In the Alps - Adelboden, Switzerland

A trip to Adelboden in the Swiss alps was a requirement for me. In 1932 the World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts built a chalet as the their first World Center and I was anxious to visit. As part of my visit, I earned the "Our Chalet Experience" badge and as part of that challenge, I was to write an essay about my visit. I've copied it here and thought you would enjoy it.

High Up upon a Mountain, I found “My Chalet.”

My name is Karen Hening-Speedone and I am 56 years old, which is probably not the usual age for visitors to Our Chalet. I have six children, five of them girls, four of the girls now adult Girl Scouts, five granddaughters with two in Scouting and I was a Brownie Girl Scout leader for 18 years. Because I have heart problems, I use an electric “rollstuhl” as they say in German, or scooter. But I am A Girl Scout and never shy away from adventure, so I came to Our Chalet to see a bit of my own history. My experience at Our Chalet was unique and at the same time it was run-of-the-mill, to coin a phrase. First, let me explain why my visit was “run-of-the-mill.”

“Run of the mill” means expected, nothing unusual or out of the ordinary. And this visit was nothing new in the way I was treated by the staff and volunteers here. “Be a sister to every Girl Scout” is part of the Law that girls and women all over the world take seriously. They reach out to extend a hand of friendship, kindness and help to all people. Girl Scouts and Guides never stop and ask, “Bg pardon, may I see your current WAGGGS membership card?” Everyone offered to help with carrying bags, running upstairs to fetch my scooter key, bringing me food to my room or to my table in the dining hall - they extended their hand of friendship to me as I knew they would. It was exactly what I expected from a place like Our Chalet. Girl Scouts and guides never let you down!

For me personally, this was like a journey back home to my grandparents’ home in Port Washington, New York. My grandfather, Robert Schnepf had a knack for being in the right place at the right time - or sometimes at the wrong time. One day he decided to take a drive to New Jersey to see the arrival of the huge airship Hindenberg. As he watched it slowly descend to the ground, it caught fire in a terrible loss of life. Another happier time he was the first diver in line to enter the Holland Tunnel which connects New York and New Jersey under the Hudson River.

And in 1939, at the World’s Fair in Flushing, New York, he was able to purchase a piece of Girl Scout history - an exact replica of Our Chalet. Mrs. Helen Storrow had dedicated Our Chalet only seven years before and WAGGGS had the Chalet copied to use as a Welcome and Information Center at the fair. My Grampy took measurements, had a foundation laid and concrete poured and the basement built, and when the Fair ended, he had Our Chalet loaded onto a flatbed truck and it became the Schneps family home for the next 46 years, until his death in 1986.

I was a little girl when I spent summers with Nanny and Grampy, and some of the Girl Scout/Guide spirit must have soaked into the walls of that chalet. Today I am a committed Girl Scout and every experience like my visit to Our Chalet further validates my contention that Girl Scouting and Girl Guiding is as important as ever to the people of this planet Earth living together in peace. As WAGGGS says, “One million girls, one voice.”

I hope you will find a moment to write or e-mail me at:

Karen Hening-Speedone

3407 Menlo Drive

Baltimore, Maryland 21215

Kheningspeedone@aol.com (Watch the spelling - only one “n” in Hening!)