- Welcome to "Inland Edition," where this season we're having conversations with people who represent nonprofit organizations, working to make the Inland Empire a better place.

My name is Joe Richardson.

I'm a local attorney, Inland Empire resident, and your host.

And today, we're going to chat with Cynthia Breunig, CEO of the Girl Scouts of San Gorgonio.

The Girl Scout's mission is building girls of courage, confidence, and character who make the world a better place.

In pursuit of that mission, the organization teaches girls to take risks, trust their gut, team up with others, and support each other in tough times.

They believe every Girl Scout has their own curiosity, dreams, and talents.

So, when they come together, there's no limit to what they can accomplish.

A Gold Award Girl Scout herself, Cynthia Breunig credits Girl Scouts with establishing her leadership and business skills.

Her Girl Scout field trips to museums and her Girl Scout service work with under-resourced communities opened her heart and mind to the needs of children.

She spent 13 years working in Los Angeles' Skid Row, 25 years managing museums, and for the last 12 years has led the Girl Scout Council in reaching out nationally to girls from diverse backgrounds.

Let's meet her and learn more about how the Girl Scout organization affects our community on a daily basis.

[soft piano music] ♪ [gentle upbeat music] ♪ ♪ ♪ - [Joe] So, I'm proud to have with us the CEO of the Girl Scouts of San Gorgonio, Cynthia Breunig.

Hi!

- Hi!

(chuckles) - Thank you so much for being here.

- [Cynthia] It's a pleasure.

- You know, I'm excited about this because the Girl Scouts is this big name brand that everybody knows.

- Mm hm?

- But as we will get into more, there's a whole lot of stuff folks don't know about the Girl Scouts and things that they need to know.

But, let's start.

We wanna build the house, first.

Tell us a little bit about your background, and I know it includes you being a Girl Scout.

Right?

(chuckles) - Yes, I was a Girl Scout.

I'm a product of Girl Scouts!

- Right!

Right, right.

So, okay.

So, give us some of that.

- Well, I come from an incredibly poor family out of the Smoky Mountains in the Blue Ridge.

- Right.

- And, my father and mother left when they were teenagers, but they were-- And, it was really to seek greater opportunities.

My father joined the Navy.

Last year of World War II, he was one of the underwater demolition crew.

- Oh, my gosh.

- Thought he was immortal at 17, you know?

That was the beginning of the Navy Seals.

- Right, wow.

- And then, they loved it and stayed in for another 40 years.

- Wow.

- So-- And, he worked his way up through the ranks.

- Sure.

- And, of course, the military educated him, and so forth.

- Right.

- But, I'm an only child being raised in big port cities from all over the world.

- Right.

- And yet, my family is this beautiful family with few opportunities.

- [Joe] Sure.

- So, my grandmother was illiterate.

She couldn't read or write; that kind of thing.

It doesn't mean the family wasn't terrific.

- Right.

- But, the challenges around food-- having enough food, access to education and so forth, was quite different than the way I was being raised.

- [Joe] Sure.

- And, we were off and back, off and back.

And so, I saw that firsthand.

- Right.

- And, my mother reminded me, I looked just like all the relatives.

I'm nothing special, just 'cause I'm having different opportunities.

So, one of the things that they did was sign me up for Girl Scouts.

And, of course, my parents didn't know that every female secretary of state in the country went through Girl Scouts or all of the president's wives, or most of the politicians and leadership, on and on.

They did not think little Cindy will be the next secretary of state.

What they wanted was for me to make friends in this-- I mean, I moved 24 times before I was 18.

So, it was a very-?

Mobile childhood!

(she laughs) - Right!

- Which, we thought was a great adventure.

That was just the way life was.

- Right.

- But, Girl Scouts wherever we moved existed.

- Sure.

- And, I could join a troop, and it was the same program.

It was about friendships.

It was about building confidence.

It was about handling things with resiliency.

- Right.

- And, that was what they wanted for me.

And, I'm still friends with some of my Girl Scout friends from the 1950s because those are lifelong friendships, and that's what my family wanted for me.

- Wow.

- So, I stayed in and went clear through.

My whole troop became Gold Award Girl Scouts, which is the highest level of Girl Scouting.

And, a few years ago, we had a reunion back in Virginia.

And, the girl-?

The women- older women at this point, obviously- were able to gather and honor our leaders who were two sisters in Virginia, and tell them how much they meant- - Wow.

- in the development of our lives.

- How do you-?

It looks like in your background, you became someone that really was very concerned about the plights of others, the plights of those that are the least of us, and your work has really kind of highlighted that.

And, you ultimately make it all the way back to the Girl Scouts!

(she laughs) Talk about this 'cause this is really an interesting story how you did that.

- You know, there are more than 10,000 nonprofits in the Inland Empire.

And, I think if you speak to most CEOs, and about 60-something percent are females, there's a personal story.

There's a personal connection that probably started when they were young.

- Right.

- Certainly with Girl Scouts, just as a little one, we were tutoring and-- We were tutoring kids that have lives much like my cousins and people that I loved.

I saw my grandmother everywhere.

- Right.

- And, yeah.

It opened my heart, opened my mind.

- Unbelievable.

- And, of course, public service, and Girl Scouts is all about public service to this day.

- Right, right.

- So, whether it's tutoring kids who are going up in difficult circumstances, it's visiting the old folk's home, we're all about that.

- I printed this out because I made sure I didn't wanna miss it.

Because everybody thinks they know the Girl Scouts, and I wanna take this opportunity for people to really get reintroduced.

I thought it was interesting that your website talked about the "secret sauce" of joy - Mm!

- that holds everything together- - Mm hm.

- for the Girl Scouts.

- Mm hm.

- Tell us about that.

Like, the mission, the things that you guys stand on, and maybe some things that people don't know.

I want 'em to look at you through the window that you truly exist in now, even with all the great evolution.

- Well, it's interesting.

Girl Scouts is one of the top 10 well-known brands, and the logo is very well recognized.

And, that's in the world, not just in America.

- Yep.

- You ask most Americans what Girl Scouts is about, and they're gonna say "cookies."

- Right.

- And, we step into the power of the cookie.

- [Joe] Right.

- So, you all see the little ones out at the stores.

It's only a seven-week sale every year.

They work hard, hard, hard.

But, the underpinnings of that is financial literacy.

- [Joe] Sure.

- [Cynthia] It is the most interact-- Well, first of all, it's the largest youth-led business in the history of the world.

- Wow.

- It is currently just-- It's just phenomenal- - Mm hm.

- what it is able to do for the girls and for such a short sale.

But, behind the scenes, this is what's happening.

- [Joe] Right.

- It is a true program around financial literacy.

- Right.

- Because it-- one of the most important aspects in strengthening women and girls in our country, really and around the world, is financial literacy.

- Yes!

- In California, we, last year got an F in financial literacy from the Center of Financial Literacy, which is out of Vermont, and it's because we don't require it as-- for graduation in high school.

- Right.

- And, it's the underpinnings of so many things and decisions that happen later.

But, at any rate, going back to Girl Scouts, these girls are running their own business.

- [Joe] Right!

- [Cynthia] And, from the time they're five years old, they start in a program that goes clear through 12th grade in progressive understanding, not just about what money is, how it works, how you budget it, how you do projections, but ultimately into investments and creating the best possible future for themselves.

And, the reason that's important, among other reasons, is that women still make less than men.

- Yes.

Equal rights?

Hello!

Now, this shouldn't be- - Yes!

- This shouldn't be political, (Cynthia laughs) but since we're here, let's talk about that in the way that it really needs to be talked about.

It's amazing.

People don't get-?

They're thinkin' just cookies, right?

- Right!

- But, they don't get the economic empowerment, the financial literacy piece- - Mm hm!

- the equal rights piece.

- The Equal Rights Amendment?

80% of Americans think it's already passed.

- Right.

- And, it hasn't.

It is still languishing, although Congress is gearing up with a couple of major resolutions right now.

- [Joe] Right.

- And, the reason that's important is because it gives them power to close the gap between female earning and male earning.

And so, right now, the smallest gap is 89 cents- - Okay.

- and it's in Vermont and California.

- Oh, interesting.

- Which was great, you know?

89 cents is still not there- - But, a gap nonetheless.

Right?

- Yeah.

But, here's the thing.

In the Inland Empire, that's 21 cents lower for women.

- Hmm.

- So, the gap is wider.

And then, for African Americans nationally, it's 57%, and it's been dropping over the last couple of years.

And, for Hispanics, and most of our girls are Hispanic.

- Okay.

- It's 45 cents.

- Hmm.

- So, the gap is huge.

- [Joe] Right.

- And, it's a huge piece on women finally having parity in the workplace.

And then, what they're able to do throughout their lives.

- So tell us about, looking around the corner, some of the things that are coming online that, you know, "Here's some of the next frontiers that we're getting into as the Girl Scouts."

Anything out there like that?

- You know what's interesting?

The Girl Scouts is constantly changing.

And, certainly the Girl Scouts of today is not the Girl Scouts I grew up in, in the '50s, and it shouldn't be.

- Right.

- And, it's because we're girl-led.

For example, the girls, they're getting more into STEM right now, our Girl Scouts.

So, it's all the math and science and so forth, plus the arts.

- Yeah.

- And so, we're really focused on STEM.

- [Joe] Yeah.

- But, we have so many badges, and their interest in coding.

And, for a long time partnership with Cal State San Bernardino, which is a center for cybersecurity, by the way.

- Right.

- For the country.

I mean, it's really a big deal.

And, for many years, almost a decade, they worked with Girl Scouts.

And now, we have whole generations that are in the field from the Inland Empire.

And, girls that are majoring at in college- in cybersecurity, which is a hungry field.

- Right.

- Hungry field for more people and more girls and women.

- Right.

I bet you-- This is-?

I'm runnin' a risk here.

I'm a risky guy.

I take risks!

(she laughs) I gotta ask you-- I'm gonna ask you a question here, and you could talk about this for hours!

But, give me a success story that reminds us all and reminds you in tough moments why you do what you do.

- Well, you know, we have an incredible who's who of famous Girl Scouts.

And, I'll tell you some of my favorite and then I'll tell you specifically.

- Sure!

- So, Maya Angelou was a Girl Scout.

- All day long!

Yeah!

- I know, right?

- [Joe] Yeah.

- Amazing!

Oh my gosh, Michelle Obama.

- Yeah, sure.

- But, the one I wanna talk about is Dolores Huerta.

- Okay.

Yeah, sure.

- Farmworkers.

And, she's still alive and still does programs for us.

She was just up in Fresno opening a big science center for Girl Scouts.

The great Dolores Huerta- - Yeah.

- says that she was a shy girl and she gained her voice through Girl Scouts.

- Look at that!

- Can you imagine?

- Yeah.

- Oh, geez!

(she chuckles) - The thing that people have, the things that people have done with the voice that the Girl Scouts have given them, as well as the recognition- - Uh huh?

- from men, like Martin Luther King and other folks.

- Oh yes, yes.

- Right?

- Like, talk about some of those things.

A lot of folks didn't understand.

Like, there were world leaders that go out of their way to point out the value (she chuckles) and the significance of the Girl Scouts.

- So, may I talk just a little bit about our founder?

- Sure.

Yes!

Please do!

Absolutely.

- Juliette Gordon Low founded Girl Scouts.

- [Joe] Yeah.

- So, she founded Girl Scouts in 1912.

So, I mentioned we've been around for 112 years.

- [Joe] Right.

- So, at this point, she is an almost completely deaf woman in her early 50s who says, "I've got something for America and for the girls of America."

And, she starts a Girl Scout troop.

And, they're mostly girls from the local orphanage.

Some of them are factory workers.

I mean, you know, it's-?

Anyway, she starts it.

And now, more than 50 million American women, more than a third of all American women have gone through the program.

And, that's just recent.

And, she only lived for another 15, 16 years after the founding, and yet she has affected females in America beyond belief.

- Right.

- Beyond belief.

Millions and millions of us.

I mean, even Taylor Swift was a Girl Scout.

- Right.

- Just saying!

(both laughing) But, going back to-?

So, the first troop was in 1912 in Savannah, Georgia.

The troop that was formed the next year in New Jersey was an all African American troop of girls, the Rosebud troop.

- Yeah.

- And then, by-- Gosh, by five years later, some little group, 'cause it was beginning to grow like wildfire all over the country.

So, in Oklahoma, somebody decides to bake cookies as a little sell-- fundraiser for their Girl Scout troop.

And, by 90 years ago, that was already a professional operation.

- Right.

- So, Girl Scout cookies have been around for 90 years in the form that you see it now.

So, I grew up selling Girl Scout cookies.

- [Joe] Right.

- So, you know?

Mrs. Clinton grew up selling Girl Scout cookies.

- Yeah.

- Gloria Steinem.

You know, just on and on.

- It's amazing to me.

You mentioned first African American troop.

One of the things that I've been impressed with is that your involvement with diversity initiatives through the organization.

- Mm hm.

- And, it's not incidental.

It's intentional.

- That's true.

- Which, is all the more important and what amounts to majority-minority counties in Riverside and San Bernardino ever more diverse, just like our state, just like our country.

Talk about that some.

- Of course, it's in our DNA from the beginning, but you're right.

It needed to be intentional at a point.

So, in the early 1950s, we did a real inventory of Girl Scouts and made a strong stand for integration.

- [Joe] Sure.

- And, Martin Luther King lifted us up as a force for desegregation (whistles amazement) because it was intentional.

- Yeah.

- Because, it has to be intentional.

It can't be incidental or just even organizational culture.

It has to be something more than that.

And, that work continues to today.

- So, tell us about your Classroom to Careers program.

- Classroom to Career is one of our legacy programs started by women that actually grew up in Girl Scouting and now are adults.

So, we have a lot of alum that support us.

- [Joe] Right.

- And, because the girls are meeting fantastic female leaders throughout our community.

- [Joe] Right.

- [Cynthia] And, if you can see it, you can become it.

- Right.

- So, suddenly you're meeting coders and you're thinking, "Gosh, you know?

How do I get into AP, you know, classes and science and how can I focus on that?"

And so, in Classroom to Career, I'll give you two examples.

- [Joe] Yeah.

- Because we do give Girl Scout membership with it.

And then, they have exposure to terrific women leaders in unusual careers throughout the community.

And, a lot of adult women who were former Girl Scouts are involved with us and they support this program.

- [Joe] Right.

- But, right now we have two schools that are transitioning from exposure in Classroom to Career into Girl Scout troops.

- [Joe] Wow.

- And, one is in the Palm Springs area.

And, you may or may not know that the whole Palm Springs School District is Title I.

So, they get free and reduced meals, and so forth.

- [Joe] Gotcha.

- And, the other is in Cathedral City, which is nearby.

At any rate, we took them up to Skyland Ranch, which is a 200-acre camp.

We have a beautiful camp on the way up to Idyllwild.

- [Joe] Right.

- And, they just fell in love with environmental education.

- [Joe] Wow.

Environmental.

Sure, yeah.

- [Cynthia] Yeah.

Because there's something so special.

You may do the same classes, you know, you may do an egg drop, for example, in school.

But, you're in an outdoor environment probably for the first time, and it's this riveting, memorable experience.

On their own, they decided they're meeting after school and their teachers are working with them as their troop leaders.

- Right.

- They decided that they wanted to do blessing bags.

And, they're supplies that are given free to the women's shelter.

And, their toothpaste and feminine hygiene, and soap, and just all those things.

They raised the money for that themselves.

- Right.

- They did it one year, and now they're continuing it year after year after year.

So, it combines all three elements that I love.

The Classroom to Career?

I mentioned that we were doing cybersecurity for a long time with Cal State San Bernardino.

That was a Classroom to Career program.

- Yeah.

- Terrific results from that, just generation after generation.

Environmental education up at Skyland Ranch.

- [Joe] Right.

- And, this is-- This is a little abstract, but some of the girls have really been focused on Orion, as well.

And, that's been a fair amount in the news recently about Voyager 1 because there were a few problems with it and this and that, and it's way out there now.

But, the pictures that came out that were republished, and the girls were really fascinated by Carl Sagan's insistence that Voyager 1, before it leaves our solar system, turns back and takes a picture of home.

- Wow, wow.

- And, the girls were so impressed by that.

- [Joe] Yeah.

- He called it the "pale blue dot."

- [Joe] Wow.

- In the vastness of space, here's this one pale blue dot.

- [Joe] Wow, that's amazing.

- Mother Earth.

- Right.

- And, our girls are saying, "How can we be good stewards of Mother Earth?"

- Oh, wow.

It's amazing.

This is-- You know, I'll never look at the Girl Scouts the same way.

(she laughs) And so, all this talk about Girl Scouts makes me wanna see a couple of them.

So, let's go to a Girl Scout alum and a current Girl Scout, as well.

[light upbeat music] ♪ - I've been a Girl Scout all my life.

Went through the program as a girl.

I was a Girl Scout camp counselor.

I was a Girl Scout leader.

I've worked at Girl Scout camps in California and Germany and proud to be on the board.

So, it's just sort of a nice fit.

It's a different entity of being with Girl Scouts and really get a bigger overview of what the program is that serves our girls.

My name's June Yamamoto.

I'm proud to be on the board for the San Gorgonio Girl Scout Council.

And, I've been on the board-?

This is actually my second stint.

I was-- back in the '90s, I think, and back again.

We have seen that Girl Scouts builds girls of courage, confidence, and character to make the world a better place.

And, truly that's what we do, whether it's with outdoor programming here at Skyland Ranch, badges, journeys, the award systems that they have, it really gets better citizens, it gives leadership skills, provides opportunities that our girls usually don't have if they're just independently living on their own with their family.

Girls that go through the Girl Scout program have wonderful leader skills that they learn from the lowest level growing up, learning about community, giving back to the community, learning about the outdoors, science, technology, math.

Truly, opportunities that-- We're open to-- for all girls, all income levels.

So, we're open to everybody to expend their abilities and knowledge and skills.

Without Girl Scouts, we'd be missing future leaders of the world, truly, not just locally, nationally, statewide.

A lot of people in government programs, our senators, Assembly people have all been Girl Scouts, people that are CEOs.

So, it brings a wonderful skill ability.

- My name is Karina Juarez.

I'm an ambassador Girl Scout.

I've been in Girl Scouts-- this is my 13th year.

I think Girl Scouts has given me these skills which has helped me kind of build up my resume with doing so much.

I'm involved with our region team and our sales team.

I helped coordinate some of our, like, our fall sale with our products, distributing them out to the troops, and I help with our cookie distribution, too, which is such a huge, crazy thing.

My jobs?

I feel like, it's really helped me, like, being able to show them that I know how to talk to people and I know how to almost respond to people, which I feel like a lot of people don't necessarily know how to do.

But, selling cookies?

I've sold cookies 13 years now, too, and that comes with a lot of interacting with people.

And, they ask you questions and they wanna know a little bit more about our product and what it does, and kind of who it helps and what we do with the money.

College?

I think-- Oh, my goodness!

(laughs) I think it's helped me a lot getting into my colleges.

I did a lot of my essays on things I've experienced here and what it's taught me.

So, my troop?

We've traveled to San Francisco twice and we've traveled to New York and D.C. a couple of summers ago.

And, basically the whole trip was paid for, you know?

Our food and our hotel and all that stuff, and all that came from cookies, you know?

And, fall product and raising money for that and a lot of the experiences that come with the cookie rewards, too.

So, Universal Studios, and Knott's Berry Farm, and Six Flags and some of our other trips and rewards.

I have been able to do so many things that I would not have been able to do on my own.

But, it's a lot of hard work, but, you know?

I love it.

The members of my troop now, we've been together for...12 years?

So, you know, they're some of my best friends.

And, you know, we didn't go to the same schools for a while, but, you know, now we do.

And, we're all graduating high school this year, and I never would've been friends with them and friends with their friends and, you know, learning all these different people.

Their parents are like my parents, too.

So, just kind of watching each other grow up, I feel like I have such a close bond with them.

And, I love my troop so much!

Girl Scouts I think gives girls a community to a sisterhood to be with and have a support system, and be surrounded by so many people doing so many different things.

You know, our volunteers?

They all have jobs and they have other responsibilities, and they still show up for us.

And, I think it's really important and it's really amazing to see that.

And, you know, all the girls, we're all from very different backgrounds and doing very different things with our life.

We all like different things, but, you know, we can all come together for an event.

And, we're all a community and we all support each other, and I think that's just so awesome.

[light upbeat music] ♪ - [Joe] Give us some homework!

We're inspired.

I'll never look at the Girl Scouts the same way again!

(Cynthia laughs) Apologize for not seeing all of it.

There's stuff behind the cookie, now!

That's what we've learned.

How do people follow up on your organization?

- Just our website.

- Yeah.

- Girl Scouts of San Gorgonio Council.

- Right.

- Contact us.

We'll find a troop for you.

Get involved.

- So, Cynthia Breunig?

Thank you so much for being with us on "Inland Edition."

- Oh, thank you for inviting me.

- And, we thank you for watching us.

There's plenty of episodes.

Maybe if you've missed them, you need to watch 'em again, do that.

But, let everybody know that there's some wonderful organizations here in the Inland Empire, and we will continue to showcase them and how they make our lives better.

And, we'll continue to do it one conversation at a time.

Until next time, this is Joe Richardson for "Inland Edition" saying, thanks for being with us.

[uplifting music and vocals] ♪ ♪ ♪ [softer music and vocals] ♪ ♪ ♪ [music fades]