A house to be their home

Alicia Robinson

The girls pictured in their berets and saddle shoes in old news

clippings from 1949 could never have imagined their counterparts

today would be wearing jeans and sneakers, carrying cellphones and

giving each other henna tattoos.

Girl Scouting has changed immensely over the last 50 years, though

one of its settings in Newport Beach has not. The Neva B. Thomas Girl

Scout House on Balboa Boulevard, opened in 1949, is one of six sites

in Orange County used by area Girl Scouts.

The house could use some rejuvenation, and that could be coming

soon if Newport Beach voters approve a November ballot measure that

would change the city’s general plan to allow the Marinapark resort

to be built in the area. Marinapark developer Stephen Sutherland has

proposed building a new Girl Scout house as well as refurbishing the

nearby American Legion facility as part of the luxury hotel plan.

A history of service

The Girl Scout house was built in 1948 and 1949 with time,

materials and funding contributed by the community. The now-defunct

Balboa Bay Lions Club oversaw the construction of the building, which

had an estimated worth of $30,000.

At the time, Orange County had a number of different Girl Scout

councils, and the local Girl Scout house was headquarters for the

Newport Harbor Girl Scout Council, said Tom Olivas, assistant

executive director of property and technology for the Girl Scout

Council of Orange County.

Neva B. Thomas grew up in the area and worked for the Newport

Harbor Girl Scout Council in the 1950s, and she became part of the

Orange County organization when the various councils merged, said

Lisa Hinshaw, who is in her 41st year with Girl Scouts and serves on

two committees of the Orange County Girl Scout Council.

A petite woman, who was always neatly dressed, Thomas had a big

influence on girls growing up in Newport in the 1950s and 1960s, Hinshaw said. Thomas kept an office in the Scout house, which was

named for her sometime before she died about 15 years ago.

“One of the things that Neva really believed in is that it didn’t

matter where the girl came from or what her experiences were, it was

that Girl Scouting was a good place for girls to be,” Hinshaw said.

“She wanted to ensure there was a place, physically and

metaphorically, for girls to be involved in Girl Scouting.”

The Scout house’s large, open room with a fireplace and raised

stage and the nearby beach keep the facility in high demand for troop

meetings, training programs and weekend camp-outs, Olivas said.

Between 12 and 15 Newport Beach troops use the house for regular

meetings.

“It’s a very popular, very important facility to us,” Olivas said.

“It provides basically ... a low-cost way for our troops to access

the Newport area. Girls from throughout Orange County utilize the

facility.”

Changing with the times

While the purpose of Girl Scouts is the same as when the Neve B.

Thomas house was built, the organization has had to adapt its

strategies to hold the interest of girls who have a much larger array

of activities to pick from than they did 50 years ago.

One recent afternoon, a Newport Beach troop was meeting at the

house to talk and give each other temporary tattoos with henna, an

ancient art that’s enjoying a modern vogue.

“I have a newfound respect for the henna tattoo artists of the

world,” troop leader Sandi Vanian said, after trying to put a

twisting vine around her daughter’s ankle.

Vanian’s troop, 10 girls who are 12 or 13 years old, doubled in

size since last year. It’s her third year as the troop leader.

They do some traditional Girl Scout activities, such as helping at

charity events, camping and, of course, the annual cookie sale, but

Vanian also leads her girls in more modern pursuits such as spa

parties with hot chocolate foot soaks and discussions about cliques

and peer pressure.

“They don’t want the old-fashioned, traditional program,” Vanian

said. “It’s more fun to hang out with [their] friends after school

than to sit and do a very regimented thing.... This is like their

little space.”

The program still has an educational focus, and girls can still

earn badges for completing activities, but they can also earn charms

to wear on jewelry.

“I really like it because most girls now don’t really do anything

after school,” said Madison Parker, a Newport Beach 12-year-old who’s

been in Girl Scouts for four years. “We usually talk when we aren’t

doing something.”

They talk about the topics they’re learning about, or whatever’s

on their minds, said Jenny McCarthy, 13, of Newport Beach.

Those discussions are useful, she said, but the most fun is when

they go on trips. Last year they went to Big Bear, and they may take

an apple-picking trip soon, Jenny said.

“I’ve gotten to meet a lot of new people and we’ve gotten to go to

a lot of places too,” she said.

An uncertain future

Today the Neva B. Thomas Girl Scout House serves more than 39,000

girls and adults, and between 12 and 15 area troops meet there

regularly. The immediate future of the Scout house could hinge on

whether voters pass Measure L, the general plan amendment that would

allow construction of the Marinapark resort.

“We’ve determined that we would have to put somewhere in the

neighborhood of a million dollars into the facility either in

rebuilding or replacement to bring it up to current code,” Olivas

said. “Ideally we would like to have it replaced through the private

sector so it’s at no cost to the Girl Scout Council. It allows us to

maximize the use of our funds for Girl Scout [events].”

The council has gone on record in support of the Marinapark

project. Officials are waiting until after the election to consider

options for the Scout house, but they want to make sure it sticks

around in some form, Olivas said.

Others also hope the house remains.

“We love having a place to come,” Vanian said. “Having this many

girls in your house would be hard, and we don’t want the TV to go on.

We want them to be able to focus on each other and themselves.”

One former Girl Scout, Carrie Young, said she has fond memories of

camp-outs and other activities at the Scout house. The 37-year-old

preschool teacher, who still lives in Newport Beach, remembers liking

the mural on the wall, a painting of girls in Scout uniforms that is

still there.

“I think the house is a definite advantage to our community,” she

said. “It is known as being the place where our service units can

join together and be all in one place.”

* ALICIA ROBINSON covers business, politics and the environment.

She may be reached at (949) 764-4330 or by e-mail at

alicia.robinson@latimes.com.