Community Corner
Girl Scout Leaders Reminisce After 11 Years of Camporee
While local Scouts enjoyed a weekend full of sun and green-themed activities at the annual camping event, Michelle Edwards and Tracy Pierce recalled burnt breakfast and good times with their daughters.
No matter the weather—hail, sun or, more often than not, rain—Girls Scout Service Unit 607’s troops flock to Camporee at the end of every spring. This weekend was a rare one, with blue skies and temperatures about 70 degrees. Other years, the girls haven’t been so lucky.
“Last time we were at St. Albans [Girl Scout Camp], one of the leaders had to go inside the health hut and wrap herself around the heater,” recalled Michelle Edwards, a Girl Scout leader. She and her co-leader, Tracy Pierce, have been organizing this event for 11 years, by Edward’s estimate.
Whether the weather is good or bad, campers (from kindergarten to high school) and their leaders can expect a weekend full of bonfires, skits, snacks and themed activities every year.
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The theme this weekend was Eco-Camp, so girls planted herb gardens and made solar-powered ovens out of pizza boxes. They also had a chance to try their hand at archery and rowing Viking boats in Lake Devereaux.
In the past, girls have mixed concoctions at a mad science-themed Camporee, completed scavenger hunts during a weekend of mystery and learned orienteering skills for “Back to the Basics.”
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Edwards and her helpers recalled some of the more memorable things that have happened at Camporee, like the bridging ceremonies. When a Girl Scout moves up the ranks, usually there is some kind of to-do involved. At the Camporee bridging ceremonies, each girl receives a gift: brownies for Brownies, junior mints for Juniors, flowers for Cadettes, and pineapples for Ambassadors.
Stephanie Pierce, Tracy's daughter, remembered “when my mom decided to put all of my things in the lost and found.” The lost and found at Girl Scout camp is a little bit different from most lost and founds. Girls have to dance and sing to get their items back.
The girls all build different and special memories from their weekend away, but more often than not, they remember the food.
“Tracy flipping French toast onto the floor,” Theresa Edwards, Michelle’s daughter, chimed in when asked what was most memorable about the weekend.
“Tracy burning the sausage and the bacon,” replied Michelle.
“Burning everything. We’re pretty good at that,” Theresa joked.
Actually, the hosts do a pretty fantastic job in the kitchen. Pierce spends nearly her entire weekend in the kitchen, as the self-appointed camp chef. She cooks three meals, two breakfasts and a dinner, for more than 100 girls and their leaders.
Despite the hard work involved, Edwards, Pierce and their scouts come back every year for more. Theresa remembers constructing a solar system in the back room of the lodge several years ago for a science project, and studying for AP tests between washing dishes and singing campfire songs just two years ago.
Eleven years later, and they don’t plan to quit anytime soon.