Last week, Girl Scouts gathered with over 150 donors, alum, and friends at our Annual Power Her Promise breakfast.
We want to share with you the deeply inspiring words of our Girl Scout speaker, Sarah W. Her storytelling demonstrates all of what Girl Scouts can be: the place girls find their voices and grow into themselves.
Hello, good morning — well, is it a good morning?
I know mine wasn't. Why, you may ask? Today I woke up alone to a morning of gloomy clouds. I got ready alone, did my makeup, my hair, picked out my outfit, grabbed my backpack filled with school supplies and a pre-packed lunch I threw together in five minutes, then I drove here alone, just sitting, listening to whatever was playing on the radio. Now I'm sure your morning may have been different. I doubt all of you are in high school, but I'm sure you can relate to my story, to the extent of the average routine you might have found yourself falling into in your life.
Well, let me tell you about my ideal morning. My morning starts with a shout outside the door from my energetic camp counselor, who has the most annoying voice I could hear after what seems like two seconds of sleep from the night before. Because yes, I stayed up a little bit past flashlight time like I wasn't supposed to, and possibly played Uno with my friends until my counselor said lights out. Whoops.
I then jump out of bed to head over to the bath house with the rest of my village. While brushing my teeth, I talk with the other girls and find out that the Daisies got to sleep by the fire circle last night in tents, and the Cadettes got to do their first hammock sleep outside by the overlook. They all looked so tired but full of joy from watching the water and fireflies all night.
Once I'm done brushing my teeth, I head back to the cabin with my friends to get dressed. I picked out the cool tie-dye T-shirt I made on Tie-Dye Tuesday, and I made sure to put my bathing suit under my clothes because my counselor said we have pool time today. I grab my backpack, but instead of school supplies, it's filled with friendship bracelet string, sunscreen, my water bottle, and Shrinky Dinks I made at arts and crafts.
Once I'm ready, I get in a buddy line and start heading over to the flag with my friends, singing along to camp songs. After the flag ceremony, we head over to breakfast, where we all cheer because the kitchen made biscuits that taste like home. As I sit in the mess hall at the table with my friends, we talk for a while about all the adventures that await us. Across the room I see the Brownies, who have adventure towers today, each wearing closed-toed shoes, and I see the Daisies carrying their towels on their way to the lake.
As I'm telling you about my dream morning, it's not something I've thought of in the middle of the night. It's something I've experienced every summer since I was a kid. It's the average summer morning at Girl Scout camp.
Hi, I'm Sarah Ward, and today I'm here to tell you about my second home, Pamunkey Ridge Girl Scout Camp. I've been going to Girl Scout camp ever since I was in third grade, and I'm currently an 11th grader in high school. I go with my two best friends from my troop: Theo, whose camp name is Robinhood, and Heather, whose camp name is Pickle. I've grown with these girls through the years and love to spend my time with them at camp because it's where we truly feel at home.
But these girls aren't my only camp friends. I have met many Girl Scout sisters at camp through the years, some of whom I still keep in touch with. These are lifelong connections that keep me rooted in what it means to be a Girl Scout. One may say a cookie seller, but I say a friend. Girl Scout camp has taught me to make friends with the world and to show kindness to everything around me, whether it be my bunkmates or a beetle on the trail.
As my high school career winds down and I'm now a rising senior, it's hard to find a break from my job, school, college tours, and just the real world becoming slightly too real. But one thing I will always make room for is Girl Scout camp, because it is somewhere I can truly be myself and carefree.
As a going-on-11-year Girl Scout, one staple has always been World Thinking Day. As you may know, this year's theme is friendship, and sadly it was canceled this past weekend. But my troop decided to make a s'more that says, "All ingredients come together to make memories that last." We made a poster with the s'more and the saying written in the marshmallow, and surrounding it is a border of pictures from throughout the years. Looking through the different friends we met and counselors we had brought tears to all of our eyes.
Last year I started my first year as a CIT. CIT stands for Counselor in Training, and it's where older girls in high school have the opportunity to step up in leadership and experience what it takes to be a counselor. When I grow up, I want to become a social worker and help children in my area. This year through my school I completed a teaching internship at Glen Allen Elementary. Nothing could have prepared me more for that than Girl Scout camp. The kids in school and the girls at camp are so much alike. I was always the youngest in my family, so maybe that's why I was new to kids, but who knew they could recite an entire Taylor Swift album front to back, over and over again, even if you didn't ask? At the end of my internship, I received endless compliments about how I handled different behaviors in the students, and I truly believe those skills were rooted in my time spent at camp.
In just one month, I'm going to be back on that gravel, spending my last stay at Pamunkey Ridge, and I couldn't be more excited and devastated at the same time. At the end of each week campers spend at Pamunkey Ridge, there is a song we all sing at the closing campfire. The lyrics are: "Day is done, gone the sun, from the lakes, from the hills, to the sky. All is well, safely rest, God is nigh." I can already see myself unable to sing through the tears, knowing I won't be back as a camper. All I know is that the sisters in soul I've made through the years will stick with me forever.
This is not goodnight. Just goodbye. Thank you.
If you’d like to donate to camps to help girls like Sarah W. afford the magic, please follow this link:
https://form-renderer-app.donorperfect.io/give/gscv/campership-2025
