Lasting friendships for Wild Women
In elementary school, Janet Haist and Barb Johnson signed up to be Girl Scouts, not realizing that decision would impact and shape their lives for the next 50 years.
Johnson retired from the New Mexico Corrections Department and Haist is a retired teacher and assistant principal. Both women were Girl Scouts through high school, spending many of their summers camping. They each continued their involvement with Girl Scouts by becoming camp counselors in college. Through this all, they forged powerful friendships with other girls in Senior Troop 390.
“When we were in our 40s we decided to have a reunion for our Girl Scout friends,” Haist said. “Twenty-two women showed up and we went to a house by a lake.”
The year was 1998 and decades of friendship fortified by a love for Girl Scouts have kept most of these women coming back every year.
“Quite frankly, we enjoy each other,” Johnson said. “It’s so relaxing. There is no pretense. It’s rejuvenating for all of us. We spend a lot of time laughing and singing.”
They have jokingly named themselves the Wild Women. During one of their many gatherings they were being a little too rowdy for someone near the camp who remarked about their group calling them “those wild women.” The women knew the remark wasn’t meant as a compliment. But they didn’t care.
“We embraced it as a collective way of describing our group,” Johnson said. “We found it hilarious.”
Their reputation grew, unbeknownst to its members, over the years. They realized the group had become somewhat of a legend during a recent Girl Scout camporee where hundreds of girls gathered to camp. A leader from a troop of high schools girls approached Johnson and Haist.
“She said ‘You are the Wild Women? My girls are going to want to meet you,’” Johnson said. “When they met us, they were literally jumping up and down. When I left, I told Janet ‘Did you feel like a rock star?’”
And while they may not be rock stars, these wild women were the trailblazers for the future generation of Girl Scouts, almost all of them becoming leaders. Among them are two doctors, a lawyer, librarians, educators and most famously Janet Napolitano, who served as governor of Arizona and secretary of Homeland Security. The women are a representation of the mission of today’s Girl Scouts.