Girl Scouts prove it’s not all about cookie sales at Cadette-O-Rama
SILVERADO — Not many people will think of the outdoors before they think of cookies when it comes to the Girl Scouts, but there are about 600 girls proving otherwise.
Gathered in Silverado’s Oak Canyon Park, Girl Scout troops from all over Orange County — and parts of Los Angeles and San Bernardino counties — came together to participate in the chapter’s annual Cadette-O-Rama.
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Games and a dance party conclude the three-day event, but first the Cadette-O-Rama challenged Girl Scouts to a skills competition early Saturday morning, Nov. 3, that included tying knots, fire-building and other skills to test their mettle.
“These girls who participate in Cadette-O-Rama spend months preparing for this event. They plan out their menu for cooking. They decide which girl is going to participate in which event and they study up to make sure they know the knots, or how to read a map and use a compass,” Elizabeth Fairchild, communications director for the Girl Scouts of Orange County, said. “They take on the accountability for their troop.”
The girls can enter multiple events or just one, depending on the size of their troop, said Erin Johnson, camp director for Girl Scouts of Orange County. Points are awarded by supervising Girl Scout seniors and ambassadors.
Lily Green, 12, from Dana Point, participated last year with her troop and entered all 16 of the competitions this year. She said the knots challenge is the hardest because she has to remember them all, but her favorite part of the campout is the dance party.
Green and some of the other girls have been involved with Girl Scouts since kindergarten. Maia Butcher, 12, who traveled with her troop from San Diego, said she’s been part of the program since Daisies, the rank given to girls in kindergarten to first grade.
She said she likes coming to Cadette-O-Rama because she gets to spend time with her friends.
“I don’t go to their school anymore,” she said. “It’s kind of a bonding opportunity, almost, with all of our friends, because we get to know them really well and we just hang out. There’s really no distractions other than Girl Scouts.”
Anaheim resident Lorena Dayton has attended every year for more than a decade. She said she has been with the Girl Scouts for about 46 years and works with cadettes and high schoolers in the program. Dayton said she felt it was important for them to have the same experiences she had when she was a cadette.
“It’s changed since I was in junior high, but the feeling is still the same. You’re camping with hundreds of other Girl Scouts,” she said. “You don’t get that feeling of a jamboree unless you do something like this and that’s really what’s so special about it — that you’re sharing this common activity, common goals and you’re meeting new friends.”
Scouts and troop leaders said there’s a misunderstanding about Girl Scouts.
“Everybody says, ‘You’re just selling cookies.’ All they think about is cookies, but really, we do a bunch of hard work,” Alyssa Ramirez, 11, of Foothill Ranch, said. Her fellow cadette, Gianna Minton, added, “They usually think it’s really girly, but it’s not. It’s more like working.”
“We want (the girls) to take away that they can do anything and that they have the ability to learn the same skills as anybody else. They can be successful. Working together as a team to reach that end goal is the purpose,” Johnson, the camp director, said. “There’s no limits to what they can do.”