The UW Daily Online

To live by the Girl Scout law

Amy Bowden
2004-04-02

At age 20, Jeni Rees, a UW sophomore, is still a Girl Scout. When she tells people this, their common reaction is "You can still be a Girl Scout?"

This, explained Rees, is a misconception about the girl-scouting community.

"You can be a Girl Scout at whatever age," she said.

Rees is the president and founder of the UW chapter of Campus Girl Scouts. The organization has been in existence at the UW for about 10 years, though not continuously. Rees re-started the organization, which now has approximately 10 members.

"When I was a freshman, I really wanted to join a troop, but there wasn't one," said Rees. "Basically, I was like, 'Okay, I need a Girl Scout troop.' I built it up from scratch and got other girls to join, and they built it up with me."

Campus Girl Scouts is a national organization that has been around for several decades, according to Cat Trapp, membership and development manager for the Girl Scouts-Totem Council.

"It is both a way for young women who have been in Girl Scouts to continue scouting and for volunteers to help out the community. For girls who have been Scouts, it helps in the transition from being a girl member to being an adult member," Trapp said.

Campus Girl Scouts on a national scale is an organization intended to forge connections between older and younger women within communities. It is open to all female college students. "Most of the girls in the troop are 'lifers,'" said Rees, referring to members who have been Girl Scouts for years. "But you don't have to be a lifer to join. We have girls who have only been Girl Scouts for a year or who have never been Scouts before."

Trapp, who also serves as the adviser for the UW chapter of Campus Girl Scouts, explained that the girls in the organization can involve themselves in many different activities, from leading their own troop of Girl Scouts, acting as a consultant to an existing troop, or planning large events for young girls.

"I've had girls help with recruiting events. They come along to help get girls excited about joining Girl Scouts while I talk to parents about the organization," said Trapp.

UW Campus Girl Scouts mainly focuses on organizing events for Girl Scouts in the area instead of leading troops of their own. According to Rees, this is because a group member can devote as much or as little time to the club as their schedule allows.

"The craziest thing about [organizing activities] is just balancing all these Girl Scout things and the [group members] at the same time and not making them feel overwhelmed, but giving them enough opportunities to pick and choose whatever they want to do," she said.

At this point, Rees and other Campus Girl Scout members are in the process of deciding which direction to take the group. Currently, the group focuses on acting as a community resource.

"We're a lot of things. I kind of left things open ended to see what the girls would do with it, because I didn't know what people wanted," Rees explained.

Rees also explained that the group is ideal for networking purposes.

"If a troop wants to teach someone a skill they can call us up and say, 'We need someone to teach us archery,' and, by chance, maybe we have a girl who knows archery. Or, maybe a girl can talk to someone in a major they're trying to do a badge on."

UW Campus Girl Scouts recently held a large event at Camp River Ranch in Carnation, Wash. called Girl Fun Day.

Girl Fun Day was five hours of what Rees refers to as "Girl Scout stuff." The camp facility was filled to capacity, and the 100 girls who participated played games, did arts and crafts, sang songs and went on a short hike. The event was held mainly for younger Girl Scouts called brownies and juniors.

The event was so popular that the college-aged Girl Scouts had to turn away 100 girls simply because there was no more room. Because of the event's turnout, Rees said the campus group is planning to hold another just like it.

"Girl Fun Day was almost for us because everyone had such a good time. The girls had a blast -- it was great," said Rees.

At this time, Campus Girl Scouts is also in the early stages of planning an event to be held on the UW campus early next quarter. The event would be aimed at older Girl Scouts.

"With older girls, it's more of a career-type focus, where we're going to have speakers and activities so they can get to know campus," said Rees.

"It's also kind of a publicity thing for Campus Girl Scouts. So many girls that are currently in Girl Scouts have no clue there's something called Campus Scouts -- that you can still be a Girl Scout on campus."

Rees, who has been a Girl Scout for 12 years, said the organization has had a significant impact on her life, an impact she would now like to pass on to younger girls.

"When I was in Girl Scouts, there were so many things that I did that there's no way I would have done in normal life. My sister got to go windsurfing; I got to go hiking up to a glacier melt. I got all these skills I never would have learned otherwise," Rees said.

Among her many experiences in Girl Scouts, Rees got the opportunity to go to go to camps, train to be a counselor and even obtain the highest award possible in Girl Scouts, the gold award.

"I think it's such an important organization with a lot of good ideals," she said.

Trapp reflects this sentiment as well, speaking particularly of the virtues of the Campus Girl Scouts program.

It's the coolest thing for people who have been involved in Girl Scouts to reinvest their knowledge in the Girl-Scout community, for them to be able to help troop leaders inspire younger girls," Trapp said.

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