The start of Women’s History Month began 40 years ago, when Congress passed the public law allowing and requesting the president to make the week of March 7, 1982, ‘Women’s History Week.’ This continued for five years until in 1987, Congress passed another public law designating March as Women’s History Month. For the past 26 years, the month has been marked by annual proclamations from the president.

Women’s History Month is and always has been about celebrating the contributions of women in American history. It’s a time to further recognize their work and learn more about all that they have done (and continue to do) for our world.

As Girl Scouts, we recognize there are millions of women who make the world a better place through their inventions, dreams, ideas, works of art, and everything in between. We are continually inspired by the women whose imaginations and innovations move us forward, and our girls who develop service projects to meet the needs of their community and the world.

Women’s History Month Council Contest

Because there’s no way we can highlight every wonderful woman who qualifies, we want to hear from you. Let us know the woman who inspires you the most and you can win a prize! Share your creative piece with us by March 31, 2021 that celebrates a woman in history that has impacted your life, community, or the world. Ideas include a short video, artwork, written piece, or whatever creative piece you’d like to do! A winner will be chosen at random from the submissions.

The rules are listed below. If you have any questions, please email communications@gswny.org.

CONTEST RULES:

• Participants must be a current (K-12) girl member of the GSWNY council. This contest is not open to adults. One entry per girl member.
• Girls can create and submit a piece celebrating a woman in history that has had an impact on her life, her community, or the world. Submissions must be received by March 31, 2021.
• Accepted submissions include: a short video, an artwork with a brief description of the woman and her impact, or a longer written piece explaining the woman’s achievement(s) and her impact. OR if your girl has her own idea we will accept other creative pieces!
• For younger girls, parents may assist by typing or writing down what the girl wants to say, but please keep the language to exactly what the girl would like to say. (Do not “dress it up” or worry about correcting for grammar. We want girls to speak for themselves on this project.)
• Videos can’t include music unless the girl is singing without background music. We are unable to accept videos with music due to copyright limitations.
• Photos and videos taken outside a girl’s home must follow our COVID media guidelines. All girls and adults (even if they are in the same household) must be masked and socially distanced. We understand this limits the types of submissions we can accept, but due to feedback from our membership and the inability to visually determine who is in the same household, we require this for submissions.
• Submissions should be sent to communications@gswny.org and must include: The girl’s name, grade level, her troop number, the woman’s name, and the visual and/or written pieces of her submission. If a project is too large to send by email, please use a service like Google Drive or DropBox and send a share link instead.
• All submissions may be used by GSWNY for marketing purposes including sharing online, on social media, in printed materials, by email, etc. GSWNY does not guarantee all submissions will be shared with others.
• Winner will be chosen at random from all qualifying submissions during the first week of April and will be contacted by email and/or phone. Winner and other entries will be shared on social media and/or a GSWNY blog post.
• Any questions? Please contact communications@gswny.org.