Submitted by Bedford Girl Scout Troop 71627
Last week Troop 71627 visited and interviewed Mary Welch at Carleton Willard Village where she resides. Mrs. Welch is 96 years old and joined the Girl Scouts in 1927.
The Bedford 5th grade girls in Troop 71627 are working on an oral history project in celebration of the Girl Scouts’ 100th anniversary in Bedford for their Bronze Award. They were assisted by videographer, Leslie Wittman, to record their interview with Mary Welch which will be included in a DVD preserving this and other local oral histories related to Girl Scouting in Bedford.
The national Girl Scouts organization was founded just two years before the first Bedford Girl Scout troop assembled. This project is supported in part by a grant from the Bedford Cultural Council, a local agency which is supported by the Massachusetts Cultural Council, a state agency.
The girls had many questions for Mary and she answered them with humor and enthusiasm. When asked about Girl Scout uniforms when she was a troop member she surprised the girls by saying that their uniforms were dresses. They camped and cooked over fires in their Girl Scout dresses. She was also a troop leader and recalled having a small wood stove inside their tent to keep them warm with a stovepipe to send the smoke outside!
She later started a family camp on Mt. Desert Island in Maine using her Girl Scouting experience. Mrs. Welch described attending “Round Ups” out west while she was on the National Board of the Girl Scouts. Ten thousand Girl Scouts would attend these week-long camping experiences.
Mary Welch has traveled all over the world as a representative of the Girl Scouts. It was an honor for Troop 71627 to meet her and hear her marvelous stories.
Loading ...
