On July 11, SCA and Girl Scouts of the USA kicked-off a new partnership designed to expand and improve outdoor opportunities for girls. The initiative’s first stage is an all-Scout crew led by SCA crew leaders including Gabie Perkins, a Gold Award Girl Scout from the Girl Scouts of Northern New Jersey, who has just reported in…
Approximately three days ago, 12 young ladies met for the first time to begin a conservation trip at Shenandoah National Park. Each of them is a Girl Scout, representing five different Girl Scout councils across the country, and they each had to go through the application process in order to get onto the crew. None of them have done trail work before, and it has been great to see them grow within the last few days.
Our project involves busting up old concrete steps and replacing them with locust logs, which are native to Shenandoah. We have debarked and moved what feels like 100 logs but is probably closer to 20. The girls have been bonding over their sore muscles and wet feet from crossing the creek.
At the start, the word “can’t” was being thrown around regularly, until the girls realized they are capable of so much more, like moving four-foot logs down a trail or banging rebar into the ground. As we have been taking out the cement steps, there have been challenges that come up and these young women have given suggestions to the problems, critically thinking about a solution. It’s been awesome.
The dynamic of an all-women crew is different from a co-ed one, especially one made up of Girl Scouts. They are so considerate of one another and I barely have to tell them twice to do something. I am so impressed with their work ethic and how willing they are to work.
They didn’t know what to expect from an SCA crew, and only have Girl Scout camp as a gauge, and they all have been pleasantly surprised how hard they are working. We should be done with our steps today, and the motivation to get them done is high. Ellie, Katherine, Lexie, Evie – the whole crew is talking about how excited they are to finish the steps and see the final project.
Stay tuned!
