Camp Gwinnett
What is a Camp Gwinnett Booth?
Who and What: Any age level troop may offer a booth at Camp Gwinnett. There are some activities from the Brownie badges that younger girls can easily teach others. Examples are the ‘Old Clothes Race’ or ‘Sleeping Bag Relays’ (girls roll up a sleeping bag and carry it to the other end of the course). Other activities require a little more skill development, like ‘Knots’ or ‘Soap Whittling’. Some are crafts oriented like ‘swaps from natural materials’ or ‘making lanyards’. The main requirement is that any booth should provide hands on activities for the girls visiting the booth. Ideally, girls will be teaching girls, rather than adults teaching girls. Girls do not need to take ‘stuff they made or got’ with them when leaving the booth; they will remember the activity long after they forget something you give them. The best source of ideas for what type of booth to offer is your girls. Ask them what they enjoy doing outdoors! A booth should be fun for the girls teaching and for the girls learning.
Timing and Preparation: Please arrive no later than 10:00am. You may set up starting at 9:30 AM the day of the event, but must be ready for your first visitors by 11:00 AM. That will give your girls a chance to feel prepared. At 11:15 we will allow ‘booth’ girls to visit some other booths before the general visitors enter. Figure out a rotation so your troop can take turns going around the event or teaching at their booth.
Gather all the materials you need and have the girls practice before the date of the event. Girls will have more fun if they feel they are prepared.
Cost: Since there will probably be some materials you need to get for your booth, we charge less to girls in troops offering a booth. If you offer a booth, each girl in your troop pays $3 instead of $5 to attend Camp Gwinnett. She will receive a patch. You must register and pay for your troop by 3/17/25 otherwise you will lose your selected booth choice and will have to register at the $10 rate.
Outdoor Cooking: If your troop is offering one of the cooking demonstration booths and giving out samples, please have your expenses pre-approved by the Camp Gwinnett committee (up ot $75/booth). You will then be reimbursed for your receipts. The S’mores Station and other cooking booths will be grouped together. You may choose to get your own charcoal or we can provide it. There must be an adult with outdoor training certification in any cooking booth.
Shade: April can be very sunny and hot. Every booth should bring a pop-up canopy to shade your troop and the girls visiting your booth. If you don’t have one, ask all your troop parents. Someone will likely have one. Have every girl in your troop bring her own refillable water bottle and a hat/visor. Also, bring weights for your canopy- many canopies have gone flying in bursts of wind.
Camping the night before? Older girl troops offering booths may camp the night before at the park. A troop volunteer with GS Camping Training needs to prepare the girls. The troop brings their own tents and other equipment. There will be more information on this given to participating troops.
Booth Ideas and Descriptions
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Outdoor Activities
• Archery – Camp Gwinnett has archery equipment to use at camp. Adult volunteers must be certified archery instructors
• Sleeping Bag Relay – Show girls how to correctly roll up a sleeping bag. Then girls can race to show off their new skills!
• Old Clothes Relay – Two bags with 3 or 4 items of clothing (big shirt, vest, sweat pants, etc...). Girls race to dress and undress in their clothes. Include a talk about how to dress in layers when camping.
• Tent Relay – Girls compete as teams to pitch tents. We have small pink tents a troop can borrow for this activity.
• Outdoor Games – Teach girls to play a variety of outdoor games.
Outdoor Skills
• Plant Identification Harmless vs Harmful – Teach girls how to identify plants and which to stay away from.
• Backpacking – Set up a display to show what you might take with you on a backpacking trip. Setting up a sample campsite would be great.
• Setting up a Tent – Teach the girls the steps involved with setting up a tent. Start with putting down a tarp or bottom layer to keep the tent off the ground, adding the poles, standing it up, and using stakes so it won’t blow away. Talk about tent etiquette.
• Staying Hydrated in the Outdoors – Teach the importance of staying hydrated when outside.
• Dish Washing at Camp – Set up a dishwashing station so girls can see how we use the three-bucket system to wash dishes. Set up a drip line so they can hang dishes after practicing washing them. Set up a drip bag so girls can see how to dispose of liquids when camping. • First Aid – Teach simple, basic, first aid skills.
• Fire building/Fire starters – Teach girls how to properly build a fire (without actually lighting it). Show examples of easy-to-make fire starters. Maybe have some items available for them to make a simple fire starter. You could have some examples of items not to use and let the girls guess why they would be bad or won’t work.
• Knot Tying - Teach simple knots and why they might be used. • Lashing – Show girls how they can use various knots to build items when camping.
• Orienteering - Teach girls how to read a compass and set up a simple demonstration to show them how much fun orienteering can be.
• Trail Signs – bring natural items (rocks, sticks, etc…) to teach girls how to follow and make trail signs. Explain why they may need to use this skill.
• Knife Safety/Skills - Teach knife safety, and passing skills, and possibly let girls do soap carvings using plastic knives. Have a few pocket knives for the girls to look see. Or you could have the girls make a paper pocket knife that actually opens and closes. It would require cutting out the patterns in advance but is usually a big hit!
Outdoor Cooking
• S'mores – Everything is provided but you need LOTS of adult help to make this run smoothly. Girls can also help but adults need to be in charge of the fires. • Dutch Ovens – Cook in Dutch ovens and give samples to the girls. Camp reimburses the cost of the food.
• Fire Safety – Teach girls how to behave around the fire ring, three points of contact when near the fire, how to enter/exit the fire ring, and how to clean it and set it up before you build a fire. Teach how to lay out tinder, kindling, and fuel to start a fire. You will not actually start a fire…only teaching skills.
• Box Ovens – Cook in Box Ovens and give samples to the girls. Camp reimburses the cost of food. Possibly have a partially made box available so they can see that it’s really made out of a cardboard box! • Solar Cooking –Show girls the various ways they can cook at camp without using a traditional stove.
Campsite Fun and Necessities
• Camp Crafts –Show examples of crafts that can be made at camp. Have a simple craft the girls can make that day.
• Outdoor SWAPS/ Crafts – Show examples of swaps that can be made from items found in nature and swaps that have a nature theme. Have materials available for girls to make a simple swap related to a camp theme…would be great if it’s a swap using materials found in nature.
• Summertime Pet Safety – Teach girls the importance of watching out for their pets in the summer and how they can keep them safe.
• Bandana Fun – Teach girls all the fun things they can do with bandanas. In the past, a troop tie-died bandanas (bought material and cut out squares). Camp reimbursed the expense involved with buying the material to cut out all the bandanas. Check with Christine BEFORE making any purchases!
• Leaf Identification/Rubbing – Bring a bunch of different types of leaves. Have information available for girls to try to identify the different leaves. Then let them do a leaf rubbing.
• Camp Songs – Teach some fun camp songs. Have information to give leaders to help them find fun songs and teach them to the girls.
• How to Dress and Pack for Camp – Bring backpacks with different types of clothes and have the girls try to decide which clothing items are good to bring to camp and which ones they should not bring.
• Hand Washing - Set up a handwashing station using recycled materials.
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• Clean Up Crew – Your troop is responsible for cleanup after camp is over. We give you gloves and bags to do a “trash sweep” across the field. Your entire troop comes to camp for free!
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