2012年4月1日Exchanges with USA Girl Scouts Overseas West Pacific
A training course to learn about the 100-year history of Girl Scouts of the USA and to learn some English songs was held at Camp Zama, a US military base in Kanagawa prefecture, on 6 February, with the cooperation of FOU (Friends of US/a friendship society for exchanges between Japanese and US Girl Scouts) which organises exchange activities with Girl Scouts from USA Girl Scouts Overseas West Pacific. Despite between held on a weekday, over 60 participants from Gunma and Aichi prefectures as well as Kanagawa prefecture attended. The speakers were Patti and Jenny from USA Girl Scouts Overseas West Pacific. First, the participants learned about the history of USA Girl Scouts and the life of Juliette Low from Patti, and learned that 2011 was the centenary year of USA Girl Scouts. Then, Jenny taught the participants lots of songs. During breaks, the participants bought items from the Girl Scout shop on the base and had lunch in the food court on the base, enjoying experiences that they normally could not have. At the end of the training course, the participants watched a video of the dance performed to the USA Girl Scouts centenary song “Ignite” and danced together. They put all their energy into doing the active dance which is rather different from “Sekai e,” the Girl Scout theme song written to mark GSJ’s 90th anniversary.
