Girl Scouts to vote on camp sales
Adult supporters of the Girl Scouts say they have gathered enough signatures to put the sale of five camps to a vote.The organization called Trefoil Integrity triggered the vote by collecting signatures of 50 of the 99 members of the General Assembly, the governing body for the Girl Scouts of North East Ohio.Trefoil spokeswoman Sarah Spiegler said the General Assembly must hold a special meeting in the next month on the sale of Camp Crowell/Hilaka in Richfield in Summit County and four others in Northeast Ohio.Chief Executive Daisy Alford-Smith and Marketing Director Rebecca Shaffer did not return emails seeking comment.Spokeswoman Kimberley Graves said by email that the request to convene a special meeting is under review by legal staff, council staff and a parliamentarian.“If the request is in proper order, General Assembly members will be notified not less than 10 calendar days prior to the scheduled meeting,” she said.In the past, the Girl Scouts leadership has said the camps are underused and expensive to maintain.Leadership has said they would turn the remaining two camps — Ledgewood near Peninsula in Summit County and Timberlane in Huron County’s Wakeman —into “premier leadership centers” with modern bathhouses, dining and food facilities.Leadership has said that camping doesn’t have the allure it once did for girls, and that only 10 percent of the membership in the 18-county area use the camps.The Trefoil members argue that Ledgewood and Timberlane can’t serve the 20,000 Girl Scouts, or half of the membership, that they maintain use the camps.They argue that the camps are too valuable to lose and impossible to replace.The Girl Scouts said in April they would close five camps, including the 336-acre Camp Crowell/Hilaka on the Medina County line, in December.To overturn that decision, two-thirds of the General Assembly at the meeting must agree to keep the camps open.Carol Biliczky can be reached at cbiliczky@thebeaconjournal.com or 330-996-3729.
