TBO.com - TBO is Tampa Bay Online

Tampa Area Girl Scouts Take 'Day On' For Camps

ADVERTISEMENT

By YVETTE C. HAMMETT | The Tampa Tribune

Published: January 19, 2009

RIVERVIEW - Around Girl Scout camp, some of the modern amenities are obvious. There's electricity in the cabins and laminate on the clinic floor.

But some things just never change.

Spiders and other critters still leave thousands of cobwebs and spider webs flanking screening. Chickadees still build nests in the eaves when the girls aren't around.

This weekend, hundreds of Scouts throughout West Central Florida took a "Day On, Not a Day Off" to spruce up and make improvements at five scout camps as part of their Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Service Initiative.

At Camp Dorothy Thomas in Riverview, Scouts fanned out to several different units, using modern-day commercial vacuums to whisk away the intrusions left by the woodland's wildlife.

In the process, they learned how to work together as a team.

Junior Scouts from Troop 336 out of Lakeland pitched in to clean up the Counselors in Training bunkhouse, where they had braved the cold Friday and Saturday night to do their part in the mornings.

"They really are learning teamwork," said co-leader Lynn Lawson of Lithia. "They've only been together a short time, so this is a good project for them."

"I'm learning that you always have to be nice to everyone and share the cleaning supplies," said 9-year-old Julia Lewis of Lakeland.

Abbie Sawyer, 9, donning garden gloves, manned the Shop Vac, while teammate Y'Kaysha Watts, 12, held the long hose.

The initiative will serve as hours toward their Junior Leadership Award.

Some 350 girls and 130 adult volunteers with Girl Scouts of West Central Florida were expected to participate.

Reporter Yvette C. Hammett can be reached at (813) 865-1566.

Share this:

Loading Comments...

Email Print

ADVERTISEMENT