Girl's Camp- Girls Who Choose God

I got back from our church Girl's Camp a few weeks ago.  

My whole family was there this year as either campers, youth leaders or adult leaders.

They had such a fun theme.  Maybe you'll find some ideas here for your own camp!

The camp logo was designed by a talented young lady 

who will be a high school senior next year. 

It's based on the iconic Rosie the Riveter. Didn't she do a terrific job!

Fit's great with the scriptural theme from Joshua 1:7.

These girls can be strong and courageous as they stand up for their beliefs.

This logo banner welcomed the girls into the campsite.

Colorful pennant banners hung between the trees in the campsite and into the lodge.

Welcome to Camp!

Come on in the lodge.

Each ward (congregation group) chose a woman from the scriptures, a value that went with her and a symbol for that woman. (Anna is Spanish for Hannnah & Emma is a woman from church history)

They had an area where the girls 

could write encouraging notes to each other during the week.

This year my good friend and I were the camp cooks!

This was a new challenge.

Of course we had to have a cute banner by the kitchen.

Eates & Treats

Every day I'd write out the menu on our chalk board easel.

We had a table set up for snacks,

if the girls wanted to grab something in-between meals and classes. 

Even had a peanut butter and jelly station.

The YCLs (youth camp leader) and some adult stake leaders come up a day before all the other campers arrive to set up the camp. They do some special activities for these 16 & 17 year old girls on that day too. That evening, they talked about having self esteem, confidence, their individual worth and how to be a leader.

Each girl had a "selfie" she had taken of herself.  It was then moge podged to a canvas along with words describing themselves that they cut out of magazines. 

The YCLs had a lot of fun making these "selfie" canvases. 

And then they finished off the night with S'mores in a Bag.

They wanted to make sure each girl was well hydrated since we were at a higher altitude and with the heat. So along with the refillable water bottle they carried around with them, 

a drink station was set up.

Each girl wrote their name on a large Solo cup.

Clipped it to twine.

This gave them a cup in the lodge for the week.

Genius idea! 

Each girl brought a mess kit or plate/bowl/utensils and in a mesh laundry bag.

They had to use their own dishes and wash them after each meal at our washing station. 

(Scrape off with rubber spatulas in trash, then soap wash, rinse and sanitizing rinse.

Put all your dishes in the mesh bag and hang up to drip dry)

 Each day there was a theme that went along with the over all camp theme of: 

"Girls Who Choose God" 

Monday- Love your "Selfie"

Tuesday- Sisters from the scriptures

Wednesday- Strength and Unity

Thursday-Seek Knowledge

Friday- Choose God

Tuesday night the girls performed skits about the woman they chose and incorporated a "fashion show" with it.  For dessert that night, we had cupcakes. 

We made the cakes ahead of time, froze them, then pulled them out to frost 

and added these fun cake toppers.

They are the symbols and colors each group had chosen for camp.

 Leaders from each ward would rotate in for every meal to help us with prep and kitchen clean up.

They were the best!

We even had a couple  "Grill Masters" helping out.

(had to make these two guys aprons for when they were out at the grill!)

Here's our menu in case you are ever cooking for camp and need some ideas :)

{Camp Menu}

The crafts at camp included, leather bracelets with charms, hair elastic button bookmarks, and punched tin tealight candle holders.

         

 

          

 

 At stake night. The YW presidency talked about climbing Mt. Everest with a power point.

It was compared to our spiritual climb in life.  

Guides/sherpas (leaders, parents, Heavenly Father, etc), gear (scriptures, words of prophets, etc) preparation (studying the gospel, church, youth activities, etc) , stopping at base camps  (spiritual/life goals- baptism, personal progress, patriarchal blessing, graduating high school, etc- your base camps are very individualized, you reach one of these goals and stop to get spiritually stronger and prepare to climb higher.) Ultimately you reach the top, finish your life journey to be with Christ and Heavenly Father again.

They also talked about seeking and helping others on the journey.

Before the presentation, each girl listed 4 things she would take on a journey to the summit.

Thursday night was the Bishop night. 

Each ward (congregation) had their Bishop come up to camp.

They played games and shared testimonies.

It was Cafe Rio night on the menu and we decorated the tables a bit for our visitors.

Found these cute checkered plastic table cloths at the dollar store.

 We brought up some mason jars, wrapped with a doily and tied with raffia.

Dollar store daisies.

There was a random box of pecans up in the lodge. 

We borrowed them for the night and filled our jars.

Cute, eh.

 Before camp they asked each girl to think of a woman in their life who has chosen God.

How does she choose Him? What can you learn from her example?

They brought a picture of this woman or wrote her name on a banner.

The girls also had fun with certification, the daily devotionals, rock climbing wall, hikes, horseback riding, solo hike (pondering, reading inspirational quotes/stories and a letter from parents), games, making friends, zip line, and volley ball.

 This camp can go down in the books as great fun had by all!

Enjoy your camp experiences this summer.

If your daughter gets a chance to go to girl's camp, take it, she'll love it!