Posted on November 14, 2011 0 Comments
According to Sandi Amorello, it all started -- oddly enough -- with some Rice Krispies treats.
In 1971, a pre-adolescent Amorello was hard at work alongside a merry band of fellow Girl Scouts, each of which was striving to earn a cooking badge, in her home state of New Jersey. Her troop leader's recipe du jour: the iconic, if simply-made, desserts -- a choice that left the young Amorello flabbergasted.
"I had this wonderful Martha Stewart-like mother who made all of these wonderful things," she told The Huffington Post from her home near Portland, Maine. "So I just thought, 'Is this the quality we're really striving for? Couldn't we do something better than this?'" That ill-fated culinary incident prompted Amorello to drop out of Girl Scouts shortly thereafter. "I felt like the level of expectation wasn't quite high enough ... plus I never looked good in green."
An artist, writer and mother of three, the 49-year-old Amorello would recall that early memory many times over the years as a reminder of how "life doesn't always go quite as we plan." Sadly, that admonition hit home once again in 2002, when her husband, Drew, died at age 42 of terminal cancer the morning after Christmas. Amorello said that multi-year grieving process after Drew's death is what partly inspired her to create Girl Scout Dropout, a web-based forum that "will allow women to join a club that celebrates their alternative views of the world, while also finding a resource of support during any variety of life's challenges."
Though still in its early stages (the site launched this week), Girl Scout Dropout will complement Amorello's earlier site, Irreverent Widow, which provides Web-based, peer-to-peer grief support for widowed women around the world. Like Widow, the new site is meant to be a social forum for like-minded women -- from working mothers to housewives to professionals -- to find a general camaraderie. Instead of aiding the grieving process, the emphasis is on female empowerment, and for the female audience to find a way to channel their inner rebel in a self-effacing, yet humorous, way.
"I'd just like it to grow into a quirky, fun community of women who are fearless and who embrace and celebrate their inner spirit," Amorello said. The site is structured much like the organization from which it takes its name, but with a twist: Instead of earning merit badges, members can accumulate "dropout badges of honor," all of which are iron-on (since, naturally, a Girl Scout dropout can't be expected to sew). There are badges for single parenting, divorce, death and even for "midlife dating."
"I wanted to give recognition for the things that we live through, the things we survive in life -- not just about housekeeping and building a campfire," Amorello said with a laugh.
Though Girl Scouts of America has yet to comment on the new female empowerment project, Amorello insisted her project "isn't meant to slam them. Obviously we embrace some of their core values and their visions, but it's mostly meant as a parody."
And if the motto of that organization is to find sisterhood, Amorello believes women from all walks of life will find it here. "This isn't a support group, but if people can connect to other people within a community ... to know that I helped one person do that, that's what's important to me."
Read the Full Article on the Huffington Post
Posted on September 28, 2011 0 Comments
A Girl School Dropout “celebrates her inner rebel and has learned that humor and camaraderie will pull [her] through.” And celebrate they did. GSD members packed into Grace Restaurant — appropriately in the basement — last Thursday evening for the website’s official launch party. Hosted by founder Sandi Amorello, women of all ages swapped stories, twirled the hoola hoops, and enjoyed boisterous rebellion with lots of wise-cracking camaraderie.
The free event offered the largely-female crowd a chance to connect with kindered spirits over a complimentary glass of wine, Grace hors d’ oeuvres, and raffled-off memberships and merchandise. Portland clothing designer Meredith Alex, known as Madgirl, ironically won a t-shirt sporting the GSD merit-badge logo.
“I got kicked out of Girl Scouts in seventh grade for cheating on my photography badge,” Alex confesses proudly. “Maybe that’s when the madness began. I tried to get my mom to bring my Girl Scout outfit and sash today, but she couldn’t meet me.”
The former Chestnut Street Church turned gourmet restaurant provided a fitting backdrop for an organization that prides itself on living life their way, “with your head held high and sense of humor fully intact.” But the organization’s humor belies another purpose: Part of the proceeds from GSD merchandise help fund Amorello’s Irreverent Widow Project, helping those dealing with a loss or a difficult time in their lives.
Amorello’s husband died of pancreatic cancer nine years ago, and she was widowed with three children under 10. But she found the “traditional mourning process” unhelpful and in some cases expensive. “When they asked for my credit card, I thought, you shouldn’t have to pay to grieve,” she recalled.
She found humor to get through those days and started the Irreverent Widow which resonated with other people coping with loss in nontradional ways. After a while she realized she was tired of the “death thing and needed something more fun.”
“I started signing emails ‘Girls School Dropout’ and the secretaries would write back, ‘P.S. Me, too!’, but like it was Hush-Hush” explained Amorello. “I was proud of it. Women should follow their own rules.”
Proving the point, Emma Kilgure, a graduate student at University of Southern Maine, said, “I dropped out — it wasn’t my thing. I just wanted to play and ride my horse.”
“And she bought her own horse!” interjected Jean Maginnis of South Portland, Kilgure’s aunt. Maginnis brought her niece because “she follows her heart” in true GSD fashion.
What’s next for Amorello and her cyber support system?
“This needs to be a musical!” Alex of Madgirl said. “'Girl Scout Dropout — The Musical.' I’ll do the costumes when it goes to Broadway.”
Anyone interested in joining the GSD community can do so for free online at www.girlscoutdropout.com.
Read More on the Portland Daily Sun
Posted on September 28, 2011 0 Comments
Thursday September 22, 2011 | 10:30 PM
Cape Elizabeth artist Sandi Amorello, known for The Irreverent Widow project, displayed her 4th grade Girl Scout uniform at tonight's Girl Scout Dropout kick-off party held at Grace in Portland. The uniform was the last Sandi wore before she said good-bye to Girl Scouts.
Sandi told us Girl Scout Dropout is a social networking group she's been dreaming of starting ever since the vision of a support bra badge popped into her head. Tonight a number of the party guests pinned the brassiere badges to their jackets and shirts as they enjoyed cocktails and passed hors d'oeuvres. The other available badges: a martini glass and an obscene finger gesture.
Even the decor reflected the devil-may-care attitude of these former Girl Scouts (and their Boy Scout counterparts). I'm quite sure this plush moose with it's creative earring isn't normally part of the restaurant's tastefully restored interior.
As the evening progressed, the inner rebel inside more than one party guest broke free. Here always enthusiastic fashion designer Meredith Alex reacted after her name was picked from the door prize bucket to win a Girl Scout Dropout T-shirt. Sandi laughs as Meredith hoots, hollers and dances around before claiming the shirt.
Plans are still being finalized, but it looks like the next Girl Scout Dropout event will take place in Kennebunkport. When the time and place is set, look for the details on the GSD Facebook page.
If you want to read more about the party and see additional photos, be sure to pick up the Sept. 25 edition of the Maine Sunday Telegram.
Until then, I hope to see you out and about.
Read Full Article on Portland Press Herarld
Posted on September 23, 2011 0 Comments
One smart cookie Sandi Amorello noticed there seemed to be a lot of fellow 'Girl Scout Dropouts' out there -- and a new social outlet was born.
Women who quit or -- gasp! -- were ejected from Girl Scouts no longer need to hang their heads in shame. These craft rebels and alternative-minded campers now have a club to call their own: the Girl Scout Dropout social networking group.
It launched Thursday night at a boisterous party in the basement function room of Grace restaurant in Portland.
Artist and writer Sandi Amorello is the creative force behind this project. Amorello, who lives in Cape Elizabeth, is best known for her Irreverent Widow art installation and associated grief support group.
Calling the new group the "naughty Girl Scouts," Amorello told me, "I'm not trying to put the Girl Scouts down."
Instead, she wants Girl Scout Dropout to be a place for women (and men) to meet new people, share stories and possibly even bond over campfires.
Amorello, who was a member of a Girl Scout troop in North Hill, N.J., dropped out after failing to obtain her cooking badge in fourth grade.
"I started adding Girl Scout Dropout to the bottom of my email after my husband died," Amorello told me.
She'd even include this cheeky reference in emails sent to attorneys and other professionals as her husband's estate was being settled. On occasion, she'd get a formal reply from a secretary or assistant with a P.S. at the end of the message, saying, "I'm a Girl Scout Dropout, too."
"I realized I'd tapped into this network of people with this in common," Amorello said.
When she addressed the crowd, Amorello said, "It's about following your heart and not playing by the rules. The one thing (her husband) Drew's death taught me is life's too short to care about what others think of you."
She also told us that a portion of the proceeds from the sale of Girl Scout Dropout badges, T-shirts, wine glasses and other merchandise will fund the Irreverent Widow grief support work.
Some of the dropouts at the party had no trouble recalling their Girl Scout days.
"Troop 281 Brownie, Auburn, Maine," Julie Emerson of Cape Elizabeth told me without hesitation. "I was a Brownie, but never a Girl Scout."
In a similar vein, Paula Lundgren of Saco told me: "I was in Brownies, but I never made it to Girl Scouts. I have Girl Scout envy."
Still, not everyone at the party was an official dropout. Jean Murachanian and Alison Parsons both made it all the way through Girl Scouts.
"It was a social group," Murachanian said. "I liked the trips."
They both hope to find similar fellowship in the Girl Scout Dropout events.
While the group's name suggests otherwise, men are welcome to become part of the club.
"I had the honor of being the first male to join," Joe Duley of Portland told me. "I'm proud, and I'm hoping to get in on the cookies."
A number of people I spoke with shared ideas for the group's future.
South Portland resident Wes LaFountain told me: "She'll need to make room for den mother dropouts."
Greg Daly, who helped Amorello launch the website, had another idea. "I see this blowing up as a hipper, younger, less conservative version of the Red Hat Society," he said.
Fashion designer Meredith Alex, whose couture line runs toward the hip and offbeat, had her own ideas about where to take the concept.
"I'm waiting for 'Girl Scout Dropout: The Musical,' " Alex told me.
"I'm definitely doing the costumes. They'd all be wearing green fishnets."
Staff Writer Avery Yale Kamila can be contacted at 791-6297 or at:
akamila@pressherald.com
Read More on the Portland Press Herald
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