We had a great summer at GSCSA summer resident camp! This year we served about 320 girls across 27 programs throughout the summer. We had 25 staff that worked directly with the girls, 2 property rangers, and 7 kitchen staff that kept us well fed the entire summer. Every girl who attended camp earned badges or one of the national Girl Scout awards like the Counselor-in-Training pin.

Our Director of Programming shared one of her favorite memories from this summer:

“I spent some time at archery today and really enjoyed watching the staff work with some first-time archers. The staff facilitating archery were patient, knowledgeable, and encouraging. I’m always proud when I see a staff member excelling at something we’ve trained them to do.

But–the stars of the show today were the girls. We had girls who had never shot a bow and arrow before, had no idea how to hold the bow, and could barely get the arrow TO the target at the beginning of their session. By the end of their session, not only were they hitting the target, they were getting closer to the center than I even can!

The glow on a girl’s face when she tries something for the first time, faces that challenge, and actually succeeds, is priceless.

At the end of the archery session, the girls reflected on their experience by sharing something they liked about archery. After each girl talked, the rest of the group did ‘fireworks’ with their hands (just like you’d imagine – palms together towards the sky then bursting apart with ‘spirit fingers’) – and even included sound effects.

Watching girls celebrate each other’s successes and steps toward their archery goals was pretty gratifying; I hope that celebrating other girls and women and their successes is a skill that sticks with them for life!”