The Pensacola journal. (Pensacola, Fla.) 1898-1985, 1913-06-24
"WHAT ARE THE CAMP
FIRE GIRL So"

| FlFE GI - =
| So many people ask. What are the
| Camp Fire Girls?" and great many
| people do not even know that such an
organization exists.
At Work for a Year.
The people who have organized the
| Camp Fire Girls know girls and love
girls. They are people who have been
working with girls, and they have CO.
operated together; and they believe
that they have plan that is going
to prove attractive to the girls than
the plan of the boy scouts is to the
boys.
The word camp i symbolic of the
out Of door spirit that the organiZa-
ton proposes to put into woman S
work and life 1t is to encourage eat
and sleeping on piazzas, and with win
! dows wide open. 1t is to teach girls
to take care of their health. They are
housed too much, it is felt, and need
more sunshine and fresh air. It's pur-
pose is to show that their is beauty
in the common things in daily life: to
help girls and women to serve the
community, the larger home in the
same ways that they have always
served the individual home: to give
status and social recognition to the
knowledge of the mother, and thus re-
store the intimate relationship of
mothers and daughters to each other.
When a girl joins she becomes first
Wood Gatherer and is given a silver
ring on which is a bundle of seven
fagots, representing the seven points
of the law. This verse is repeated
when the ring is placed on the finger:
LAS fagots are brought from the forest
Firmly held by the sineWs which
bind them,
So cleave to these others, your sisters,
Wherever, whenever you find them.
Be strong as the fagots are sturdy;
Be pure in your deepest desire;
Be true to the truth that is in you;
And follow the law Of the fire."
The first step in becoming a Camp
Fire Girl is to learn to make a fire
and understand the purpose of the or
ganization. Then if she wishes to be-
come a Camp Fire Maiden she will
learn the wood gatherer's desire and
repeat the following lines:
1T is my desire to become a Camp
Fire Girl, and to obey the law of the
Camp Fire l will strive to follow" give
service, pursue knowledge, be trust
worthy, hold on to health, glorify work
and be happy. This law of the Camp
Fire l will strive to follow
The next rank is that of a firemaker,
and ordinarily takes three months for
preparation, although if a girl can give
all of her time to it, it can be done
IN q month. IFGulI Is given lOT
achievements already performed, like
the making of a shirt waist or a dress,
If the guardian, who is the person at
the head of the camp, knows that the
girl has accomplished certain things
she can give credit for them. There
are several hundred kinds of things
that can be done TO achieve these hon
ors-Something to suit every girl-no
matter what her position in life may
be.
The requirements for becoming a
firemaker are first TO learn and repeat
the fremaker's desire, which is the
following: AS fuel is brought to the
fire. so | propose TO bring my strength
my ambition, my hearts desire, my joy
and my sorrow to the fire of human
kind, for I will tend as my fathers
have tended and my fathers fathers,
since time began, the fire that is call
ed the love of man for God"
There are no vows to take, only the
expressed Desires" There are thir-
teen other honors TO win before you
become firemaker. Recognition of
attainment ik given in the form of
beads. 1t is possible to win seven
chains of beads. The honors range all
the way from caring for a baby, earn
ing money in business to running an
automobile or climbing a mountain.
The next step after becoming a
fremaker, is to become a torch bearer.
which is the highest honor. The girl
who attains this rank must be as well
matter as well as a matter of attain