Girl Scouts in VT & NH Switch Gears to Stay Open

I grew up in a small town in Cummington, MA.  We had about 700 people total.  Two of the things I looked forward to the most were 4-H and being a Girl Scout.

It was a chance to meet people that I would've never met in such a small town.  We got badges for doing fun activities, made friends, and learned a lot of really useful skills.

Covid-19 has created chaos for many organizations that require you to actually be there in person.  You would think that Girl Scout camps would be out of the question, but the VT and NH chapters have switched gears to keep things open.

According to WMUR, summer camp is still happening but it will now be online.

CEO of the Girl Scouts of the Green and White Mountains, Patricia Mellor, tells WMUR that it wasn't an easy decision:

"We know that when we're operating six day camps and our resident camps across two states, that it was not going to be something we could follow the state guidelines for and get those operational"

So, what does a virtual camp look like?  Jazmin Averbuck, a residential camp counselor, tells WMUR:

"They are able to take the magic of camp and bring it to their homes with the help of online meetings...Cooking outdoors, we give them recipes of how they can do that on their own and at home in different ways,"

They'll also plan to have prerecorded videos of outdoor hikes and adventures!

It's definitely not the same as getting to be there in person, but I think it's really cool that the Girl Scouts are coming up with creative ways for kids to still be able to be interactive and enjoy the summer!