Anna
Maria Chàvez, the national CEO of Girl Scouts (or
“Eagle1,” as a group of Brownies named her after visiting her “treehouse”
office in a tall building) came to town to have a meet and greet with local Girl
Scouts and volunteers. Media Girl Zella M. (that’s me!) had the
opportunity to interview Girl Scouts’ top dog.
Media Girls: What’s
your favorite animal?
Anna Maria Chàvez: I’m allergic to both cats and dogs. Kind
of a bummer, right? I know, to my chagrin I had a cat my entire life, and now I
know why I had such bad allergies! But my son, Michael Christopher, has been
wanting a dog for five years. About three months ago, I lost a very dear
friend—a member of our national board of directors passed away from pancreatic
cancer, and I came home that night and I said, you know, life is too short. And
I said to my son, “You can have a dog.” I think he didn’t believe me, because
he kept asking me, “What did you say?” And within two weeks we had a Labradoodle
in our house. His name is Cody; I call him Codylicious. He’s the cutest dog,
I’m a little biased. I love dogs now.
MG: What was GS like when
you were a kid? What has changed and what has stayed the same?
Chàvez: We have
electricity now. [Laughs.] I lived in a very small farm town – this town is
bigger than my town. We had a library and that was about it. There wasn't a lot
to do with [other] girls, but there was one troop of Girl Scouts. … I had two
pesky brothers, so anything outside the house without them was great. My troop
took me camping for the first time, and camping, for me, was huge. I came from
a family where I wasn’t allowed to go anywhere without family. We really didn’t
camp, because my family were migrant farmers so the dirt was what we did for
work, so to think about going and camping in it, was like, “Why would we do
that? We’re going backwards.” But Girl Scouts think about camping and the
environment very differently. It taught me to think about what I could do, even
at the age of 12, to change the world, and because of that … I decided to
become a lawyer at the age of 12, which kind of changed my life.
I think what’s different is that you guys live in a digital
world; growing up I didn’t have technology like that. But now, the world is
your backyard. And that’s what’s changed. So Girl Scouts has to keep up with
that, because now you’re global citizens.
MG: How does it feel to lead Girl Scouts after being in it as a child?
Chàvez:To have the honor of representing
you, whether it’s in the Oval Office or in the Vatican meeting the Pope, is such
a blessing, and for me it’s not only a mission, it is my way of giving back to
this great country that gave my family so much. And we’ve got to keep this organization
strong for another generation of girls.
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