So the meeting was today at council, I will do a rundown of that tomorrow...not enough time or energy left for that tonight.
I just moseyed on over to the GSNEO website to check something out that was mentioned at the meeting tonight, and what do I notice? A tab that says GSNEO CAMPS! I don't know when this happened, but I am assuming today. They finally have got the idea. I am looking at the Crowell/Hilaka page and they list all the sites and even have pictures. Well done GSNEO!!! A step in the right direction for sure.
Monday, July 20, 2009
Sunday, July 19, 2009
A quick note
Here are two more councils that are really doing a great job on promoting their camps.
The first is the Girl Scouts of Western PA council. They have a web-zine aimed towards the girls called "S'More" that is a 100-page publication detailing the camp and other programs in the council. It is pretty revolutionary, because as far as I know, our council mostly gears their publications towards the troop leaders and other adult volunteers. I could be wrong, but I haven't seen any evidence to the contrary. Here is the link to the GSWPA Camp page, click on the S'More link to view the magazine: http://www.gswpa.org/camps/.
The next website is one that is actually based entirely on Keyauwee Program Center, a camp in the Tarheel Triad Council of NC. Keyauwee is a camp available to camps during the year and is used as a resident camp during the summer, much like many other GS camps in the country. Keyauwee's program guide is outstanding, and while the website itself isn't very exciting, it certainly makes up for that in content. There is even a 7-minute long video on there promoting the resident camp and the opportunites it provides for the girls. I encourage you to check it out: http://www.keyauwee.com/
Just more evidence to further prove that GSNEO should really step up their website...there is talk with in the FOCH (Friends of Crowell Hilaka) group that perhaps using our website much like Keyauwee has used their, linking directly from GSNEO's website. Of course, we have to make sure there actually will be a camp to promote in the first place =/
Thanks to all for your continued support in FOCH and our efforts!
The first is the Girl Scouts of Western PA council. They have a web-zine aimed towards the girls called "S'More" that is a 100-page publication detailing the camp and other programs in the council. It is pretty revolutionary, because as far as I know, our council mostly gears their publications towards the troop leaders and other adult volunteers. I could be wrong, but I haven't seen any evidence to the contrary. Here is the link to the GSWPA Camp page, click on the S'More link to view the magazine: http://www.gswpa.org/camps/.
The next website is one that is actually based entirely on Keyauwee Program Center, a camp in the Tarheel Triad Council of NC. Keyauwee is a camp available to camps during the year and is used as a resident camp during the summer, much like many other GS camps in the country. Keyauwee's program guide is outstanding, and while the website itself isn't very exciting, it certainly makes up for that in content. There is even a 7-minute long video on there promoting the resident camp and the opportunites it provides for the girls. I encourage you to check it out: http://www.keyauwee.com/
Just more evidence to further prove that GSNEO should really step up their website...there is talk with in the FOCH (Friends of Crowell Hilaka) group that perhaps using our website much like Keyauwee has used their, linking directly from GSNEO's website. Of course, we have to make sure there actually will be a camp to promote in the first place =/
Thanks to all for your continued support in FOCH and our efforts!
T-Minus One Day!
So, my first FOCH meeting is at Council tomorrow; both my mom and I will be attending, and possibly a few girls from my former troop. I'm not really quite sure what to expect, and I want to keep it that way - as I don't want to have high hopes and then end up more disappointed with the situation that I already am.
Supposedly, Council is supposed to give us a run down of the damage at camp and approximately how much everything is going to cost. We know that dam and the water treatment plants are in dire need of attention, but perhaps there could be more things that need our help as well. Apparently, the plan is to "winterize" or "snowball" the camp this winter, which would include shutting off all the water, putting anti-freeze in the toilets, and taking all the paintings and artifacts out of the house and the historical Girl Scout museum and putting them in storage. My fear is that once they take all the artifacts out of the museum, they will never put them back...
Camp Crowell/Hilaka has a very rich history, and I would hate to see all of that go down the toilet. I cannot even truly express how many people's lives have been touched by Hilaka. I was at a party last night, and I casually mentioned in conversation what was going on with camp. I didn't even say the name of the camp, just "They are closing my Girl Scout Camp," and shouts of, "Oh no, not Camp Hilaka?" rung out from the crowd. It is amazing when you realize that so many people have personal connections with the camp. Anyone who has ever experienced the camp will always hold it in a special place in their heart. I know I do, as do many of my friends.
I have received an overwhelming response from my fellow campers and former troop members who want to help the effort and save our camp! I hope that you all follow through and let Council and the board know how much Camp Hilaka means to you. We can do this!
Supposedly, Council is supposed to give us a run down of the damage at camp and approximately how much everything is going to cost. We know that dam and the water treatment plants are in dire need of attention, but perhaps there could be more things that need our help as well. Apparently, the plan is to "winterize" or "snowball" the camp this winter, which would include shutting off all the water, putting anti-freeze in the toilets, and taking all the paintings and artifacts out of the house and the historical Girl Scout museum and putting them in storage. My fear is that once they take all the artifacts out of the museum, they will never put them back...
Camp Crowell/Hilaka has a very rich history, and I would hate to see all of that go down the toilet. I cannot even truly express how many people's lives have been touched by Hilaka. I was at a party last night, and I casually mentioned in conversation what was going on with camp. I didn't even say the name of the camp, just "They are closing my Girl Scout Camp," and shouts of, "Oh no, not Camp Hilaka?" rung out from the crowd. It is amazing when you realize that so many people have personal connections with the camp. Anyone who has ever experienced the camp will always hold it in a special place in their heart. I know I do, as do many of my friends.
I have received an overwhelming response from my fellow campers and former troop members who want to help the effort and save our camp! I hope that you all follow through and let Council and the board know how much Camp Hilaka means to you. We can do this!
Thursday, July 16, 2009
From my autobiography, circa 1998
In sixth grade, we had to write an autobiography as a final project for our English class. It consisted of 18 chapters, each one about one to two pages each. I remember working on it for months! My chapter on Camp Crowell-Hilaka was by far the longest at five pages - an exceptional length for a 12-year-old...heck, I'm not too thrilled about writing five page papers these days. I am so grateful to have these memories preserved in print; all the good times that I may not have remembered are forever immortalized.
I decided to hunt down my autobiography the other day, and reprint my Hilaka chapter. Some of you may find pretty boring and long-winded, but to me it is the best memories of camp that I have. I hope that one day my kids will be able to experience the joy that I did while attending Camp Crowell-Hilaka. My experiences at camp helped me become the strong willed and independent young woman that I am today...and I know there are many of you out there who feel the same. So please, share your experiences with me as I share mine. Help us save Camp Crowell-Hilaka!
Cots and Kapers
May 17, 1998
JM
Summer camp is always my favorite time of year! I go to a camp called Camp Crowell-Hilaka, a Girl Scout camp in Richfield, Ohio. I go every summer, for different amounts of time. My first summer, I only stayed a week, then next three weeks and last summer I went for almost the whole summer! This summer I will be going for eight weeks. I can’t wait! I will tell you why.
My camp is probably very different from a lot of other camps out there, and a lot better. It is a camp that is open to Girl Scout troops during the year, and my troop always goes at least two times a year. The campsites there include: platform tents, cabins, huge mansions and places to pitch your own tents. It is reserved for campers over the summer though. For going to the camp in the summer, I don’t go with my troop. I usually bring a friend along for a few weeks or just go by myself to meet new people. Over the summer, I always stay in tents. So far it has been a coincidence that I have stayed in Faraway Pines, a platform tent campsite, every single time! I like Faraway Pines a lot, but I hope to stay somewhere new this summer.
In each tent, there is a wooden floor about eight inches or so above the ground, with four cots in each one. The tents also have canvas sides that we always roll up during the day to let the sunlight in. In each tent, there is enough room to put your bags and stuff under your cot, and still have a walkway in the center. There are different numbers of tents at each site, most commonly there are eight or nine.
For each tent site, there is a shelter that has picnic tables, a water trough with running well water (GROSS!!!), a counter and raccoon box where we can keep food in so the raccoons don’t get to it. The shelter is where we all get together with our unit and hang out and do craft projects and things like that. We also play games in the shelter and have snacks in there too. At each campsite, there is a firecircle for cooking and singing songs. Around each site, there are lots of woods and forest where we can explore and gather wood for our nightly campfires. Our campsites are always cozy and feel like home.
To get in to camp, the council sends out a big brochure filled with lots of different program choices. You get to choose a program that has activities you are interested in like horses, sports or arts and crafts. Even if your program has activities that are special, like going on a certain field trip, you still do normal activities like swimming, boating and hiking. You send in your request with a few different program choices so you can have a backup if they can’t fit you in to a program. There are so many choices that sometimes I have a hard time choosing. There are programs that are only a week long and there are a few that are longer like two weeks. You can choose for how long you want to go, if it is just one week or the whole entire summer like me! Some programs get filled up fast with more than 20 girls and I have been to others where there was only seven or eight people. When you have a smaller unit, you get to build closer relationships with your fellow campers.
At camp, I feel really relaxed and like nothing can go wrong. It is like the best vacation ever, only better! All I think about and do is have fun. At camp, I always am and always will be laughing all the time. I bring my good friend Eryn every summer for two weeks, and that experience has tightened our relationship a lot. I wish camp lasted all year long!
The counselors at camp are awesome too! They are really nice to us and usually really funny. They care about all of us, and they always are having fun. We can always tell them everything and they will listen to us, and always love to joke around with us. All of the counselors are good friends with each other too, and if they aren’t counselors at the same unit, they always try to sit with their friends at meals to talk or have a good laugh. We always try to know all of the counselors, and if you are there for a long time they will all know you too! Some of the counselors come from different parts of the world, like England or Korea or Denmark. They always have really fun stories about how life is in their country.
The counselors get to choose camp names like “Flipper,” “Butterfly,” “Scooby,” or “Spazz.” The whole time you are there, we always try to guess what their real names are. Them the very last day, they all line up at the front of the dining hall and sing a little song and go down the line to tell everyone what their real names are. Once you find out their real names, it is hard to think of them as “Stacey” or “Shyla!” If we are curious about their lives or anything else, they are always very honest and by the time we go home, we know them really well.
Even though the counselors are all really nice and can usually handle us, they must take a break for an hour a day. You can spend your break doing anything, but a lot of counselors spend their breaks at Amity House where there is TV and real food! They usually try to schedule breaks when their friends are on breaks. We always try to sneak into Amity House to try to get a glimpse of the TV or find some snacks, but they always catch us! One time, my counselor Flipper let me go in with her and I felt really special! When I leave camp, the counselors and my friends are what I miss the most.
There is always so much to do at camp, and our days are always chock full of activities. The counselors make a schedule for us the day before we get there, and sometimes we add more to it based on what we want to do. They write out the schedule and hang it up for us in the shelter so we know when we are doing something. My favorite activities to do at camp are swimming and boating. I guess I just love the water! We have a pool at camp and we go swimming every day!! It always gets really hot, so it is very refreshing on a hot day. You have to take a swimming test at the beginning of camp so you can go in the deep end of the pool, and go canoeing. I love to swim so I always pass! There are two huge lakes at camp, we mainly boat on Lake Linnea. I have only went boating on the Lower Lake one time, and it was at night so it was pretty creepy! On Lake Linnea, there is a nice big boathouse and the lake is huge! Some people use rowboats, but I like the canoes so much better. I love just going out on the boat, going around the island in the middle of the lake and relaxing. We go boating usually every two days.
We also hike a lot at camp. We have to hike around camp to get from place to place every day, but we also go on planned hikes like creek hikes and night hikes, which are two of my favorite things to do at camp! Each counselor is specialized in something, where it is regular unit counseling, nature, crafts, medical or lifeguarding. A specialized counselor will take us on a hike through the creek at camp. Once, we even went swimming in the creek! You get REALLY dirty though so we have to take a shower right after! Night hikes are really fun too, we go out at night with no flashlights and see the camp a whole new way. On these hikes, you really have to look where you are going!
We also do sports, aerobics, and yoga. There is one counselor named Cricket who teaches us yoga. These exercises are really fun and relaxing! We get really hot, and are practically dead by the end of aerobics! We do aerobics at this place called Garfield Hall, where the floor has springs under it so that it bounces when you move. President Garfield built this cabin for his daughter’s birthday party like a hundred years ago! Camp Hilaka really has a lot of history to it.
At camp there is a whole entire cabin designated to crafts, with different counselors there to help us. We make everything from clay pots to candles to necklaces to dreamcatchers to baskets to t-shirts. I love crafts, and I have something to take home to show the folks!
Another one of my favorite things to do at camp is the Low Ropes Course. The course is many different things that have obstacles that you must conquer. On is example is there is a swing that we stand about five feet away from, and below it we pretend there is a fire. We have to get everyone across without touching the fire, or we have to start over. It sounds really easy, but it isn’t! It encourages teamwork within the units, and creative thinking. We always try different ideas to get through the obstacles, and we try everyone’s idea. It is really challenging sometimes!
One activity that we do at camp that is kind of unusual is shopping! On the first day of camp, your parents can give you money, about $20 or $30 to spend at the camp store, called the Trading Post. The store is not that big, and makes you feel claustrophobic but there is always fun little stuff in there like keychains, shirts and jewelry. Sometimes we save some of our Trading Post money for field trips, too.
The most boring activity we do at camp is kapers. Within your unit, each girl has a job that makes the campsite look neater such as cleaning the latrines (YUCK!) or collecting wood for the firecircle. Camp-wide Kapers, are just as annoying, too. Each unit is assigned a job for the day, like being in charge of the flag ceremony, hopping the tables, or cleaning up the latrine by Gund Hall, which is the dining hall. Gund Hall was built by the same person who built Gund Arena. They are dirty jobs but they have to get done!
Every week at camp has a theme like “Cowboys and Indians” or “Space Aliens.” There are special activities called All Camp where the whole camp gets together to do an activity. My favorite All Camp is a Gold Rush, where there were rocks that the counselors painted gold and spread all around camp. There are bandits, who are the counselors and they can steal all of your gold! The point is to have the most gold for your unit at the end. My unit even won once! Other examples of All-Camp are relay races or playing Sardines at night!
Depending on what program I choose, we get to do different activities. For one of the programs I was in called Dreamcatchers, we learned all about Native Americans. We went on a field trip for two days, and went to Schoenbrunn Village, where there is an authentic Indian village and we got to go inside the buildings. We also went to a play called Trumpet in the Land about the Native Americans fighting the white people. It was in a huge outdoor theatre, and it was at night so it was really cool. There was a gigantic gift shop there, and we all bought so much!
Some activities depend on the counselors I’ve had. One of my counselors brought a lot of nail polish to camp and we had a nail polish party in the shelter complete with music and tons of snacks! It was so much fun! One day, we saved from money from our Trading Post money and walked to the ice cream store about a mile away from camp. We had a lot of fun and on the way back we stopped by at the cemetery when it was getting dark. That was really freaky and cool!
We also have camp outs a lot, where we don’t sleep in our tents. Sometimes we just sleep in our unit, but sometimes we go different places in the camp, like on the roof of the boathouse. That was really fun! We got to fall asleep watching the moon over the lake. It is fun camping out, and it gets really chilly sometimes out there. It is nice to see the stars, though.
The meals at camp are really fun! Before the meals, the hoppers are inside setting the tables. All of us are waiting eagerly outside, lined up at the door. When the doors open, we all rush in to find a good table. At each table there has to be at least one counselor. The hoppers have to go in and get the food for their table. When you are a hopper, you can’t sit with anyone from your unit because there has to be a hopper at every table. The units only have to hop once a week, though. The rest of the time, you can sit with your friends. The food isn’t that bad, it is usually edible, and sometimes is good!
At the table, you need to use your manners, but we still have fun of course. There is a chant that everyone at the table yells really loud so the whole hall can hear, while pounding on the table. “We are table number one, number one, number one, we are table number one, who is number two?” and keeps going until usually four or five….sometimes even up to ten or fifteen! It always stirs up the whole hall and gets everyone going. Sometimes we have special meals where we can only eat using kitchen utensils, like ladles and spatulas and can’t use any normal silverware at all. It’s always really funny to see how some people eat with weird utensils. Sometimes we have candlelight dinners where we can’t talk, but those aren’t as much fun. Sometimes we sing songs at our table too. Last summer, my camp friends and I were obsessed with singing songs from Grease, and one of the counselors named Butterfly would always try to sit with my friend Adrienne and I at lunch every day so she could sing with us!
After breakfast and dinner (after lunch we have creak for an hour back at our campsite), the counselors stand on benches in the front of the room and lead us in camp songs. It gets really crazy, especially when we sing Banana Slug, which is the best crazy song where our camp director Spazz singles the verses. I love singing songs after meals, it always gets us energized and excited for the activities for the day.
A typical day at camp is: get up around 7 AM, go to flag and breakfast at Gund, so back to the campsite and do kapers, have activities until about 12 noon, eat lunch at Gund, have an hour break after lunch, more activities and dinner and flag at 6 PM, activities until about 10, back to the campsite until about midnight just hanging out in the shelter or making a campfire, and then go to bed. Our day is always really packed, but it is always exciting!!
Leaving is the worst part of camp! The leaving process starts on Thursday, when we get to cook our own lunch over the fire at our site. Thursday night, we have Closing Campfire, which is a serious ceremony, and always sad. The counselors hold candles, and lead us down to the lake from Gund while we sing On My Honor a song about Girl Scouting. Torches are lit on the island, and the counselors canoe from the island onto the beach, and float a large box that has a fire that is contained in it. It is so pretty! Each unit makes a wish log and ties strings around it, to make wishes on. Then, when our unit goes up to sing our song we throw the wish log in the fire. At the end, we walk back to our unit, all sad that camp is almost over. Then we go to bed. The last day is always very special. We get awards about what was special about us at camp. Dinner that night is always pizza. Then we all go to Amity House or Kirby House and sit outside and wait for our parents to come pick us up. That is very sad.
Camp is so fun! I love it a lot, and I couldn’t imagine my summers without it! I want to stay there for the rest of my school years and then become a counselor. I can’t wait to go again this summer!
I decided to hunt down my autobiography the other day, and reprint my Hilaka chapter. Some of you may find pretty boring and long-winded, but to me it is the best memories of camp that I have. I hope that one day my kids will be able to experience the joy that I did while attending Camp Crowell-Hilaka. My experiences at camp helped me become the strong willed and independent young woman that I am today...and I know there are many of you out there who feel the same. So please, share your experiences with me as I share mine. Help us save Camp Crowell-Hilaka!
Cots and Kapers
May 17, 1998
JM
Summer camp is always my favorite time of year! I go to a camp called Camp Crowell-Hilaka, a Girl Scout camp in Richfield, Ohio. I go every summer, for different amounts of time. My first summer, I only stayed a week, then next three weeks and last summer I went for almost the whole summer! This summer I will be going for eight weeks. I can’t wait! I will tell you why.
My camp is probably very different from a lot of other camps out there, and a lot better. It is a camp that is open to Girl Scout troops during the year, and my troop always goes at least two times a year. The campsites there include: platform tents, cabins, huge mansions and places to pitch your own tents. It is reserved for campers over the summer though. For going to the camp in the summer, I don’t go with my troop. I usually bring a friend along for a few weeks or just go by myself to meet new people. Over the summer, I always stay in tents. So far it has been a coincidence that I have stayed in Faraway Pines, a platform tent campsite, every single time! I like Faraway Pines a lot, but I hope to stay somewhere new this summer.
In each tent, there is a wooden floor about eight inches or so above the ground, with four cots in each one. The tents also have canvas sides that we always roll up during the day to let the sunlight in. In each tent, there is enough room to put your bags and stuff under your cot, and still have a walkway in the center. There are different numbers of tents at each site, most commonly there are eight or nine.
For each tent site, there is a shelter that has picnic tables, a water trough with running well water (GROSS!!!), a counter and raccoon box where we can keep food in so the raccoons don’t get to it. The shelter is where we all get together with our unit and hang out and do craft projects and things like that. We also play games in the shelter and have snacks in there too. At each campsite, there is a firecircle for cooking and singing songs. Around each site, there are lots of woods and forest where we can explore and gather wood for our nightly campfires. Our campsites are always cozy and feel like home.
To get in to camp, the council sends out a big brochure filled with lots of different program choices. You get to choose a program that has activities you are interested in like horses, sports or arts and crafts. Even if your program has activities that are special, like going on a certain field trip, you still do normal activities like swimming, boating and hiking. You send in your request with a few different program choices so you can have a backup if they can’t fit you in to a program. There are so many choices that sometimes I have a hard time choosing. There are programs that are only a week long and there are a few that are longer like two weeks. You can choose for how long you want to go, if it is just one week or the whole entire summer like me! Some programs get filled up fast with more than 20 girls and I have been to others where there was only seven or eight people. When you have a smaller unit, you get to build closer relationships with your fellow campers.
At camp, I feel really relaxed and like nothing can go wrong. It is like the best vacation ever, only better! All I think about and do is have fun. At camp, I always am and always will be laughing all the time. I bring my good friend Eryn every summer for two weeks, and that experience has tightened our relationship a lot. I wish camp lasted all year long!
The counselors at camp are awesome too! They are really nice to us and usually really funny. They care about all of us, and they always are having fun. We can always tell them everything and they will listen to us, and always love to joke around with us. All of the counselors are good friends with each other too, and if they aren’t counselors at the same unit, they always try to sit with their friends at meals to talk or have a good laugh. We always try to know all of the counselors, and if you are there for a long time they will all know you too! Some of the counselors come from different parts of the world, like England or Korea or Denmark. They always have really fun stories about how life is in their country.
The counselors get to choose camp names like “Flipper,” “Butterfly,” “Scooby,” or “Spazz.” The whole time you are there, we always try to guess what their real names are. Them the very last day, they all line up at the front of the dining hall and sing a little song and go down the line to tell everyone what their real names are. Once you find out their real names, it is hard to think of them as “Stacey” or “Shyla!” If we are curious about their lives or anything else, they are always very honest and by the time we go home, we know them really well.
Even though the counselors are all really nice and can usually handle us, they must take a break for an hour a day. You can spend your break doing anything, but a lot of counselors spend their breaks at Amity House where there is TV and real food! They usually try to schedule breaks when their friends are on breaks. We always try to sneak into Amity House to try to get a glimpse of the TV or find some snacks, but they always catch us! One time, my counselor Flipper let me go in with her and I felt really special! When I leave camp, the counselors and my friends are what I miss the most.
There is always so much to do at camp, and our days are always chock full of activities. The counselors make a schedule for us the day before we get there, and sometimes we add more to it based on what we want to do. They write out the schedule and hang it up for us in the shelter so we know when we are doing something. My favorite activities to do at camp are swimming and boating. I guess I just love the water! We have a pool at camp and we go swimming every day!! It always gets really hot, so it is very refreshing on a hot day. You have to take a swimming test at the beginning of camp so you can go in the deep end of the pool, and go canoeing. I love to swim so I always pass! There are two huge lakes at camp, we mainly boat on Lake Linnea. I have only went boating on the Lower Lake one time, and it was at night so it was pretty creepy! On Lake Linnea, there is a nice big boathouse and the lake is huge! Some people use rowboats, but I like the canoes so much better. I love just going out on the boat, going around the island in the middle of the lake and relaxing. We go boating usually every two days.
We also hike a lot at camp. We have to hike around camp to get from place to place every day, but we also go on planned hikes like creek hikes and night hikes, which are two of my favorite things to do at camp! Each counselor is specialized in something, where it is regular unit counseling, nature, crafts, medical or lifeguarding. A specialized counselor will take us on a hike through the creek at camp. Once, we even went swimming in the creek! You get REALLY dirty though so we have to take a shower right after! Night hikes are really fun too, we go out at night with no flashlights and see the camp a whole new way. On these hikes, you really have to look where you are going!
We also do sports, aerobics, and yoga. There is one counselor named Cricket who teaches us yoga. These exercises are really fun and relaxing! We get really hot, and are practically dead by the end of aerobics! We do aerobics at this place called Garfield Hall, where the floor has springs under it so that it bounces when you move. President Garfield built this cabin for his daughter’s birthday party like a hundred years ago! Camp Hilaka really has a lot of history to it.
At camp there is a whole entire cabin designated to crafts, with different counselors there to help us. We make everything from clay pots to candles to necklaces to dreamcatchers to baskets to t-shirts. I love crafts, and I have something to take home to show the folks!
Another one of my favorite things to do at camp is the Low Ropes Course. The course is many different things that have obstacles that you must conquer. On is example is there is a swing that we stand about five feet away from, and below it we pretend there is a fire. We have to get everyone across without touching the fire, or we have to start over. It sounds really easy, but it isn’t! It encourages teamwork within the units, and creative thinking. We always try different ideas to get through the obstacles, and we try everyone’s idea. It is really challenging sometimes!
One activity that we do at camp that is kind of unusual is shopping! On the first day of camp, your parents can give you money, about $20 or $30 to spend at the camp store, called the Trading Post. The store is not that big, and makes you feel claustrophobic but there is always fun little stuff in there like keychains, shirts and jewelry. Sometimes we save some of our Trading Post money for field trips, too.
The most boring activity we do at camp is kapers. Within your unit, each girl has a job that makes the campsite look neater such as cleaning the latrines (YUCK!) or collecting wood for the firecircle. Camp-wide Kapers, are just as annoying, too. Each unit is assigned a job for the day, like being in charge of the flag ceremony, hopping the tables, or cleaning up the latrine by Gund Hall, which is the dining hall. Gund Hall was built by the same person who built Gund Arena. They are dirty jobs but they have to get done!
Every week at camp has a theme like “Cowboys and Indians” or “Space Aliens.” There are special activities called All Camp where the whole camp gets together to do an activity. My favorite All Camp is a Gold Rush, where there were rocks that the counselors painted gold and spread all around camp. There are bandits, who are the counselors and they can steal all of your gold! The point is to have the most gold for your unit at the end. My unit even won once! Other examples of All-Camp are relay races or playing Sardines at night!
Depending on what program I choose, we get to do different activities. For one of the programs I was in called Dreamcatchers, we learned all about Native Americans. We went on a field trip for two days, and went to Schoenbrunn Village, where there is an authentic Indian village and we got to go inside the buildings. We also went to a play called Trumpet in the Land about the Native Americans fighting the white people. It was in a huge outdoor theatre, and it was at night so it was really cool. There was a gigantic gift shop there, and we all bought so much!
Some activities depend on the counselors I’ve had. One of my counselors brought a lot of nail polish to camp and we had a nail polish party in the shelter complete with music and tons of snacks! It was so much fun! One day, we saved from money from our Trading Post money and walked to the ice cream store about a mile away from camp. We had a lot of fun and on the way back we stopped by at the cemetery when it was getting dark. That was really freaky and cool!
We also have camp outs a lot, where we don’t sleep in our tents. Sometimes we just sleep in our unit, but sometimes we go different places in the camp, like on the roof of the boathouse. That was really fun! We got to fall asleep watching the moon over the lake. It is fun camping out, and it gets really chilly sometimes out there. It is nice to see the stars, though.
The meals at camp are really fun! Before the meals, the hoppers are inside setting the tables. All of us are waiting eagerly outside, lined up at the door. When the doors open, we all rush in to find a good table. At each table there has to be at least one counselor. The hoppers have to go in and get the food for their table. When you are a hopper, you can’t sit with anyone from your unit because there has to be a hopper at every table. The units only have to hop once a week, though. The rest of the time, you can sit with your friends. The food isn’t that bad, it is usually edible, and sometimes is good!
At the table, you need to use your manners, but we still have fun of course. There is a chant that everyone at the table yells really loud so the whole hall can hear, while pounding on the table. “We are table number one, number one, number one, we are table number one, who is number two?” and keeps going until usually four or five….sometimes even up to ten or fifteen! It always stirs up the whole hall and gets everyone going. Sometimes we have special meals where we can only eat using kitchen utensils, like ladles and spatulas and can’t use any normal silverware at all. It’s always really funny to see how some people eat with weird utensils. Sometimes we have candlelight dinners where we can’t talk, but those aren’t as much fun. Sometimes we sing songs at our table too. Last summer, my camp friends and I were obsessed with singing songs from Grease, and one of the counselors named Butterfly would always try to sit with my friend Adrienne and I at lunch every day so she could sing with us!
After breakfast and dinner (after lunch we have creak for an hour back at our campsite), the counselors stand on benches in the front of the room and lead us in camp songs. It gets really crazy, especially when we sing Banana Slug, which is the best crazy song where our camp director Spazz singles the verses. I love singing songs after meals, it always gets us energized and excited for the activities for the day.
A typical day at camp is: get up around 7 AM, go to flag and breakfast at Gund, so back to the campsite and do kapers, have activities until about 12 noon, eat lunch at Gund, have an hour break after lunch, more activities and dinner and flag at 6 PM, activities until about 10, back to the campsite until about midnight just hanging out in the shelter or making a campfire, and then go to bed. Our day is always really packed, but it is always exciting!!
Leaving is the worst part of camp! The leaving process starts on Thursday, when we get to cook our own lunch over the fire at our site. Thursday night, we have Closing Campfire, which is a serious ceremony, and always sad. The counselors hold candles, and lead us down to the lake from Gund while we sing On My Honor a song about Girl Scouting. Torches are lit on the island, and the counselors canoe from the island onto the beach, and float a large box that has a fire that is contained in it. It is so pretty! Each unit makes a wish log and ties strings around it, to make wishes on. Then, when our unit goes up to sing our song we throw the wish log in the fire. At the end, we walk back to our unit, all sad that camp is almost over. Then we go to bed. The last day is always very special. We get awards about what was special about us at camp. Dinner that night is always pizza. Then we all go to Amity House or Kirby House and sit outside and wait for our parents to come pick us up. That is very sad.
Camp is so fun! I love it a lot, and I couldn’t imagine my summers without it! I want to stay there for the rest of my school years and then become a counselor. I can’t wait to go again this summer!
Wednesday, July 15, 2009
GSNEO Website is truly lacking
So, I was trying to navigate around on the GSNEO website yesterday, and I'm sorry to say...its almost pathetic. No camp info....and the site is just RIDICULOUSLY disorganized: http://www.gsneo.org/index.html. I checked out other council's websites yesterday and ours is by FAR the worst I have seen. How do they expect troops to want to camp if they don't even have any information about the camps on there? Sure, maybe a little here and there squeezed at the bottom of the homepage, but generally any information you would want to know about camp is pretty inaccessible. The majority of websites I have seen list all their camps and have pictures, reservation information, etc....generally what you would expect from a well-organized website. Girl Scouts of Connecticut even offers training online! Now how cool would that be if GSNEO was able to offer things like Troop Camp Training online...
Here are just a few examples I have found so far:
http://www.gsofct.org/volunteer/train-online.php
http://www.gsep.org/pages/camps.html
http://www.camprocks.org/about_our_camps.html
http://gsgvcamp.homestead.com/index.html
These websites are all visually appealing, well organized and contain lots of information that is easily accessible. The GSNEO site is none of the above! I think the council is really doing the girls a disservice by having the website organized the way it is. Its the information age here people, they REALLY need to step it up!!
Here are just a few examples I have found so far:
http://www.gsofct.org/volunteer/train-online.php
http://www.gsep.org/pages/camps.html
http://www.camprocks.org/about_our_camps.html
http://gsgvcamp.homestead.com/index.html
These websites are all visually appealing, well organized and contain lots of information that is easily accessible. The GSNEO site is none of the above! I think the council is really doing the girls a disservice by having the website organized the way it is. Its the information age here people, they REALLY need to step it up!!
Monday, July 13, 2009
And this is what they have been doing with the money...
Bedfordtimesregister.com
Girl Scouts get a break in city: Council approves tax incentive
November 20, 2008
by Jeff Saunders
Reporter
"It will be a good investment. We will be good stewards of the money you've provided us and we will be good neighbors," Fred Cash, a member of the GSNEO's board of directors, told Council after the vote.
Alford-Smith said the GSNEO is consolidating its Akron and Cleveland offices and moving those workers into the former Norandex building. The move and some renovations to the facility should be completed by the end of the year.
She said the GSNEO plans to use the MOP grant, along with the $2.3 million it received in the sale of its former Akron headquarters, to help pay for the $3 million building, which it purchased in September on what was formerly called South Park Drive, but Council this summer renamed to Girl Scout Way.REALLY??? $3 million for a new building and not a dime for the girls. This is just shameful.
This is what I know so far...
1. The Girl Scouts of Lake Erie Council were forced to merge with the 4 other councils in the Northern Ohio area a few years back, forming the new Girl Scouts of North East Ohio Council. Things have not been the same since.
2. Camp Crowell-Hilaka has been suspended for the next program year and will "officially" close on October 1, 2009.
3. The camp is in need of major repairs involving the dam and wastewater treatment plant, among other smaller issues. Word on the street is that these repairs could cost upwards of a million dollars.
4. There is a Yahoo group called FriendsofCrowellHilaka that is trying to promote Camp Crowell-Hilaka and stop it from closing for good . They will have a meeting at the Macedonia council office on July 20, 2009 at 6 PM. I know I will be there.
5. Camp Crowell-Hilaka is one of the most beautiful places I have ever known. It saddens me to think that the new generations of scouts may not be able to experience the history and beauty that we all have.
6. This plan to close camp must be stopped. We have one year to come up with a plan and save Camp Crowell-Hilaka!
2. Camp Crowell-Hilaka has been suspended for the next program year and will "officially" close on October 1, 2009.
3. The camp is in need of major repairs involving the dam and wastewater treatment plant, among other smaller issues. Word on the street is that these repairs could cost upwards of a million dollars.
4. There is a Yahoo group called FriendsofCrowellHilaka that is trying to promote Camp Crowell-Hilaka and stop it from closing for good . They will have a meeting at the Macedonia council office on July 20, 2009 at 6 PM. I know I will be there.
5. Camp Crowell-Hilaka is one of the most beautiful places I have ever known. It saddens me to think that the new generations of scouts may not be able to experience the history and beauty that we all have.
6. This plan to close camp must be stopped. We have one year to come up with a plan and save Camp Crowell-Hilaka!
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