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2. “Hello, World, Let’s Get Together”: Building Global Conversations through Pen Pals and Aid Packages

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American Girls and Global Responsibility
This chapter is in the book American Girls and Global Responsibility
572“Hello, World, Let’s Get Together”Building Global Conversations through Pen Pals and Aid PackagesAfter World WarII, girls’ organizations linked letter writing and providing relief to world friendship. In March 1948, one year after President Truman announced his plan to “help free peoples” around the world through economic aid with the Truman Doctrine and just months before U.S. military aircraft delivered sup-plies to civilians in Soviet-blockaded WestBerlin, the Camp Fire Girls celebrated the organization’s birthday with an international project called Hello, World, Let’s Get Together. Girls in the Eastern Massachusetts Council responded by initiating relationships with girls in Czechoslovakia, France, Germany,Belgium, Italy,Ireland, and Jerusalem by writing letters and sending relief packages to orphan homes, private families, and schools. Local executive director Doris Fos-ter fastened a letter of thanks from fourteen-year-old Marie Kulova, of Frystatn, Czechoslovakia, into her scrapbook. Marie wrote, “I was feel very happy that people in such a far country are thinking about us and helping us as much as they can. I shall never forget it. I enjoyed learning about the U.S.A. at our school about their great presidents and their democratic principles. I am sorry not to know the [E]nglish language so that I could read the book you sent me. I shall learn it now. I am an orphan, am 14years old. One more many thanks, harrah for the United States.”1Marie’s letter provides a glimpse into the postwar contacts that girls forged after World WarII, illuminating the burgeoning interests of Americans, includ-ing youngsters, in forging personal links with other countries. Girls wrote to, and provided assistance to, peers overseas, and girls like Marie began to contend with U.S. world leadership by learning English and studying “great presidents and their democratic principles.” Marie’s salute to the United States at the end of her letter
© 2019 Rutgers University Press, New Brunswick

572“Hello, World, Let’s Get Together”Building Global Conversations through Pen Pals and Aid PackagesAfter World WarII, girls’ organizations linked letter writing and providing relief to world friendship. In March 1948, one year after President Truman announced his plan to “help free peoples” around the world through economic aid with the Truman Doctrine and just months before U.S. military aircraft delivered sup-plies to civilians in Soviet-blockaded WestBerlin, the Camp Fire Girls celebrated the organization’s birthday with an international project called Hello, World, Let’s Get Together. Girls in the Eastern Massachusetts Council responded by initiating relationships with girls in Czechoslovakia, France, Germany,Belgium, Italy,Ireland, and Jerusalem by writing letters and sending relief packages to orphan homes, private families, and schools. Local executive director Doris Fos-ter fastened a letter of thanks from fourteen-year-old Marie Kulova, of Frystatn, Czechoslovakia, into her scrapbook. Marie wrote, “I was feel very happy that people in such a far country are thinking about us and helping us as much as they can. I shall never forget it. I enjoyed learning about the U.S.A. at our school about their great presidents and their democratic principles. I am sorry not to know the [E]nglish language so that I could read the book you sent me. I shall learn it now. I am an orphan, am 14years old. One more many thanks, harrah for the United States.”1Marie’s letter provides a glimpse into the postwar contacts that girls forged after World WarII, illuminating the burgeoning interests of Americans, includ-ing youngsters, in forging personal links with other countries. Girls wrote to, and provided assistance to, peers overseas, and girls like Marie began to contend with U.S. world leadership by learning English and studying “great presidents and their democratic principles.” Marie’s salute to the United States at the end of her letter
© 2019 Rutgers University Press, New Brunswick

Chapters in this book

  1. Frontmatter i
  2. CONTENTS v
  3. Introduction: “Encouraging Friendships between the Girls of All Nations” 1
  4. 1. “What Kind of World Do You Want?”: Preparing Girls for Peace and Tolerance in the Atomic Age 20
  5. 2. “Hello, World, Let’s Get Together”: Building Global Conversations through Pen Pals and Aid Packages 57
  6. 3. “Famous for Its Cherry Blossoms”: Reimagining Japan and Germany in the Postwar Period 82
  7. 4. “Playing Foreign Shopper”: Consuming Internationalism 101
  8. 5. “We Hand the Communists Powerful Propaganda Weapons to Use against Us”: Defending Global Citizenship during the Post–World War II Red Scare 125
  9. Epilogue: The “Watchers of the Skies” 157
  10. Acknowledgments 165
  11. Notes 167
  12. Index 213
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https://doi.org/10.36019/9780813575827-003

Chapters in this book

  1. Frontmatter i
  2. CONTENTS v
  3. Introduction: “Encouraging Friendships between the Girls of All Nations” 1
  4. 1. “What Kind of World Do You Want?”: Preparing Girls for Peace and Tolerance in the Atomic Age 20
  5. 2. “Hello, World, Let’s Get Together”: Building Global Conversations through Pen Pals and Aid Packages 57
  6. 3. “Famous for Its Cherry Blossoms”: Reimagining Japan and Germany in the Postwar Period 82
  7. 4. “Playing Foreign Shopper”: Consuming Internationalism 101
  8. 5. “We Hand the Communists Powerful Propaganda Weapons to Use against Us”: Defending Global Citizenship during the Post–World War II Red Scare 125
  9. Epilogue: The “Watchers of the Skies” 157
  10. Acknowledgments 165
  11. Notes 167
  12. Index 213
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