Girl Scout Council Opens

Capital Campaign

The Girl Scout Council of Southwestern Connecticut, Inc., announces the opening of a $2 million capital campaign to support additions and improvements to its four Outdoor Program Centers: 16-acre Camp Aspetuck in Weston, 26-acre Camp Rocky Craig in Stamford, 87-acre Camp Candlewood in New Fairfield, and 265-acre Camp Francis in South Kent.

The campaign will fund projects to enhance safety, make the camps more accessible and ADA-compliant, increase camp capacity, provide year-round camping and programming facilities, and fulfill a number of environmental priorities – such as landscaped buffers to protect wetlands and watercourses; a variety of measures to control erosion; and habitat improvements to benefit wildlife and resource management.

Enthusiastic campers, leaders, and longtime Girl Scouts provided input for a compiled list of very basic, must-do projects – some of which are already in the works as a result of some successful preliminary fundraising, such as repair to a pool at Camp Aspetuck, drilling of a new well at Camp Francis, and the installation of A-frame shelters, new docks, and a low ropes course and climbing wall at Camp Candlewood. The expectation is that these first physical projects shortly will be fully funded by the campaign but that, in the meantime, these improvements would be in place to make the summer 2004 camp experience more enjoyable than ever for more girls.

More than just summer camps, the four Outdoor Program Centers are places where girls in grades K through 12 can visit after school, on the weekend, or during vacations to experience the outdoors, learn special skills, build self-confidence, appreciate each other’s abilities, make new friends, and enjoy life in a nurturing atmosphere. For many city-dwellers, these camps are their only opportunity to get out in nature and see forest trees, instead of houses.

For many registered Girl Scouts of the Council of Southwestern Connecticut, the council’s camperships make a summer getaway experience possible. These same places are also used by adult volunteers for barrier-breaking training sessions that forge new skills, understanding, and an energizing spirit of cooperation and mutual support.

The Outdoor Program Centers owned and maintained by the Council are strategically distributed to serve the Council’s 15 Fairfield County towns and cities of Bethel, Brookfield, Danbury, Darien, Greenwich, New Canaan, New Fairfield, Newtown, Norwalk, Redding, Ridgefield, Stamford, Weston, Westport and Wilton, and the Council’s over 9,250 girl and 5,400 adult members.

The Capital Campaign, called “A Place to Grow,” aims to bring to the council’s four camps some basic and necessary modern facilities – from flush toilets to ecology stations to program buildings – while keeping the tradition and rustic romance of the camps that hold so many memories for their graduates.

Because the camps are such a resource to their communities in terms of habitat for wildlife and minimal development and use, many outside supporters freely state that they would much rather have a Girl Scout camp – with its open spaces and nonexistent drain on municipal services – than another housing development. That is why the council wishes to extend the invitation to participate in the campaign to all members of the public who approve of Girl Scouting and their underdeveloped facilities that enhance the environment and make the personal outdoor experience possible to so many girls and adults.

Anyone wishing to donate or help with this fundraising opportunity is encouraged to call Susanne Kuligowski, CEO, Girl Scout Council of Southwestern Connecticut, at 203-762-5557, extension 34.