We signed our Brownie up for a week-long camp experience at Camp Adelaide in the “Outdoor Explorers” program. This was her first sleep-away camp and she was apprehensive about being away from home for so long so we went to the open house prior to her stay. The staff were extremely friendly on our initial visit. They showed us some of the activities the girls would be doing like archery and geocaching and that really piqued her excitement. When we got home she started counting down the “sleeps” until camp.

When we arrived for her first day the camp leader “Nemo” greeted my daughter by name, which I thought was a wonderful touch considering she had met her just briefly the month before during the open house. It immediately made my daughter feel at ease and welcomed. Before I had left for home the leaders had the girls playing games already!

I checked the mailbox every day for letters from her and was not disappointed. They highlighted some hilarious points like “I am having a great time here but had a bad sleep the first night because I kept hearing a mosquito.” She said she loved the time she had every day to write a letter home.

When we picked her up at the end of her camping experience she was already asking if she could go back later this summer. On our three-hour drive home, she regaled us with stories of what they had done that week. During archery she hit the bullseye after a lot of practice. She is still talking about it. Swimming, canoeing  and using the water trampoline on Black Lake were other favourite activities.

I left my Brownie at camp with her not knowing any of the other campers and being away from home for an extended period of time for the first time, and picked up a very happy excited little girl who is 100% more confident in her abilities and has made a dozen new friends, and who wanted to stay for another week. She has memories to last a lifetime and will definitely be going back again!

By guest blogger Brianna Warr-Hunter. Brianna is the mother of a Brownie who is going into her fourth year of Guiding and who enjoys metal detecting, camping and geocaching.

How do you keep the Guiding spirit alive in the summer? Share your story on the blog! Contact us at ggcblog(at)girlguides.ca