticks snapped in two with only the slightest effort.

“We are like these sticks”, Sally said. “Each one of us, standing alone, is weak. Each one of us can be broken as easily as a single stick. Yet, all of us, working together, can be as strong as this whole bunch of sticks – so strong that nothing can break us.”

(Each participant comes forward and picks up one stick. Then, she reads a little saying about friendship and friends – some examples follow)

• More precious than silver and gold are friends – both new and old
• Friendship is one mind in two bodies
• A friend is someone you can trust
• The only way to have a friend is to be one
•  “What is a friend? A single soul in two bodies.” – Aristotle
• “The friendship that can cease has never been real.” – Saint Jerome
• “I count myself in nothing else so happy
  As in a soul rememb’ring my good friends.” – William Shakespeare
• “I find friendship to be like wine, raw when new, ripened with age, the true old man’s milk and restorative cordial.” – Thomas Jefferson
• “Sir, more than kisses, letters, mingle souls, For, thus friends absent speak.”
  – John Donne
• “Too late we learn, a man must hold his friend Unjudged, accepted, trusted to the end.” – John Boyle O’Reilly
• “Friends have all things in common.” – Plato
• “Without friends no one would choose to live, though he had all other goods.” – Aristotle
• “My best friend is the one who brings out the best in me.” – Henry Ford
• “What sunshine is to flowers, smiles are to humanity. They are but trifles, to be sure but, scattered along life’s pathway, the good they do is inconceivable.”
• “No soul is desolate as long as there is a human being for whom it can feel trust and reverence.” – George Eliot
• “It is a sweet thing, friendship, a dear balm,
  A happy and auspicious bird of calm…” – Shelley
• “The best way to keep your friends is not to give them away.” – Wilson Mizner
• “The happiest moments my heart knows are those in which it is pouring forth its affections to a few esteemed characters.” – Thomas Jefferson
• “One can never speak enough of the virtues, the dangers, the power of shared laughter.” – Francoise Sagan
• “Friendship is always a sweet responsibility, never an opportunity.” – Kahlil Gibran
• “There is magic in the memory of schoolboy friendships; it softens the heart, and even affects the nervous system of those who have no heart.”
  – Benjamin Disraeli
• “I no doubt deserved my enemies, but I don’t believe I deserved my friends.”- Walt Whitman
• “True friendship is never serene.”- Marquise de Sevigny
• “When friends stop being frank and useful to each other, the whole world loses some of its radiance.” – Anatole Broyard
• “Friends are born, not made.” – Henry Adams
• “This communicating of a man’s self to his friend works two contrary effects; for it redoubleth joy, and cutteth griefs in half.” – Francis Bacon
• “Do not save your loving speeches
  For your friends till they are dead;
  Do not write them on their tombstones,
  Speak them rather now instead.
  – Anna Cummins

(Speakers return to their places with their sticks. The leader then goes around and picks up each stick placing them into a bundle and tying them securely. “Now we are one strong group working together”)

All: Sing “Linger””)

______________________________________________________________

All: (The Conservation Pledge) I pledge to save and faithfully defend from waste the natural resources of my country – its trees, its soil and minerals, its forests, waters and wildlife.

All: Sing “This Land is Your Land”

______________________________________________________________

 Great Escape Opening Ceremony 2012  

The Birthday Ceremony

G   is for the Gracious way we demonstrate our mirth

I    indicates Ideas shared and those we¹d like on earth

R    is for Respect we have for every race and creed

L    is for our Loyalty to promises we heed

S    is for Sincerity of deed and word and mind

C    is for the Countless ways in which these are combined

O    is Obligation that we owe our fellow humans

U    means that it¹s You who must be first to lend a hand

T    is for Teamwork which has promoted our growth

I    is for Integrity which backs the Girl Scout oath

N    is for the Noble way we cherish days of old

G    is for the Grateful thanks for efforts toward our goal

It all began with a spark of light,

And Juliette led the way.

Now her ideas are glowing bright,

It¹s Girl Scouts Hundredth Birthday

And Great Escape is Thirty!

Let’s Eat and Talk and Laugh –

Who cares if we get dirty!

For when we are together

We have a lot of fun

We’ll sing and talk and eat

Until the weekend’s done!

_____________________________________________________________

Great Escape Opening Ceremony 2008

Flag Ceremony

Opening: Quiet Sign

 Need: 3 flagbearers – Guard, American Flag, Guard – plus caller

 3 flagbearers come in with American flag.

Caller commands:

Girl Scouts Attention

Color Guard Attention

Color Guard Advance

Color Guard Post the Colors

 Please join me in the Girl Scout Promise and Law. All say Promise and Law.

Color Guard Dismissed

 We come here at the beginning of a new Girl Scout year, and at the beginning of our Great Escape.  Just a few days ago, some of us celebrated Rosh Hashanah, the beginning of the Jewish year.   One custom to prepare for the beginning of that New Year is to write down all your disappointments from the year before, your transgressions, your “could have/would have/should have” moments.  Right now, I am going to give you each a card and a pencil. 

 Have assistant pass out cards/pencils.

 Please write down anything that bothers you from last year in Girl Scouting – something you didn’t do in your Girl Scout life last year, the meetings or field trips you missed or cancelled, Your anger at the girl who tried your patience, the badges you started but didn’t finish, what ever you can think of – and if it’s from years before, that’s fine too.

 Collect the cards.  Put them in the bowl.

 Now we will cast off these unpleasant moments and memories, by reducing them to nothingness.

Burn them.

 Let’s start this new year of Girl Scouting and a New Great Escape by singing “Rise Up O Flame”.

Rise up O Flame
By thy lights glowing
Show to us beauty
Vision and joy.

Let us resolve to be inspired with beauty, vision and joy this weekend, and to take it back with us to inspire us in this new GS year.

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