Girl Scouts Celebrate 100th Birthday in Mill Valley

On March 12, 1912, Juliette Gordon Low, whose friends knew her as Daisy, gathered a group of girls from Savannah, Ga., for the first Girl Scout meeting.

Low wanted to bring girls out of their isolated home environments and into community service and the open air. Today, Girl Scouts of the USA has more than 3.2 million members and some well-known alumni, including Candace Bergen, Lucille Ball, Laura Bush and Katie Couric.

On Monday afternoon at 7:12 p.m. at the Depot Plaza - exactly 100 years after Low first gathered those girls in Savannah - a group of Girl Scouts of the Richardson Bay Service Unit (RBSU), which encompasses southern Marin, gathered to celebrate the iconic American organization's 100th birthday.   

In attendance were a number of longtime local Girl Scouts, incolding Mollie Coleman of Tiburon and Mimi Cross of Mill Valley. The crowd listened to speeches from Mill Valley City Councilmembers Ken Wachtel and Stephanie Moulton-Peters, and concluded the event by singing "Happy Birthday" to the Girl Scouts.

The Girls Scouts of the USA celebrated the birthday Monday with national events like a 200,000-girl-strong sing-along on the Washington Mall and an attempt at the largest flash mob in history, featuring “jazz hands.” Representatives from Girl Scouts rang the bell to open the NASDAQ market on Wall Street, with a message about girls’ financial empowerment.

If you're looking for Girl Scout cookies in Mill Valley this month, to find out where the Girls Scouts are selling their tasty treat all over town.

For more about this year's cookie campaign, visit the Girl Scouts of Northern California website.