Audrey

I first fell in love with the outdoors when I was twelve years old on a llama packing trip out of Girl Scout Camp Robbinswold on the Olympic Peninsula. After a childhood of whining about hiking whenever my parents tried to drag me, I couldn't quite wrap my head around the fact that I was five miles from a road, from a car.... from anything besides trees and mountains. I was hooked. 

I am one of those "lifers" who has no daughters but just never left Girl Scouts after I graduated high school. (I have a 1-year-old boy now, but that's as far as I have gotten, and I don't think he is going to join Girl Scouts anytime soon.) I was a camper, then a CIT, then on staff for many years at GS of Western Washington camps, and was able to come full circle with leading backpacking trips on the very same trail that I had hiked as a 12-year-old. (On a separate trip, I got to hike with llamas again--highly recommended!) I also spent a summer leading canoe trips in the Boundary Waters for GS Lakes and Pines, a summer teaching horseback riding for GS of Western New York, and a summer volunteering in the Swiss Alps at Our Chalet. I got a taste of being a troop leader for four years in GS of Eastern Washington and Northern Idaho, and now have an appreciation of how hard it is to organize and coordinate teenages and their parents to do anything.

I moved to GSOSW in 2021 to finally settle down, and pretty much immediately found my people in the HAM volunteers. I believe that a girl's Girl Scout experience is only as good as her leaders, so in order to empower girls we need to make sure that leaders feel empowered, confident, and energized. There is nothing quite like wilderness experiences to accomplish this: I have seen countless girls rise and rise again to the challenges of the outdoors and come away believing in themselves. It is certainly how I have felt about my wilderness experiences in Girl Scouts, both as a girl member and as a leader.

I currently live in Camas, WA (near Vancouver) and I would love to help troops with anything related to hiking, backpacking, canoeing, or advice about where to go in Washington (I love Olympic National Park!). I teach Wilderness First Aid, Small Craft Safety, and wilderness hiking and backpacking. Two of my favorite soapboxes I am always happy to talk about are neckers and Martin Scout Ranch.