Rowe Wright to Woodrow Wilson

Realizing in full the multiplicity of demands which are put upon you at this time, we put the following matter before you only because we believe it to be worthy of your endorsement.

Among persons acquainted with the Girls' Day in Japan, there has been an idea of establishing such a festival in the United States. At the present time, when girls and women are assuming more responsibilities and are proving that they are worthy of the call to service, when all over the world girls and women are more and more realizing their potentialities, it would seem to be appropriate to inaugurate this new festival.

There is no better way to establish such a custom than through the Camp Fire Girls, now over 100,000 strong, who represent the girlhood of America. The Camp Fire Girls are anxious to start this custom by persuading all the girls in their towns and cities to join them out-of-doors in patriotic meetings, maypole dances, parades, and holiday games and sports. The fact that at the present time we are all strained and anxious is added reason why such a festival might be appropriate at this spring season, for there is never greater need for wholesome community recreation than at a time of great anxiety.

The idea of the Camp Fire Girls is that June 22 for this year and the third Saturday in June for the succeeding years should be known throughout the land as Girls' Day, when all the girls in the country join in a happy festival out-of-doors. The date has been decided upon after deliberation, because in many parts of the country the weather is unsettled before June, and because June 22 marks almost universally the beginning of the summer vacation. Such a festival will spur girls on to greater service and will be a magnificent tribute to the awakened girlhood and womanhood of the country. Your endorsement of the plan will give the Camp Fire Girls enthusiasm to spread the idea and to make the day a real and beautiful spring holiday. With your approval, June 22, 1918 can become the great festival of youth, a festival not held in reverence to the past but in a rejoicing in the possibilities of the future.

RW.

M