Signal woman recognized for 90 years as Girl Scout

Wearing a T-shirt reminding her of her long association with Girl Scouts, Jean Dolan checks her daypack in preparing for a hike.
Wearing a T-shirt reminding her of her long association with Girl Scouts, Jean Dolan checks her daypack in preparing for a hike.
photo Jean Dolan, third from left, is recognized by the Girl Scouts of the Southern Appalachians for her 90 years in the Girl Scouts.

For 90 of her 101 years, the Girl Scouts have been a significant part of Signal Mountain resident Jean Dolan's life.

She joined her first troop in the Boston area at age 10, in 1925, "before the motor car," said Dolan, whose many years as a Scout were celebrated recently at a luncheon hosted by the Girl Scouts of the Southern Appalachians at Signal Mountain Golf and Country Club.

"To me, to be a Girl Scout was to be a new-age, liberated woman," she said. "You learned to do things outside by yourself without your father, your brother or your boyfriend to help you. I loved hiking with my father, but I really loved doing it with a group of my peers."

Over the years, she belonged to many troops, and after moving south to Atlanta for her husband's job, she called up the local Girl Scout council and asked to become a leader. When she moved to Signal Mountain, by then a mother of four, she said she used being a Scout leader as a way of getting social contact outside the home. Dolan said she was a Scout leader on and off for about 50 years.

"It helped me learn about teenage girls before I ever owned one," she said.

Dolan recalled one instance when her troop went on a camping trip in North Georgia and it cooled down quite a bit that night. When they woke, the tent stakes were frozen into the ground and the girls had to cut the strings to take them down.

"It teaches them to go out in the woods and be comfortable, and to make the right choices," Dolan said, as to why she thinks parents should sign their daughters up to be Scouts. "They learn so much about girls, and the patrol system gives them the chance to have a little power in a small way, to learn conflict resolution and to plan ahead."

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