MUW Alumna and Girl Scout Leader: Ruth Wilz Curcuru

Ruth Wilz Curcuru, Class of '83, was a Junior Girl Scout for three years in three different troops in Biloxi and Long Beach Mississippi.   "I remember spending two weeks at Camp Ita Kana between fifth and sixth grades. I loved camp, even thought it was hot.  I liked riding horses, waking in the woods, singing together and being on my own."  She would have stayed with Girl Scouts longer, but never found a Cadette troop.

The back says "Girl Scouts 1971 Aerie Lake"

As an adult, Ruth led her older daughter's troop for four years--two years of Brownies, one year of Juniors, and then, the year after Katrina,  had a mixed troop with one Daisy, several Brownies and several Juniors.  After moving to middle school, her daughter joined a troop that didn't need a leader so she spent a  year as Cookie Mom before taking a couple of years off (except working her share of cookie booths yearly).  She is now in her second year as her younger daughter's Daisy leader.

First camping trip with older daughter's troop.  Ruth in green, her daughter second from right on bottom row

Two incidents stand out in Ruth's mind when she thinks of her time as a Girl Scout Leader:  " One day my first year, the school office called me on the intercom and told me they were sending some folks back to the cafeteria, where we were meeting.  A girl and her father came back.  He said the Girl Scouts sent them to us.  She attended the public school nearest to our public school.  I'll admit I was a little annoyed--not at them, but at the Girl Scouts.  I had one of the biggest troops in the area, and they were sending her to me because she was a public school student.  Still, I took her and the girls accepted her, and she was at the meetings regularly.The next year in the fall we had a Service Unit Mother-Daughter event.  I was in the parking lot when she and her mom arrived. When H got out of the car, my daughter went over to her and greeted her with a hug.  Her mom told me how happy that made her to see.  She said H really didn't have many friends at school and really loved GS and she appreciated us and the way the girls accepted H.  It made my day."

Leading younger daughter's troop

Ruth also told us "My six year old and I went on our first camping trip the first weekend in February.  While beautiful during the day, it froze at night, and before it was over, all the girls ended up in their mother's sleeping bags.  We were down inside mine and our faces were inches from each other.  As it became light, I opened by eyes as my daughter opened hers.  She smiled, kissed me and said she loved me.  You can't buy moments like that."

Are you an MUW alumna and a current or former Girl Scout member or volunteer?  Please tell us about your experiences.  Fill out this form, and send  photos to mfaeablog@gmail.com

Moving In Day

Ah, that yearly ritual of moving college students into their dorm rooms....remember the overloaded cars, the tired Dads, the tearful Moms, the excited friends.  This year Move-In Day at The W is August 15.  If you are in the area, Wesley is looking for volunteers, and for water.  The MUW Alumni Association (the official affiliated group) has said it will be helping students and giving out water as well.  The photo is Madeleine Gardiner, who will be a Sophomore this year, on last year's Move-In Day.

I asked for people's memories of Move-In Day when they were students.

 I moved to MUW with a friend from high school - we were roomies in Calloway Hall.  I remember thinking when we packed up a trailer with our stuff that we'd brought far too much, but then was stunned to realize that some girls had brought a trailer full of just their own stuff.


I was an Orientation Leader my Sophomore, Junior & Senior years at The W, and those years, just like my own Freshman Move-In Day were memorable for the constant buzz of excitement across the campus.  Meeting new friends, starting off on new adventures, bridging that gap between childhood and adulthood, created a palpable energy that I always found invigorating.  Neely Woods Hunter, '95



Wow...so long ago yet seems like just yesterday! 


I went to the W in the fall of 1983 with my dear friend from high school. I don't know how I would have made it without her.


It didn't take us long to move our stuff into our room in Calloway on the 3rd floor. Home for us was just up the road in Monroe county so we knew we would be going back almost every weekend.


We were very coordinated with matching bedspreads and curtains. We had a large piece of pink carpeting that was a scrap given to us by our small town flooring guy.  We had a full size refrigerator in our room - an old one my dad repainted. It seems like lots of folks on the hall keep stuff in that refrigerator.  The room was huge.


We got rid of the refrigerator the spring semester so we could move into a small room with a private bath!


I have great memories of those sweet girls from Calloway and the fall of 1983. Michelle Byars Gray '87



My freshmen year I had an entourage come to help me move in: My mom with her Durango loaded down, my grandparents bringing a few things in their pickup, a couple of my guy friends from high school coming to help and me with my car loaded.  My grandparents beat me by about ten minutes and Mom was a little bit behind me.  Since Mom and Grandmother were W girls and I had been there the week before to paint, we had no trouble finding where we needed to be, but the boys got so lost that I had to run out to the car to get my new Columbus map so we could tell them how to get to campus. When we started to unload in front of Callaway, a swarm of Lockharts just descended and started helping take my stuff up to the 3rd floor. Between all the help from campus and my folks, we had everything unloaded in about 30 minutes. After that was the requisite trip to Walmart for groceries and supplies.


I was in SAA every year I was at the W which came with the perk that I got to move in early so we could help with official Move In Day. I think we got more organized as time went on with unloading zones around the buildings so we could keep things moving.   Erin Gioia 2007


The big thing was that it was beastly hot and I had to move to the second floor of Peyton. My dad and mom came to help, and I was afraid my dad was going to have a heart attack from carrying all my heavy stuff since there wasn't an elevator. I was happy to be coming to school, but it was much harder on my parents. They had collected all my stuff for months in the "room that was too good for anybody except company." My dad called it "the staging area." I think it was difficult for them because I was only 16 at the time. My 17th birthday was in a week. Part of the reason they wanted me to come to the W was to keep me away from boys . (They weren't counting on Sandra Day O'Connor!)Laura Amundson 1984


When I think of Move-In Day, I remember two in particular.  My Freshman year my dad brought me and my stuff up from Long Beach.  No one I knew was going to The W and while in some ways I liked the idea of a new start, it was kind of scary once he left me alone--but it didn't take long for me to realize that there were people who cared. Before dinner than night I had messages from my admissions rep and from Marian Lion, who had been my Beta Club sponsor in junior high, and who was then working in the Alumnae Office.  Linda Elliott, who I did not know, but whose mom was friends with my parents, banged on my door and told me to call her if I needed anything.  Shortly thereafter, my SIA big sister showed up.  


The next year I volunteered to be a big sister and was given the name of Laura Amundson from Brandon Mississippi.  I sent her a letter during the summer, and then on Move-In day, dropped by to see her.  As she said, both her parents were there and they were all talking.  They seemed nice enough, but they sure didn't sound like they were from Brandon, Mississippi, and I told them so.  They said they were from a small town in Wisconsin, a small town just down the road from the small town in which my Mom was raised, and where I'm related to half the town.  I told them that my mother was from Durand, and Laura mentioned that her uncle married a woman from Durand.  It turns out that woman  was my mother's first cousin and one of the few whose name I'd know.  Ruth Wilz Curcuru '83

Pets on Campus

Like most universities, The W does not and did not allow pets to live in the dorm.  Like most university rules, this one was ignored by at least a few students.


I had a cat in the dorm my Sophomore year.  A friend of mine found her on campus and thought it would be good for me after my Dad died.  I got caught because he was sticking his paw under the door when people would pass by.  I found it a home with Missy Davis’s mom.  Then my Junior and Senior years, and several years afterwards, I had a pet tarantula named Amber.  I always found it amusing to tell people that she had gotten out to see their reactions.  A couple of the BLs across the hall from 501 had a cat my Senior year and that’s when I discovered I had become allergic to cats.  Funny how things could change in just 2 years.   (Dana Jackson)


Dana's friend, Angie, had this to say about the tarantula's food supply:  "DJ didn't mention the CRICKETS she kept in the hall to feed to Amber the tarantula. Let me just say cricket noises echo off of cinderblock walls...all night long.... ;)  Much like the train whistles, though, you just got used to it."

"I had a pet parakeet my Junior and Senior years....named "S***bird" (excuse the language:-)....originally known as Chipper, but somehow evolved, hmmm? wonder how that happened!  LOL!  Well, that bird learned how to say some very creative things!..."where's Traci", "Michelle's my buddy", "I'm a s***bird", "what's your number?", etc.  It got out in the hallway a few times and flew all the way to the elevator from the last room by the stairwell in Goen!  THEN, we had a cat in 501, named "Patch" as BL actives...it was Carol Cooper's cat.  It fell out of the 5th floor window once and survived but never quite was the same.  Lots of fun memories w/ the critters! " (Traci Demel Schulz '90)


"We once had a hamster on the hall, which was universally hated due to its nocturnal and eternal exercising on its wheel. And there was a toddler who belonged to the "dorm mother" in the Mag. She was kind of a pet to all - we loved her! I remember she had a unusual trait: she ALWAYS tiptoed." (Cheryl Jackson Cooper, Class of '82)

"My suitemate and I had a cat our senior year. He was the hall cat, and since by senior year you'd picked who you wanted to live with, nobody turned us in. Opus was a quiet cat, and Lesa and I were really careful. We would put a towel under the door of the room he was staying in at the time, then leave the bathroom door open to that room and shut the bathroom door to the other room. The RA left us alone, and Opus graduated along with us." (Michele Perry Bernard, Class of '83) 


"I lived on the hall with Michele, Lesa and Opus, and was a suitemate to the RA.  The last week of school we had Opus out in the hall one night and introduced him to the RA.  I remember saying that I couldn't believe she didn't know he was there." (Ruth Wilz Curcuru, Class of '83)


What about you or your friends?  Did you have pets on the hall?  Leave a comment and tell us about it.