The partnership the League of Women Voters of the United States formed in 2024 with Girl Scouts of the USA reminds us of the accomplishments of the Scouts’ founder.

Juliette Gordon Low inspired girls to become active and engaged citizens. She died in 1927, seven years after the League—which shares a number of her values—was founded and women won the vote in the United States.

The League’s national partnership with the Girl Scouts focuses on a “Promote the Vote” service project and several related collaborations by local Washington state Leagues.

Seattle King League member Susan Waller, a lifelong scout, said the effort takes a variety of forms and involves several troops.

“We’re working here with girls from fourth through seventh grade,” said Waller.

When “Suffs,” the award-winning musical about women and the vote, toured Seattle earlier this fall, Waller said scouts tabled at four of the 19 shows.

Waller said fellow League member Ann Beller of the Magnolia unit met longtime Girl Scouts volunteer Tami MIcheletti and recruited her to the League. Micheletti, in turn, suggested the tabling activity. 

Meanwhile, a conversation with one Seattle-area troop led to the creation of a timeline showing the when different people got the vote.

“We took girls through the milestones,” said Waller. “First, when you got to vote if you were a white male property owner, and then, later, how you got the vote if you weren’t a property owner, and then how black men were enfranchised after the Civil War.

It was 1920 before women won the right to vote.

Waller said members of a troop she’s working with in Seattle’s Phinney Ridge area enjoy performing. “So, we’re doing a play focused on local government.” The girls will portray city officials and will be given a short script and then be encouraged to act out the rest of the story.

Waller, who had a successful career in fundraising, said five decades of scouting helped make her the woman she is. “Whenever I interviewed for a job, I always found myself referencing my Girl Scout credentials.”

Meanwhile, in early November, Clark League members Mary Schick and Char O’Day engaged with more than 1,800 Girl Scouts, their parents and troop leaders at the Girl Scout STEM Day in Salem, Ore.,

LWVCC partnered for the event with the League of Women Voters of Oregon and Girl Scouts from Oregon and Southwest Washington, ages five to 15 years.

“We had a constant line of two to seven people waiting to spin the League of Women Voters of Clark County’s wheel and answer questions related to their state politics and civics,” said Schick.

Schick and O’Day used the wheel to educate Girl Scouts and their families with questions such as, “How old do you need to be to register to vote?”

Clark County and Oregon leagues provided troop leaders with information about their partnership with Girl Scouts, emphasizing the “Promote the Vote” campaign and other activities such as candidate forums.

Troop leaders welcomed the opportunity for support from local leagues, and League members walked away hopeful for a future led by Girl Scouts.  

Meanwhile, to the north, on Constitution Day in September, Skagit County League President Jane Vilders guided members of Mount Vernon’s Girl Scout Troop 43929 in exploring a timeline of suffrage in the United States.

“They were amazed about the spaces of time between when different groups won the right to vote and the unfairness of it all,” Vilders said.

Vilders’ presentation was part of the Skagit League’s effort to help the scouts earn their democracy badges. 

Previously, the scouts traveled to Olympia to tour the governor’s office. On another occasion, they met Mayor Peter Donovan at Mount Vernon City Hall. “They had great conversations with him,” Vilders said.

In late October, Vilders took eight scouts to the Skagit County Elections Office, where Elections Manager Gabrielle Clay spent about an hour with the girls discussing voting and registration.  The scouts also saw where ballots are processed.

The same day the scouts spent 45 minutes with Superior Court Judge Laura M. Riquelme, who talked about the court system, what her job involves, her education and the types of cases she hears.

The way Vilders sees it, those activities are all part of cultivating the next generation of civic leaders.