Navy Volunteers Make Improvements at A Place for Girls

On August 13, a group of 22 volunteers from the Navy gave a helping hand to Girl Scouts of the Colonial Coast as part of their monthly volunteer efforts. The volunteers spent the day at A Place for Girls, the headquarters and program center for Girl Scouts of the Colonial Coast, in Chesapeake.

During the day, the group painted a Conex storage box, cleaned and painted a canoe trailer and cleaned all of the office furniture that will be moved into A Place for Girls in the coming weeks. They also replaced the hot water heater in The Lodge, a program annex building and repaired boards along the wooden walkway in The Outback, a nearly 9 acre nature area situated behind A Place for Girls. This project was essential to helping Girl Scouts maintain a safe environment for girls who attend summer camp at the location.

“I was a Girl Scout while growing up in Texas, and even though I don’t have any daughters, I enjoy giving back to an organization that made a difference in my life,” volunteer Vanessa Braimer said. “I remember being proud of the badges that I earned, and looking back, I see how important it was for me to learn about civic duty at a young age.”

Girl Scouts of the Colonial Coast relies on volunteers all year long to not only serve as mentors and guides for nearly 15,000 girls across the region, but also to help maintain our camp properties and program facilities. This is the second time that this group of volunteers have spent the day at A Place for Girls, and they plan to continue giving their time and talents to help Girl Scouts.

View more photos from the day here.

Girl Scouts Welcome Four-Legged Visitors at Summer Camp

Girl Scout Daisy Mackenna meets a
trained canine companion.

Girls who are attending Girl Scout Camp Imagimazing Summer Fun in Chesapeake welcomed a few four-legged visitors, as they are working on earning the badge from the Animal category this week at camp. Three dogs from Canine Companions for Independence, along with their trainers, came to the camp so that girls could see what goes into training assistance dogs and how these highly trained dogs enhance the lives of people with disabilities.

During their presentation, the dog trainers demonstrated the commands that they teach, including basic obedience commands, opening a door and retrieving dropped items, such as keys. Afterwards, the girls had the opportunity to pet the dogs, two of which were puppies in the early stages of their training process, and practice commands, including barking on command and shaking “paws.”

Girl Scout Brownie Erin meets
Bella, a puppy that is in training
to be an assistance dog.

Throughout the week at camp, girls have been engaged in a variety of activities where they have learned about what goes into caring for pets and keeping them healthy, investigated wild animal habitats and discussed how humans and animals can care for and help one another. The girls have also had the opportunity to participate in traditional camp activities, including swimming, archery and canoeing.

Girl Scouts of the Colonial Coast offers nine weeks of day camp, including this week, at A Place for Girls, the regional program center and headquarters in Chesapeake. Girl Scout camp is a unique all-girl environment where girls develop leadership skills, learn how to work as part of a team and make new friends.

Camp Apasus Pool Dedication

On August 13, Girl Scouts of the Colonial Coast hosted a dedication ceremony for their new pool at Camp Apasus in Norfolk. The pool was made possible through a generous donation from the Norfolk Sertoma Club, a longtime supporter of Girl Scouts and Camp Apasus. The pool dedication was followed by the annual appreciation luncheon hosted by Girl Scouts for the members of the Sertoma Club. During the luncheon, girls who are currently attending the day camp at Camp Apasus sang songs and handed out crafts that they had made to the guests. 

Girl Scouts and members of the Norfolk Sertoma Club

Last summer, members of the Sertoma Club presented Girl Scouts of the Colonial Coast with a check for $10,000 to cover the cost of replacing the nearly 40-year-old pool at the camp. The new pool was installed in time for the beginning of the 2014 summer camp season, and was enjoyed this summer by the 54 girls who attend Girl Scout day camp at Camp Apasus, as well as over 300 Norfolk youth during five weeks of day camp hosted by the Sheriff Bob McCabe Foundation. This is the second year that the Foundation has partnered with Girl Scouts of the Colonial Coast to offer a free summer camp experience for girls and boys in Norfolk.

In addition to the new pool, a local Boy Scout raised funds and built a deck around the pool to create a safe and stable platform for swimmers for his Eagle Award project. The new deck and pool offer an updated and safer environment for girls to learn how to swim and enjoy the water at Camp Apasus.

Since the 1930s, Girl Scouts have been attending Camp Apasus, where they’re not only building campfires, swimming and making friends, but also learning how to work as a team, develop leadership skills and gain a sense of self-confidence as they try new things. Thanks to the generous support of the Sertoma Club and other community organizations, Girl Scouts of the Colonial Coast can continue to serve girls, building courage, confidence and character among them, one girl at a time.

Happy campers enjoy the new pool at Camp Apasus.

View more photos from the day here.

Virginia Beach Girl Scouts Participate in Internship Experience with Local Entrepreneur

While most Girl Scouts are very familiar with the cookie business, three Virginia Beach Girl Scouts, Morgan Kelly, Baillie McGowan and Reid Wolfe, recently had the opportunity to gain insight into a whole new world of cookies at Lucy’s, an allergy-friendly food manufacturing company known for their gluten-free cookies, in Norfolk. Morgan, Baillie and Reid had the opportunity to participate in an internship experience at Lucy’s after getting to know the company’s founder and chairman, Dr. Lucy Gibney, through her sponsorship of their experience at the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women in New York City in March.

Reid, Morgan and Baillie look at marketing collateral
Julie Matthews, communications manager at Lucy's.

The girls started off their day at Lucy’s in the company’s corporate office. After speaking with Dr. Gibney, the girls met with Julie Matthews, the communications manager, to learn about the work that goes into designing cookie boxes, managing corporate social media accounts and updating the website. The girls, who all enjoy foreign language classes at school, were intrigued with the process of designing a package to include the information in more than one language.

Next, the girls traveled about 10 minutes away to the Lucy’s bakery and warehouses, where they learned about human resources, warehouse management and logistics for packaging and shipping. They also donned hairnets for a tour of the bakery, during which they learned about how the production and packaging machines function, as well as the allergy-friendly products that are used in the bakery and the precautions taken to ensure that all of the products manufactured a Lucy’s are not tainted with allergens, including gluten and nuts.

Baillie runs one of the packaging machines during a demonstration inside the bakery at Lucy's.

During the afternoon, the girls taste tested all 12 flavors of Lucy’s cookies, including the two newest flavors, Berry Best Cookie and Lemon Goodness. They also heard from staff members about customer service and helped research an upcoming blog for the Lucy’s website.

For Morgan, Baillie and Reid, this experience gave them the opportunity to learn about the numerous facets of running a business to help them think about what they may like to do in the future. Through her mentorship of these girls, Dr. Gibney has shown them that they can be anything and do anything that they set their minds to.

Dr. Lucy Gibney will be recognized by Girl Scouts of the Colonial Coast as a Girl Scout Famous Former at a luncheon on October 30.

Portsmouth Girl Scouts Gearing Up for a Year of STEM Learning

Some of the newest Girl Scouts in Portsmouth have had a busy summer preparing for all of the fun and adventure they're planning for the upcoming year. The girls, who are members of Girl Scout Troop 5782 in the Cross Creek community in Portsmouth, have been meeting twice a month over the summer to get to know one another through fun games, crafts and activities.

So far this summer, the girls have started learning the Girl Scout Promise and Law, which are guiding principles that outline the way Girl Scouts agree to act towards others. Together, they talk about what it means to be friendly, helpful, respectful, considerate and courageous—values stated in the Girl Scout Law. The girls have also been preparing for a big trip at the end of the summer to Busch Gardens to participate in ThrillBuilders, a STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) program that introduces girls to simple machines and physics concepts. The trip to Busch Gardens is designed to provide girls with firsthand experiences in STEM to build on their interests and encourage them to consider careers in the STEM fields.

Girl Scout Troop 5782

“I see the value in Girl Scouting for my daughters and the other girls in the community,” K-shau-ta Trotter, the volunteer leader of Troop 5782 said. “I know that I can be a role model for these girls and help give them a positive activity to participate in outside of school.”

This fall, the girls will also be attending Science Alive, an annual event held co-hosted by Girl Scouts of the Colonial Coast and Norfolk State University, where girls will participate in sessions led by Norfolk State University faculty and students that cover a range of topics, including engineering, chemistry, medicine, biology and physics.

In today’s world, less than 30 percent of STEM careers are held by women, and it is more important than ever to expose girls to a world of possibilities for their future. Through activities such as ThrillBuilders and Science Alive, Girl Scouts allows girls to discover what they are capable of, connect with one another and learn teamwork skills and take action to become resourceful problem solvers. Girl Scouts delivers these opportunities in a comfortable, all-girl environment where girls are more likely to ask questions, try new things and take risks without having to worry about fitting into stereotypes and gender roles they may encounter at school.

The troop members are also looking forward to getting involved in their community by participating in flag ceremonies and service projects, as well as honing their financial literacy skills to participate in the 2015 Girl Scout Cookie Program.

The Girl Scout troop in Cross Creek, as well as a sister troop that is forming in Ansell Gardens, was made possible through a $10,000 grant from the Beazley Foundation. The grant will continue to help fund troop activities, as well as ensure that the girls have program resources and official uniforms.

Girl Scouts Explore STEM through LEGO Series

A group of Girl Scouts in Hampton have been hard at work this summer engineering bridges, building towers and constructing homes one LEGO brick at a time as part of a summer series hosted by Girl Scouts of the Colonial Coast. This series was designed for girls to be able to participate in hands-on experiences that introduce them to concepts and activities in the STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) fields.

During the series sessions, each Girl Scout is given a BuildToExpress LEGO kit, which contains over 200 LEGO elements, including colorful bricks, figures and accessories that will allow the girls to let their creativity come to life. When the girls met on June 23, they went over the Girl Scout Promise and Law, which outline how people should act towards one another. Then, each girl chose a component of the Law and illustrated it using her LEGO kit. From garden scenes full of flowers making the world a better place to LEGO figures being friendly and helpful, each girl had the opportunity to build with creativity.

When girls explore and discover with LEGOs, no matter what they build, they are using their imagination and practicing the basics of engineering, all while having fun. It’s a chance for them to figure out how pieces fit together, test physics by seeing how high they can stack bricks, create a visual display of ideas that they have in their head and connect with their peers as they share ideas.

This series, which was designed to open up a future in STEM for the girls who participate, was funded by Alcoa Foundation, an organization established by Alcoa, a mining, manufacturing and innovation company that makes a positive difference in sustainability by investing in the community to support education and environmental programs. Last October, the foundation awarded Girl Scouts of the Colonial Coast with $20,000 to implement STEM education programs in Hampton.

In today’s world, where only about 25 percent of STEM careers are held by women, it is more important than ever to expose girls to a world of possibilities. The informal curriculum of Girl Scouts allows girls to discover what they are capable of, connect with one another to work as part of a tem and take action to become resourceful problem solvers. Girl Scouts delivers this curriculum in a comfortable, all-girl environment, where girls are more likely to ask questions, try new things and take risks because they do not have to worry about fitting into gender roles they may encounter at school.

Camp Fury

Racing against the clock, a group of rookie firefighters in Hampton pulled on their turnout gear. Just like seasoned firefighters, they buckled their jackets, wriggled their hands into gloves and finished by securing their helmets, but these weren’t the latest recruits out of the Tidewater Regional Fire Academy— they were a group of 12 Girl Scouts participating in a special summer camp session, Camp Fury.

Camp Fury was made possible through a partnership between Girl Scouts of the Colonial Coast and the City of Hampton Division of Fire & Rescue. The idea for the camp was brought to Hampton Roads by Medic Firefighter Jami Salvio and Lt. Denee Nichols, who both work for the City of Hampton and learned about a firefighting camp for girls while attending a conference for women in the fire service in 2011.

Girl Scout Cadette Constance leads her team in an
exercise to connect hoses and bring water supply to a fire.

During the week at Camp Fury, the Girl Scouts stayed at nearby Camp Skimino and traveled to Briarfield Station #9 each day, where they learned how to roll and connect hoses, completed an aerial climb on the ladder truck, practiced search and rescue drills, tried out ladder carry techniques, learned how to use a self-contained breathing apparatus, participated in a bucket brigade drill and more. Each of the skills and techniques that girls learned were taught to them by women firefighters from across Hampton Roads.

In addition to firefighting operations, the girls were also introduced to a variety of women who work in other fields typically dominated by men, including military and law enforcement. By introducing girls to women in these fields, the girls are able to picture themselves in similar positions in the future, and give them the confidence they need to pursue their career interests, no matter what they may be.

“We wanted to give the girls a chance to see that they can do anything,” Salvio said. “I was one of just five women in my class in the Academy, and I wanted to help these girls open their eyes to a whole array of career options they may have not considered for themselves before.”

At Camp Fury, and at all Girl Scout camps, girls are immersed in a supportive, all-girl environment, where they develop leadership skills, build self-confidence and are more likely to try new things and take risks. Through their camp experience, girls also have the chance to develop teamwork skills, discover what they are capable of and develop new and lasting friendships.

Twelve local Girl Scouts participated in Camp Fury this year.

View more photos here.