Scarecrow
Ceremony for Great Escape 2018
Good
Morning Girl Scouts!
Please join us in our Flag Ceremony
Opening:
Quiet Sign
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
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.
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!
