CAMP PIPE GIRLS

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXVI, Issue 8186, 30 July 1912, Page 4

CAMP PIPE GIRLS

ORGANISATION FOB UPLIFT. SOME INTERESTING DETAILS. All sorts of organisations have been undertaken in behalf of children and young people. Dr Luther H. Gulick, of the United States, has probably rendered a greater service in the improvement of sanitary conditions and rational entertainment for the children of America than has been accomplished in like service by any one other person anywhere. For a long time he was employed by the city schools of New York for the purpose of organising and equipping and giving direction to the playgrounds of the city schools. Mrs Gulick has just inaugurated an organisation for girls called "The Camp Fire Girls." This organisation has in view similar objects on behalf of the girls to those the Boy Scouts movement has for boys. Scouting is a masculine activity. Keeping the fire burning in a camp or in a home is a feminine activity. The word "camp”

symbolises the outdoor spirit of the organisation. A girl in joining becomes first a wood gatherer, nest a fire maker, and then a torc-h bearer. Before a girl joins she must read tho purposes of tho movement, and must learn and repeat the following lines; “It is my desire to become a Camp Fire Girl, and to obey the law of tho Camp Fire, which is to seek beauty, give service, pursue knowledge, be trustworthy, hold on to health, gloriiy work, be happy. This law of, tho Camp Fire I will strive to follow." Other requirements for full membership are the following;— 1. To help prepare and servo at least two meals for meetings of tho Camp Fire; this to include purchase of food, ccokiug and serving the meal, and the care of the fire.

2. To mend a pair of stockings and a, knitted garment, and to hem a dishtowel. 3. To keep a written, classified account for at least one mouth of all money received and spent. 4. To sleep with, open widows, or outdoors, for at least one month. 5. To name tho chief causes of infant mortality in summer; and to tell how and to what extent it has been reduced .n one American community. 6 To know tho principles of first aid and elementary bandaging; and how to uso surgeon’s plaster and other knowledge of a similar character. Camp Tiro Girls have an official costume, which is practical and becoming, and suitable for street and school wear. There is also a ceremonial costume fori use on special occasions. Besides the different ranks the girla attain there is a system of honours. These are divided into seven groups—l health, homecraft. Nature lore, camp-1 craft, handcraft, business and patriotism. Tor instance, a girl gets an honour for being free from colds for two consecutive months during tho winter, or for not missing school or business for three consecutive months because of ill-health. These are habit-forming tests. She receives an honour for making a shirtwaist, and so on through the groups. The honours are given in tho form of beads, a different coloured bead being given for each group; so that a girl may win seven chains of beads, each bead standing for a real accomplishment. The beads are worn at the council fire held once a month, and form a part of the ceremonial costume. The home and the school Jiave been the great character forming agencies for boys and girls. The Camp Fire Girls is an agency for showing girls how to form their own characters. Children in their plays do in miniature the things they will do in adult life. Girls must bo given an opportunity to rehearse in play the activities they will be engaged in later in life. Boys must play with boys in order to be trained to deal with men when they are grown. The value of team plays for boys is inestimable in developing a capacity for working together in fairness and for the good of oil. Women are only beginning to play team games; and very good disciplino it is, for woman, too, must learn how to work m common with others. But of more racial importance is it for women to get training along domestic lines in a play spirit. There are all kinds .of things to be rehearsed in play; cooking and sewing, weaving and dyeing, washing and ironing, and all that is done in the home can be learned in play before the task of a real home is undertaken. To make this possible is a fundamental idea of the organisers of the Camp Fire Girls.