Scouts stage an 'urban camp-in' to launch fund-raiser
|
About 200 Girl Scouts from six counties erected tents and unrolled their sleeping bags yesterday in a skybridge high above Pike Street in Seattle, staging an "urban camp-in" to help launch a $7.7 million capital campaign.
The Girl Scouts-Totem Council serves about 21,000 girls throughout northwest Washington, operating camps in Carnation, on Hood Canal and near Belfair, Mason County.
The council hopes to raise $2.6 million of its goal through individual and community donations. The money raised will help expand and modernize its existing camps, buy land for a fourth one and expand scouting programs for disadvantaged girls.
A half-dozen girls from a Kent juniors troop turned yesterday into an all-day adventure, getting on a Metro bus at 8:15 a.m. for a day of fun in Seattle. They shopped at Pike Place Market and the Seattle Aquarium gift shop, where they picked up their glittery stuffed snakes and stretchy rubber frogs, played in the fountain at Seattle Center and took a trolley to the Spaghetti Factory for lunch.
Troop member Courtney Marchie, 9, has gone to Camp River Ranch in Carnation twice. When asked what she likes best about camp, her face lit up with delight.
"Ride horses!" said the Kent girl, who sports three horse-related badges among the 36 stitched to her green scout vest. "I get giddy about horses."
The Girl Scout council, which serves 10 counties, began planning its ambitious fund-raising campaign several years ago, said Grace Chien, executive director.
"We're running out of space at our camps; we're growing by leaps and bounds," she said.
Girls in grades four through eight began arriving at the Washington State Convention and Trade Center at about 3 p.m., lugging their camping gear up to the fourth-level skybridge. Each of the 24 troops, which traveled from as far away as Port Ludlow, Bremerton and Bellingham, was assigned a "campsite" in the high-ceilinged room of glass and steel.
Green tape marked meandering paths between the tent sites, and woodsy-looking directional signs pointed the way to traditional scouting values such as character, initiative and independence.
The campfire was an impressive electricity-powered jumble of firewood and red lights, so sandwiches — not hot dogs and s'mores — were on the dinner menu. And instead of naturalists delivering interpretive talks, scheduled speakers included Attorney General Christine Gregoire, University of Washington basketball coach June Daugherty and other female role models from the business and sporting worlds.
Bonnie Gilbery, 10, began going to Girl Scout camps during her first year in Brownies. The Kirkland girl says her favorite is Camp Robbinswold, near Lilliwaup, Mason County, where she loves to explore, live without electricity and meet new friends.
"We found all the streams, and we found crabs along the edge of (Hood Canal)," she said. "And we found a waterfall, with a big pool at the top."
Christina Inklebarger of Kent, who turns 10 tomorrow, was excited to be part of the first group to ever camp out on the skybridge.
"We get to sleep out near the stars," she said.
Diane Brooks: 425-745-7802 or dbrooks@seattletimes.com