30 April 2009
Disturbing Girl Scout Camp Trend
Posted by admin under: camps .
Here I was doing the happy dance that Rum River wasn’t being sold in Minnesota and I ran across a couple of other stories about Girl Scouts not operating their normal summer camp. The first is from Linda Angelo at the Flint Journal.
A calm like no other will fall over Camp O’Fair Winds this summer. There won’t be any Girl Scouts singing songs around the campfire. The platform tents and cabins will be empty.
And the all too familiar sound of girls screaming down a 50-foot water slide will be replaced with silence. For the first time since 1930, no summer camps will be held at the 465-acre site near Columbiaville.
A drop in enrollment coupled with the recent closure of four old buildings for safety reasons prompted the Girl Scouts of Southeastern Michigan to cancel the summer camp programs.
The decision will impact about 2,000 campers who had signed up to attend either with their Girl Scout troop or as individual scouts, said Abby Wattenberg, director of Camp Operations for Girl Scouts of Southeastern Michigan.
In the same state/area there is another closure. Did somebody raise the rent on the forest or something? Nathan McBride from the News Sentinel says that’s not it.
Every summer, Girl Scouts around the area look forward to the weeklong residential camp at Camp Logan near Syracuse. This year, however, the lack of funds available for the camp coupled with the recession hitting families hard has caused the area Girl Scouts council to postpone the camp.
Mary Ann Forbes, chief operating officer for Girl Scouts of Northern Indiana/Michiana, hopes not having the camp this year is only temporary.
“Resident camp is an integral part of the Girl Scout experience,” Forbes said. With the economy the way it is, Forbes said it is difficult for families to come up with the money to pay for their children to attend the camp.
Although the weeklong camp will not take place, day camps will still be offered. Forbes said brochures have already been mailed out and a significant number of families have already registered.
This is on top of the news we received from our Girl Scouts of Greater Los Angeles that they would not be operating their normal summer resident camps. However they still have some short term camping available so it’s not too bad.
If the Girl Scouts want girls to value our environment they need to get them to fall in love with it and that happens at camp.
- Girl Scouts Los Angeles Resident Camps Terminated
- Girl Scouts of Southeastern Michigan Names CCO
- Tell Girl Scouts Where They Should Go
- Denise Dalrymple is New CEO of Southeastern Michigan
- Singing Hills is Silent Now
4 Comments so far...
Les M Says:
1 May 2009 at 7:22 am.
I know that Tarheel Triad (soon to be part of Carolina Peaks to Piedmont) for the past couple of years have used two of their resident camp sites as day camp sites instead for summers; this was the same time they cut out their “area” day camps – we went from having to travel 6-10 miles to a site to 25+, and with other children, it can’t be a priority. I wouldn’t be at all surprised if attendance were way down at day camp as a result, though I know the area camps needed more volunteers, and likely site rentals.
smokyscout Says:
2 May 2009 at 12:22 pm.
My Council (Hornets Nest, also soon to become part of Carolina Peaks to Piedmont) has purchased a fantastic piece of property for development as a resident camp – and has its old Camp Occoneechee on the selling block to help pay for the new, thus no summer camp for us either. Every few months Occonneechee is opened up for district encampments and individual troop use as no buyers are beating down the doors…
In regards to the economic reasons why families are not sending their kids to camp, the Charlotte Observer here in the Carolinas has started a summer camp scholarship fund to send kids to five area camps, one of them being a Girl Scout camp. Seems that somebody has noticed that camp is an valuable experience. What a concept!
Girl Scouts of Western Oklahoma Defends Camp Sale Strategy | BoyandGirlScouts.com - News, Opinion, Advice Says:
28 June 2009 at 1:19 am.
[...] Role of Camp Properties”. That immediately attracted my attention because I’ve been so disturbed by the new direction taken by the professionals at the GSUSA that seems to place more emphasis on the new emphasis on [...]
Selling Out « JohnScout 2.0 Says:
7 May 2010 at 4:08 pm.
[...] particular situation is interesting, but not essential. We see the pattern repeated across the country. Property was donated in trust, donations received in trust, service [...]
