The Woodrow Wilson Presidential Library and Museum today announced that, in partnership with area Girl Scouts, it will sponsor a World Thinking Day event at Stuart Hall School in Staunton on Saturday, February 20th , from 1:00 to 4:30 p.m.  World Thinking Day is an annual event at which Girl Scouts and Girl Guides worldwide contemplate a common problem.  Area girl scouts will attend several sessions centered around this year’s theme, “Together we can end extreme poverty and hunger.”  The participants will start seeds for Dave’s Garden, a local garden sponsored by Staunton’s Emmanuel Episcopal Church that donates food and proceeds to the Food Bank; create posters for area businesses highlighting the issues of world hunger; and play a guided game to better understand the impact of the uneven distribution of resources around the world.   

The event will also include two speakers, Linda Terry of East to West Gifts in Staunton and Rebecca Evans of Blue Ridge Community College.  Ms. Terry will explain the concept of Fair Trade, while Ms. Evans will discuss her recent trip to Haiti during the earthquake and what BRCC is doing to help rebuild a school there.  

Stuart Hall School is an appropriate setting for the event, because Juliette Gordon Low, the founder of Girl Scouts, attended Virginia Female Institute (now Stuart Hall) in her teens.  Students from Mary Baldwin College will also assist with the event.   

Each participant is being encouraged to make a donation to the Juliette Low World Friendship Fund or bring canned food for the food pantry at First Presbyterian Church in Staunton.  That food pantry was chosen because President Wilson’s father, The Reverend Joseph Wilson, was the minister at First Presbyterian Church when President Wilson was born.  

This program is a part of the WWPL’s educational outreach program.  The Presidential Library regularly hosts area students for interactive programs that meet Virginia Standards of Learning (SOL) requirements.  In the “Journey Into History” program and the “Professor, President, Peacemaker” program, students engage in a guided tour of Woodrow Wilson's birthplace and group activities in the Woodrow Wilson Museum and the Presidential Library’s classroom and education parlor.  The WWPL also hosts a summer “Journey Into History” camp, a three-day interactive history camp with a different theme each summer.

To register Girl Scouts for the event or to obtain more information about any of the Presidential Library’s education programming, contact Ellen Abernethy, Museum Educator, at eabernethy@woodrowwilson.org, or at (540) 885-0897, ext. 110.