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Hello! My name is Jozie Donaghey. You may know me as Baloo if you're west of the Cascades or Billie G if you're from the East. I have been a proud Girl Scout for 20 years and am 4th generation; I like to say Girl Scouts was the best thing my mom ever did for me and am positive I would not be who I am without her leadership in my troop. My passion is to return that gift to other scouts by providing high adventure programming, training, travel and education opportunities that connect them to the land and their inner wild. I believe that outdoor adventure is the best way to build courage, confidence and character in kids while instilling a love and sense of responsibility for the land.
For me, that started at a young age at my family's farm in Deadwood, OR. I like to say I was moderately raised by wolves (or atleast the trees) as I was always outside, and my family camped about once a month. I grew up learning knife skills and fire safety and later skills like backpacking. But my true love for the outdoors has always been the wild serenity of the water. When I took my first canoe session at Camp Cleawox in 3rd grade, I was hooked for life. Every chance I got I was at the boat house. By 5th grade my knowledge parred the high school troops and they allowed me to assist in running sessions. By 7th grade I was the resident expert and in high school became the first scout to ever get the Small Craft Safety Qualification in preparation for a sea kayaking destination I did with GSUSA in Greece. In college I became the Waterfront Program Coordinator and Lifeguard Manager for Cleawox’s summer camp and am now a Council Trainer and HAM paddle instructor!
I was also very passionate about travel during my time in scouting, but my fellow troop members were more casual in their travel dreams: I wanted to climb Everest, they wanted to visit the Eiffel Tower (not that there's anything wrong with that, I'm just intense.) So in high school I began saving up for my first GSUSA destination trip and was accepted on an intensive sea kayaking expedition in Greece. I spent two weeks paddling and camping from island to island and eating flatbread off a fire. By the end, all my clothes had holes and busted zippers from the salt, there was sand in everything I owned and I had a french braid dreadlock that took an entire bottle of conditioner to untangle. I'd never been happier. The following summer I went on a two week hiking expedition of the Tour de Mont Blanc in Switzerland/Italy/France and, since I was 18, was followed by the wildest solo trip through the country of Italy where I made every travel mistake possible and came home without a scratch and not a dime to my name. In total, I've been to 5 different countries with Girl Scouts and fundraised most of the money to get there (of course with the help of my mom and grandma.)
Most recently I traveled across the United States on a solo road trip to Ely, MN where I was a Canoe Guide for the Girl Scout Northern Lakes Base and guided 4-7 day trips in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness. I cooked off a fire for every meal, set bear hangs every night, and slept in the first for 3 months. It was the best summer of my life. I spent over 63 days in the woods and 29 days on the road. I saw growth in girls that paralleled and rivaled my own at their age, and the things I heard from them brought me to tears: "I didn't know I was this strong," "I've never felt this confident," "Nobody lets me do things like this at home," "I feel like I can do anything now," "I feel like I can conquer the world." The bravery, strength, resiliency, courage and confidence I saw these kids gain over the course of a week, week after week, was life changing for me. I learned everything I could and brought back a fierce determination to revive the GSOSW adventure programming so scouts from the PNW didn't have to travel across the country or world to experience what I had.
Girl Scouts provided me with the support, mentorship, community and experiences I needed that has brought me vast professional opportunities and success. By building that character, confidence, courage, grit, resiliency, business skills, survival skills, outdoor/travel skills and so many more, I know I can do anything. I want every scout to experience that for themselves. That’s why I’m here: for you, and for them.
Certifications: Small Craft Safety Trainer and Qualified Instructor, Red Cross Lifeguard, Wilderness First Responder, Trained in LNT ethics, Wilderness Hiking, Basic backpacking, Packrafting, Trip planning and preparation, Outdoor photography, Outdoor leadership, Conservation/Land Stewardship, Youth Empowerment.
I also work in Forestry in Wildfire Fuel Reductions, Education, Coordination and Prescribed Fire and am always happy to discuss what I know.
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