Recently, approximately 100 Fountain Hills Girl Scouts headed north to Willow Springs, a Girl Scout camp outside of Prescott, for their annual neighborhood encampment.

Every year, an older troop hosts a weekend full of activities for the younger scouts. This year’s camp was hosted by Senior/Ambassador Troop #1059 leaders Nita and Kelly Blose and Girl Scouts Deanna George, Natalie Flynn and Mercy Taylor. They spent months designing and facilitating a fun, outdoor weekend experience with an “Arizona Wild West” theme. Their reward for their hard work was seeing the younger scouts having fun and making lifelong memories while learning about Arizona’s rich history.

When the Girl Scouts arrived to camp on Friday, they found 25 gift baskets displayed in the lodge, each had a different theme for the girls to win. Tickets were earned throughout the weekend as participants won contests, participated in activities or performed a good deed. The raffle buckets filled up fast because Girl Scouts love to do good deeds, according to leader Nita Blose.

Troops attending camp chose a famous event from Arizona’s Wild West and made table centerpieces and posters to enter into a contest. Many hours went into designing all the entries, making it very hard for the judges to select the winners.

Troop # 345 actually visited Tombstone to research their OK Corral theme and won “Best Overall” poster. Troop # 218 earned “Most Creative” poster with a unique, informative poster on gold mining. Troop #2011 was voted “Best Overall” table centerpiece with a diorama layout of a typical early school room; their theme was Wild West School Teacher. Troop #2302 designed the “Most Creative” table centerpiece with a see-through look at the inside of a copper mining tunnel. The winning troops received a “Pizza Party” gift basket.

Each day started and ended with a different troop performing a flag ceremony. Everyone passed through an “Arch of Silence” before posting/retiring the American and Girl Scout flags.

Saturday’s activities consisted of a scavenger hunt, taking the girls for a long hike around camp while learning interesting facts on Arizona’s Wild West history and a “Western Outdoor” game challenge hosted by troop #2664, leader Maura Enterline. Afterward, they headed to their respective cabins to perform community service around the camp and inner hiking trails.

When Saturday’s dinner was over, girls gathered in the lodge to exchange swaps they made, small mementos to remember the fun they had together and wonderful Girl Scout memories shared.

Next, everyone gathered around the main fire ring to sing camp songs, tell scary stories and roast marshmallows for s’mores. Each girl received glow necklaces to assist with good fire safety practices around the fire pit and to help light their paths back to their cabins.

On Sunday morning, following breakfast, Ambassador Troop #2184, leader Heather Picciano, led Scout’s Own, a quiet time set aside for Girl Scouts to be reverent and thankful for something. A program on “Respect” was designed by her troop with a special ending, a recognition ceremony to honor troop #2184’s two Ambassador Girl Scouts, Winnie Chen and Becca Worden, for their commitment to Girl Scouts and numerous accomplishments achieved. These two Girl Scouts will be graduating high school in May and moving up to Adult Girl Scouts.

Scouts Own ended by forming a friendship circle, a Girl Scout tradition, and singing “Make New Friends but Keep the Old,” reinforcing their bond as sister Girl Scouts.

Troop #1059 would like to extend a special thank you to Pizza Hut for their generous donation of gift cards for troop raffle winners and Le Baron Cleaners for donating wire hangers for roasting marshmallows at Saturday night’s fire ring.

“It is wonderful to live in a community that cares about our youth and is willing to support in any way they can,” Blose said.