There is a special breed of woman out there who thrives on sleepless nights, mosquitoes, highly emotional teenage girls, and tying knots. We call these women, “Girls Camp Leaders.” They sacrifice their time, energy, and patience all for wild, crazy, energetic, dramatic, and emotional beings we call, “girls campers.”
I’ve just returned from another week in the woods, surrounded by girls, tents, campfires, and a whole lot of love. I can’t even count how many times I have been to Girls Camp. I attended all five years as a youth (back when we had snazzy names like yearlings, adventurers, and summiteers), and I’ve been back multiple times as a stake or ward leader. I’ve attended with different stakes and wards all across the country. And if they will have me, I’ll be back again next year. I just love Girls Camp.
I’m stiff, sore, sunburned, and still chanting a little song about a moose who drinks a lot of juice. Somewhere in the back of my head Miss Hannigan’s solo from “Annie,” is playing on repeat, “Little girls, little girls, everywhere I look, I see them!” And I wouldn’t change it for anything in the world. Because in spite of logic defying heat waves, no shade, high humidity, and a shower that refused to put out cold water, I just had the best week of the year. And I would do it all again just to give my young women the experiences I had as a girl.
Girls Camp is where I learned the most about who I am. It is where I discovered that I like sleeping in a tent (but I’ll gladly take a cabin). It is where I learned how nice a week without a mirror can be. When you stop worrying about what you look like there are a lot of other more interesting things to care about! It was the first time and place I ever wrote my feelings out in my journal. And it was the best week all year long because I was with other girls just like me!
I was never good at physical education in school, or much of an athlete at all. I was the girl that was always picked last no matter the sport. To be really honest, I was just fine with that, as I preferred a good book on the couch over anything involving running or a ball. But at Girls Camp I discovered a love for hiking and a life without walls.
My parents gave me many wonderful opportunities. We took one or two camping trips as a family. But we weren’t an outdoorsy kind of family. We were the type of people who enjoyed music and books. We took family walks in the evening, but hiking a mountain for recreation was not in our repertoire. It was my “adventurer” year at Girls Camp (now known with the less exciting name of “fourth year young women”) that some brave soul took my counterparts and me on a gutsy hike up the toughest mountain in Virginia. It was a patient and inspiring camp leader who taught me that I didn’t have to be the fastest or strongest on the trail. Slow and steady will get there too, plus you get to enjoy the scenery longer, so why rush the hike? Heaven knows, I never thought I’d make it to the top of that mountain. But I did make it, and as I looked at the Shenandoah Valley below me, I fell in love with hiking.
I knew from that moment on that I would climb mountains. I’ve climbed mountains all around the world from the Alps to the Adirondacks! I’ve slept under the stars and marveled at the Milky Way, and all because of what I learned at Girls Camp.
As an adult living on my own, I have often relied on my Girls Camp skills. Need something tied up? Allow me to show you my awesome knot tying skills. Is that plant poisonous? I know a little rhyme for that! Traveling in a less developed country with inferior toilets? Trust me, I’ve seen worse at Girls Camp.
I can still remember being twelve years old and driving out to the forest where I would set up my first tent, sleep with three other girls, fight off the 17 year cicadas, dig a latrine, start a fire, and cook over it. It was one of the best and most traumatic experiences of my life. And I wouldn’t trade it for anything.
Girls Camp is where I learned that I CAN DO HARD THINGS! Because of girls camp, I learned patience with my peers, and that some people are just born naturally prettier than others. And that some women will spend way too much time worrying about how they look, even when everyone else around them is sweaty, disgusting, and covered in dirt. It is the first time I ever felt the urge to stand up and declare my love for my friends.
Years later, after my Girls Camp days were behind me, I got it in my head that I wanted to become a firefighter and EMT. The training to become one was rigorous and demanding. But I sailed right on through my knots course because I had learned and mastered it all when I was twelve years old. And the lessons I had received at Girls Camp over the years, made my EMT classes considerably easier. You would be amazed just how much I already knew!
When Y2K was all the rage, and people were stressing over whether or not the power grid would fail, and stocking up on food supplies in case of looting, I remember very confidently thinking that in case of any of such stupidity occurring, I could lean back on my Girls Camp fire cooking skills, and be just fine.
Not everyone will be quite as crazy as I am, and grow up to want to live in third world country, go outback hiking and camping, and consider living off the grid just because she can. And maybe I’m partial to everyone learning the Heimlich maneuver because my life was saved by someone who knew it. But I do firmly believe that the wilderness and survival skills taught at Girls Camp are important in the development of young women, even if she doesn’t find latrines alluring.
On a more spiritual note, Girls Camp was also the first time in my life that I was able to witness other girls my age (that weren’t in my family) reading their scriptures, writing in their journals, and bearing their testimonies. Seeing them do it encouraged me to do it as well. Growing up in a town where I was frequently the only LDS student in my class, or one of only a few members in my school, Girls Camp made me feel a part of something bigger, and less like the odd girl out.
This past week as an adult leader I found myself the recipient of lots of hugs. Nothing can beat the feeling of a young woman that you know is going through some awful family issues, throwing herself into your arms, and tearfully saying that she LOVES camp, and she’s just so happy, and that she never wants to go home.
And then to hear the same young woman bravely bear her testimony that when she was feeling alone and lost, that she opened her scriptures to look for answers.
Our stake divides the girls up by years, and they camp with their year leaders, rather than their wards. Knowing that a few of my girls are going through some very rough patches, I sought out each of the ward girls each morning to give them a hug and check in with them. By the end of our 5 day camp, my girls were looking for me to come and give me a hug. And for a few days my life wasn’t about being single, or dating, or working, or worrying about anything back home. It was all about giving these girls what my leaders once gave me- a lot of love, the freedom to be a girl, new experiences, and some pointers on how to best teepee a tent without getting caught. (I won’t brag but rumor has it our ward may or may not have managed to teepee a tent with girls awake and talking inside of it without getting caught!)
I can appreciate that bugs, trees, dirt, and sleeping bags just aren’t for everyone. And I won’t criticize any girl or woman who doesn’t want to do camp. But life is so much more than learning fashion, manners, flirting, and crafts. (All things I do encourage teaching young women, by the way.) But it is also about giving a young woman a chance to be tested, expand her horizons, and find out SHE CAN DO HARD THINGS!
If you are in the United States you may have noticed a massive heat wave happening last week. If there is anything I can take with me away from Girls Camp last week, it is that I survived the heat wave. No air conditioning, little electricity, blessed little shade, tent camping, and dozens of girls running around in 100 degree weather. And we survived. We all made it through. We adjusted, we adapted, and we overcame to have a great week.
As I prepare for my next big personal and professional adventure of living for three months just below the equator in a less developed country, I have the memory of last week to rely on. I can survive the heat. I can survive showers with spiders in them. I can survive remote locations. I can do hard things.
I can say without reservation that Girls Camp made me the woman I am today. And for that I have a few women to thank- First, my mother, for making me go! And the rest in no particular order- Sisters Jibson, Gonzalez, Cottrell, Robeson, Coots, and Chapman for giving me some of the best experiences of my life. Sister Bywater, you deserve some credit to for being the first person to invite me back as a camp leader- thank you. And to Sisters Bradford, Wheatley, and Doran, while you never took me to camp, you were still the best YW leaders I could ever ask for. I can only hope that I am half the Girls Camp and YW leader to my girls that you were to me!
So Girls Camp and YW leaders, join with me. Instead of the usual comments this week, help add to our list! Join us over on the Meridian Magazine Facebook page (you have to “like us” to leave a comment), and add your two cents to –
“You know you are at Girls Camp when…” or “You know you are a girls camp leader when…”
- You know you are at girls camp when you wipe your fork on the pants you have been wearing for 3 days and declare the fork clean!
- You know you are at girls camp when you can’t stop planning skits in your head.
- You dream about sippin’ cider through a straw.
- You can’t get any sleep because it is bullfrog mating season.
- You laugh when you discover matching bug bites on both legs.
- You are drinking out of a bottle of water, and you have no idea who it belongs to.
- The “10 second rule” has become the “5 minute rule.”
You know you are a girls camp leader when-
- There is a shoe, a brush, and 20 rubber bands in your purse, and none of them belong to you.
- Your fingers are tired from braiding and putting corn rows in hair.
- You sneak off to your car just to turn on the air conditioning for five minutes.
- You have ever said, “Girls, if you are going to to toilet paper/raise a bra up the flag pole/pull a prank, at least let me show you how to do it without getting caught.”
- You have ever brushed your teeth with Gatorade, and were so tired you didn’t even notice.
- You find yourself saying, “Honey, there is no shame in taking at least one bath while at Girls Camp.”
Girls Camp Leaders unite!
Erin Ann McBride is a writer, dreamer, and amateur hiker. Equal parts Mary Poppins, Carrie Bradshaw, and Mother Theresa, she goes where the wind blows, writes about relationships and dating, and is devoted to serving others. You can get more of her at the Story of a Nice Mormon Girl. She says that if you aren’t friends with Meridian Magazine on Facebook, you are missing out.