An Encamporee Adventure!

Have you ever heard of an encamporee? They’re a way for girls in troops to get to camp year-round! You might have heard about, or even have gone to one of our day camps or one of our summer camps, but our camp locations are actually used all year. Encamporees are organized by our wonderful volunteers, who are in charge of our Service Units. (Service Units, or SUs, are made up of many troops from a single area.) When a SU wants to organize an encamporee, they get all of the troops who want to go, and they decide on a one-day or one-weekend time that will work.

One of the most fun parts of encamporees is that each one typically has a theme. These themes are decided by the girls and their leaders, but they’ve included themes like Amazing Race, family camp, CSI (Crime Scene Investigation, like the show) and more! Earlier this fall, SU 607 decided to go on an encamporee and their theme was “Happy Birthday Girl Scouts!”

What happens at an encamporee?

What’s your favorite thing to do while camping? Maybe it’s going canoeing and exploring the waters. Or maybe you like sitting by the campfire, singing songs and making s’mores. When girls go to an encamporee they get to do a lot of their favorite camp activities, plus they can work on projects where they’re partnering with their fellow troop members.

SU 607 had 120 girls who came to their encamporee at St. Alban’s and they had a blast! At their encamporee the Juniors got a chance to tune up their archery skills, while the Brownies made cupcake piggybanks. The SU made candles and played carnival games, plus they even found time to take a long hike! The girls even braved the cold and tried a “polar bear splash,” where they went to the swimming hole and filled buckets with water to splash the people who wanted to play.

What did you do last weekend?

One of the girls who attended SU 607’s encamporee, Jayden, had such a great time that when she went back to school and her teacher asked her to write about her weekend, she had lots to say! Here, in her words, are all the reasons she had such a good time (there’s a transcription below the image, in case you have trouble with Jayden’s handwriting):

[issuu viewMode=singlePage width=420 height=544 embedBackground=%23000000 showHtmlLink=false searchButtonEnabled=false backgroundColor=%23222222 documentId=121129213710-48f4eb91172c44ce8614c0c20b03c1d4 name=jaydenencamporee username=girlscoutsww tag=encamporee unit=px v=2]

“My mom and dad and sister and me went to a Girl Scout Camp! Juniors did archery, and Brownies did cupcake penny banks, and made real cupcakes and ate them, and then we made butterfly necklaces, and then we made candles and after that we did carnival games and I got lots of candy and slept in [the] Skogley [unit].We did a three mile hike! And we ate dinner and then skits and then the dance party came!!”