GSHCDC 2024

 Howard County Girl Scout Day Camp has been a time honored family tradition with our crew. Each year they would head off with friends/adult volunteers and come home with songs and stories and crafts and new experiences that fit the theme. 

As they got to middle school the girls trained as PAs in the PAT unit and then helped out through high school and even as adults. This year Johanna spent her last year as a camper in Unit 6 and enjoyed the Renn Fest theme with Rachael and Bridget as volunteers. Rachael drove to and from camp each day so again I got to experience their joy without the task of the taxi. Rachael worked with the little campers in Unit 1 and they really bonded with her despite running a tight ship. Bridget worked in Leather. Megan even joined for the last day as a volunteer.

Summer Things- Mid summer catch up

 Our summer has gotten off to a fun start. 

Bridget took a trip to NYC with her Girl Scout Troop, received her Girl Scout Silver Award and celebrated with a party.  Her silver project happened during the pandemic and she sewed tons of face masks for the Cotactin Furnace Historical Society. She and I attended their festival back in Sept 2021 and brought a large supply of historical fabric inspired masks right as their supply was depleted. It was a well-deserved award.

Johanna wrapped up her 3rd grade year with Field Day and was soon in the pool doing summer swim. She has swim meets most Saturdays and is getting faster as the summer goes. Johanna also attended Howard County Girl Scout Day Camp for a week and came home singing all of the camp songs. She also did St Mark Drama Camps for 2 separate weeks. With Harry Potter and Encanto themes.

Rachael is working at Weiss Grocery in the bakery and making visits to Boston to visit Josh. She was so glad to be able to volunteer at HCGSDC on 2 days that she wasn't working.

Megan is working at the farm, bottling olive oil and is returning the favor to the Kureks as the driver to the farm. Joseph and Michael drove her to work previous years and now it is her opportunity to drive Katherine. The slightly rusty, no AC, crank window car is doing the trick.

Emma is working in the McKeldin section of Patapsco State Park this year, and is running art programs. This year after getting small craft certified she has added Canoe and Paint events. Megan joined her on one and had a blast.

We had a good 4th of July in Catonsville at the Shumakers. A good number of people/cousins were out of town and there was more coming and going but still a lot of fun. I missed the handing out of rocket pops while I was picking up Josh and Rachael after work, but I did get to eat one. Josh brought his fire spinning tools and did a demonstration for the party. It was pretty cool. Uncle Erik queued up some fire themed songs as Josh performed. For the first time I walked Johanna down to the high school with the bigger cousins to see the fireworks. It is an amazing show!

Then the next weekend amid near constant rain, we helped the Brinks set up for Crab Soup in their back yard. Jim headed over early on Saturday to help get the soup going, while I did a very rainy swim meet with Johanna. The rain turned more to a drizzle later in the afternoon and we got to enjoy the party. Megan held a good number of new babies, Bridget hung out with the young teens and Johanna got to swim in the pool after I went back home to get her swimsuit. Emma and Rachael were able to come by too.

Stay at Home Camp Day

July 15, 2020

Stay at Home Camp Day

With all of the usual summer activities being canceled, we decided that we should do summer camp at home. Each summer my girls have participated and then volunteered at HCGSDC, they became PAs and learned all of the traditions and skills required for running camp. So being that there are 5 of them and they have the skills, camp day was an easy shift. Camp is usually all week with a sleepover in the middle. We decided to compress the whole week in one day. The girls pulled out a notebook and wrote down basic ideas and a supply list. I made a store run and we just rolled with it.

Emma came down in the morning and we all pulled out camp shirts, head coverings, socks that covered our ankles, and closed two shoes. Jim picked the camp name Baloo and grabbed his hat. I took upon my role of spraying sunsceen and bugspray and reminding everyone to get water bottles. Megan took the "kitchen" role and made lunch order forms and set out coffee and hot chocolate. From there the day started rolling.

Flag pole and announcements. I hid the camp mascot, Heidi, and we gathered our school supply donations.

We gathered on the Tarp and camp songs ensued. Johanna wasn't as familiar with the songs so the girls stuck to the call and response songs and she got into it. Rachael lead "dance" with a camp playlist ready to go. We did "games" playing a wet version of duck duck goose using a sponge, it was called drip, drip, drop and getting wet was a great relief in the hot sun. We played limbo some with more success than others. Johanna had a clear advantage in that game.

While Emma and Megan did the "kitchen" duties, Jim and girls worked on the Unit flag. I had a work meeting so I had to go into HQ for a while. We all regathered for lunch, which was delicious.

Bridget lead "crafts" and had us each make tiny wire trees with bead leaves. Rachael was ready with her whistle and reviewed the rules and skills of archery and one at a time we joined her and tried our hand at archery. 

The camp day isn't complete without a snowball, so we went to our local snowball stand for cold sugary goodness. Megan did a quick "STEM" activity of mentos and soda. They girls picked a Quarantine food theme for dinner and we had lysol lemonade, isolation doracos, and socially distant fruit. Megan did a great job getting everything for dinner together and it was delicious.

Jim and I were in charge of "program" which should fit the theme.  I printed Coronavirus word searches and Jim taught us all how to fold a bandana into a facemask. It was getting dark by then and the scouts got the fire going. Emma hadn't realized that a sleepover was a part of camp day so it wound up just being Megan, Bridget, and Johanna sleeping in the tent that night.

Our Camp Day was so much fun. We were hot and sweaty and active and productive and community minded. It was all the best parts of camp. It was so much fun!

Summer Camps and Activities

June and July 2019

It was another summer of Howard County Girl Scout Day Camp. Megan and Bridget signed up for Session 1 and the theme was A Space Odyssey. It ran from June 24-28. Megan was working the camp in the role of PA (Program Aide) so she had a series of training sessions in the months prior to camp. She worked in the Kitchen again, which is hot and sweaty but comes with free lunch everyday. Bridget has aged out of being a camper and this summer signed up to be a PAT (Program Aide in Training).  They put on their camp mindsets, bug spray, sunscreen, and camp names of Overalls and Smidge respectively, and happily settled into sweat, dirt, service, and fun.

On the last day of camp Bridget completed the PAT program and bridged to PA. They hold a ceremony so I went up to camp mid-day. Meg is the busiest in the kitchen at that time and she wasn't sure she could duck out and be there for the bridging. I was so glad when she arrived. Megan had the honor of pinning Bridget. I am so proud of both of them.

Camp sign up happened back in March and we made the decision not to sign Rachael up, because we had no idea what she would be doing work wise. Rachael did get a job and she had off on one of the Camp days. She went in and helped out for the day. One day was not enough, so she decided to take a week off work and she signed herself up to volunteer for Session 2 which is the 2nd week of July.

While the big sisters were at Session 1 of Girl Scout Camp, Johanna was keeping busy at VBS. Johanna was thrilled to attend with her cousins, Claudia, Victor and Teresa and to have some of her cousins helping as group leaders. Johanna did really well and was engaged with the activities, songs, crafts and theme. The theme was Athens:Paul's Dangerous Journey to Share the Truth. Johanna was in the Galatians small group and she liked learning about all of the cities where Paul visited and wrote letters. Her favorite song from the week was "Love" which was sung in a round.
Love, Love, Love
Christians this is your call
to love your neighbor as yourself
'cause God loves us all.

Johanna and I on 7/11 before sister pickup

Summer Stretch coincided with  Session 2 GSHCDC. Summer Stretch is the middle school service camp that is run out of St. Agnes. The theme was Moana this year so we donated some of our old party decorations, like the Maui drawing and the kakamora pinata. Bridget was a participant for Summer Stretch and got a lot out of visiting a nursing home, cleaning a soup kitchen, and making sandwiches for the hungry. She also had a blast being in her cousin Peter's group for all of the service as well as the fun games that make up the rest of the week's activities, including on-site laser tag and Water Olympics.  Megan volunteered as a Peer for the week, lead her service group at ARC, cemetery cleanup and the pregnancy centers storage facility and fun activities. Megan got to make the water Olympics trophy and I was delighted at the whimsy she put into it. They had new adult leaders this year as the staff at churches have changed and Wayne and Sue moved to other roles. The peers were a little unsure as to how it would go while doing all of the planning but everything went off without any issues.

That same week Rachael spent her time at Girl Scout camp working in a Unit of rising 6th graders. she didn't want to miss her last year as a PA, so she jumped in enthusiastically. She had to skipWednesday because she and I ventured off to UMBC orientation. But she went back that night to camp to work the 6th grade sleepover. She came home regaling stories of being the loudest singer and having a great time energizing the overnighters.  On Friday I went up to camp for her Bridging ceremony. All of the seniors bridged to Adults and I was proud to be there to pin Rachael as she crossed over. It is a sentimental moment as you reflect on how little these girls were when they first came to camp, and the reality that the way they will interact with camp will be different going forward. I am so proud of Rachael and all of the service she has done over the years.

Megan also got a the opportunity to attend Steubenville Youth Conference in New York. The teens from Our Lady of Victory piled in a white van and they spent a weekend in pray and praise. Megan came back with her soul feed and refreshed. She also had a great time hanging out with friends.

Johanna spent many of her summer mornings at the pool with Jim. she joined the swim pre-team and got intensive lessons. she was a much stronger swimmer in a short time. Jim said that the coach said she has never had a little kid talk so much while swimming.