23 June 2009
Girl Scouts’ Balboa Treehouse
Posted by admin under: camps .
Scouter Jeff was kind enough to pass along some Girl Scout news and I wanted to put it up here for everyone to hear about. The Girl Scouts in San Diego have recently completed a giant play structure that they’re calling a treehouse at the camp in Balboa Park northwest of the San Diego zoo. Jeanette Steele makes it sound fun in her article in the San Diego Union Tribune.
“Go climb a tree” has new meaning for Girl Scouts in Balboa Park.
The San Diego-Imperial County chapter has completed a four-story new “treehouse” for its Scouts, one of the last pieces of a $5.5 million building campaign to spruce up the 11-acre campground tucked away on the park’s northern edge.
The 39-foot-tall climbing structure boasts two swaying bridges, a rope climb, a cargo net ladder, other chutes and ladders and 1,900 square feet of decks.
From the top platform, which flies the Girl Scout flag, one can see into the San Diego Zoo next door and go nose to nose with any squirrels or birds in the surrounding trees.
The structure cost $450,000 – about four times more than expected – in part because of the need to make it accessible to the disabled.
“It’s a jewel of Balboa Park. There’s nothing like this anywhere,” said Jo Dee Jacob, the council’s chief executive. “It’s a world-class showpiece for accessibility.”
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About 5,500 girls participate in programs at the Balboa Park property throughout the year. It also houses the chapter’s headquarters and store.
Other recent additions are a 270-person outdoor amphitheater for skits, and a resource center with rooms for classes, such as kickboxing and “technology goddesses.”
In this age of Wii and PlayStation, the point of the campground is not only to promote outdoor activity but also to make Girl Scouts competitive with its major rival for a young lady’s time: cheerleading, Jacob said.
“To keep girls interested in Girl Scouting, we needed to be much more relevant and have more fun and exciting programs to draw them,” she said. The final piece of the construction campaign will be an “adventure zone” outdoor play area, which is expected to be complete by year’s end.
This is what I like to hear: ideas for getting the girls outdoors and having fun. Sounds a lot like Girl Scouts.
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- San Diego Girl Scout Cookie Week
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- More Reorg Pains
- Channel Your Inner Ad Exec
One Comment so far...
Cheryl Says:
24 June 2009 at 5:48 pm.
Wow! The girls are going to love that! In the perfect world, every kid would have access to something so amazing. We’ve got to start someplace; San Diego seems like as good a location as any. Way to go San Diego!
