Inspired! Newsletter - Summer 2023 | Girl Scouts of Greater Chicago and Northwest Indiana

SUMMER 2023

YOU helped connect, empower, and inspire girls at camp!

Camp Butternut Springs Gets a New Pool!

Summer would not be summer without cooling off at the pool on hot sunny days. This summer, campers will enjoy our new state-ofthe-art pool at Camp Butternut Springs in Valparaiso, IN. This $3.2 million pool and shower house is Girl Scouts of Greater Chicago and Northwest Indiana’s largest capital improvement project to date and gives the previously existing 50-year-old pool muchneeded updates to ensure it is safe and accessible for all campers.

Girls and volunteers who may experience physical challenges now are able to enjoy swimming at Camp Butternut Springs. The pool has an ADA-compliant lift that will allow greater accessibility for swimmers who will benefit from mobility assistance, and the new shower house features 16 individual wheelchair-accessible shower rooms with private sinks and toilets so all campers, staff, and volunteers will have privacy and improved safety when using the facility.

Some of the other added features of the new pool include a diving board, a covered canopy for shade, lighting for night swims, and water bottle-filling stations. The new pool is also heated, which will extend the pool’s usage to campers for more months of the year!

We are thrilled to be able to provide girls with this new pool and look forward to being part of the memories that will be created here for many years to come.

GIRLS EXPERIENCE THE JOY AND

A Message From Peggy Brothers

Irecently realized that Girl Scouts has been a part of my life for 50 years! I was a Girl Scout for nine years, a volunteer for six years, and I have been an employee for 35 years. WOW, that’s a lot of years!! And I wouldn’t trade this journey for anything in the world.

Attending camp was a very important part of my Girl Scout experience as a girl. There were many things at camp that challenged me and pushed me out of my comfort zone, but I knew I had the support of great counselors who supported me every step of the way.

As an adult, I became a troop leader and was a volunteer summer camp leader at Camp Pokanoka for several years. It was one summer 35 years ago, while I was serving as a volunteer lifeguard, that I learned of an open membership specialist staff position with Girl Scouts. I hadn’t realized that employment opportunities were an option with Girl Scouts, but this came at a time when I was ready to make a career change, so I jumped at the opportunity and my Girl Scout journey as a fulltime staff member began.

In all that I have done over the course of my time with the council, my heart has always been with outdoor programming. I have engaged with thousands of girls and their families at camp over the past several decades and one of the things that brings me the greatest joy is when an adult woman comes with her daughter by her side, and she reminds me that I was her camp counselor 30 years ago and how excited she is to have her daughter experience camp for the first time.

These moments remind me that camp is more than cabins, camp songs, and cooking outdoors. It is about creating memories that girls will take with them for a lifetime.

Peggy Brothers

Assistant Vice President Camp Program and Property

Meet Our Camp staff

Each year, more than 3,000 girls come to GCNWI camps, which include Camp Butternut Springs (Valparaiso, IN), Camp Greene Wood (Woodridge, IL), Camp Juniper Knoll (East Troy, WI), and Camp Palos (Palos Park, IL).

Summertime is our busiest season, and 40 staff members help keep everything running smoothly. The camp team’s mission is to engage all girls in progressive and experiential outdoor experiences to build confident, capable leaders and outdoor advocates, and empower adults to support girls in their efforts. Camp teams prepare all year long to ensure that girls are safe and that our programs provide girls with new outdoor experiences, opportunities to create lasting memories with friends, and—most importantly—have FUN!!

One of the unique aspects of our camp program is the opportunity to have international staff join the team. This year, we have 20 team members from six different foreign countries including Mexico, Colombia, England, Ireland, Australia, and Scotland. These team members bring different perspectives, high energy, and diversity to our camp experience.

Our camp teams are comprised of camp directors, camp counselors, counselors in training, maintenance and grounds crews, nursing staff, and special activities leaders–all of whom are enthusiastic about helping girls have the best camp experience possible.

Meet our amazing camp directors!

“Jazz” (Camp Name)

Shannon Ross “Disappearing Turtle” (Camp Butternut Springs)

Lauren Somogyi “Sprout” (Camp Greene Wood)

Kary Roorda “Kanga” (Camp Palos)

Margaret Gawlik “Strike” (Juniper Knoll)

ADVENTURE OF CAMP BECAUSE OF YOU!

Campfire Memories

A Girl Scout camping experience is filled with many adventures. Nature hikes, crafts, high rope adventure courses, and campfires. The campfire at a Girl Scout camp is a special place. It is a place of community where stories of the day are told and adventures of what’s to come are dreamed up. It is also a place where those memorable camp songs are sung and the first-time experience of cooking on an open fire begins.

We invite you to create your own campfire memories with these fun campfire recipes and songs!

Banana Boats Campfire Dessert

Ingredients

• 1 banana

• Chocolate chips or caramel chips (or both!)

• Mini marshmallows

Additional supplies

• Square of heavy-duty tin foil (large enough to wrap the banana

• Long-handled tongs (to remove wrapped banana after cooking from the campfire)

Prep Instructions

• Using a knife, slice a slit into the banana and peel into the banana, splitting the banana.

• Stuff the banana with chocolate chips, caramel chips, and mini marshmallows. (You decide your favorite combination.)

• Wrap the banana tightly with the tin foil.

Cooking instructions

• Place wrapped banana onto hot coals of the campfire and turn occasionally until chips and marshmallows melt.

• Unwrap, grab a spoon, and enjoy this sweet treat!

“Form Banana” Campfire Song

(Catch on song - The leader starts the song and the campers follow.)

Form banana, form, form banana, (left arm up overhead)

Form banana, form, form banana, (right arm up and meet left hand overhead)

Peel, banana, peel, peel banana, (left arm down)

Peel banana, peel, peel banana, (right arm down)

Go bananas, go, go bananas, (spin around and swing arms wildly)

Go bananas, go, go bananas! (spin around and swing arms wildly)

Form the corn, form, form the corn, (left arm up overhead)

Form the corn, form, form the corn, (right arm up meet left hand overhead)

Shuck the corn, shuck, shuck the corn, (left arm down, in a jerky motion)

Shuck the corn, shuck, shuck the corn, (right arm down, in a jerky motion)

Pop the corn, pop, pop the corn, (jump up and down)

Pop the corn, pop, pop, the corn! (jump up and down)

Form the orange, form, form the orange, (left arm up overhead)

Form the orange, form, form the orange, (right arm up overhead)

Peel the orange, peel, peel the orange, (left arm down)

Peel the orange, peel, peel the orange, (right arm down)

Squeeze the orange, squeeze, squeeze the orange, (singers hug themselves)

Squeeze the orange, squeeze, squeeze the orange! (singers hug themselves)

Help More Girls Have Fun at Summer Camp!

Attending camp is often a highlight of the summer for girls and their families. As one mom recently shared, “Our daughter has tried out a smorgasbord of camps this summer and based on her reaction I can tell that Camp Greene Wood blew them all away. Every day she came home and had so much awesomeness to talk about. Her friends, her counselors, the games, the songs, you name it! Your team made magic all week for your campers, especially mine!”

Families continue to face increasing costs for their basic needs and having enough money for camp is not always possible. Rising costs have also impacted our camp operations and pricing structure. Our goal is to keep camp accessible to all girls. We do not want any family’s financial situation to be a barrier to a girl attending camp or enjoying it to the fullest.

We provide financial assistance to any family that requests it, and the Landgraf Family Foundation has generously established a campership fund that provides full and partial camp scholarships in addition to what the council is able to budget.

We have seen a 52% increase in requests for financial assistance this year. Families need our support to make camp part of their child’s summer experience.

Will you support a girl’s camping adventure?

Summer camp can be more than outdoor adventures and camp songs for a girl. It is the place where a girl can discover something new about herself. It can be a place where a girl conquers her fears, embraces new experiences, and grows her courage, confidence, and character.

This Girl Scout’s experience, shared by her parents, sums up the value of GCNWI summer camp:

“As our final week of camp wraps up, I don’t know how to begin to thank you all. We have watched our daughter beam in confidence this summer in endless ways. We are so grateful for the amazing camp experience that you all work so hard to create!! ”

YOU can make camp experiences possible for girls this summer and next.