Alumnae Story
From Foe to Friend

By By Kelly Kunz

There are so many stories I can tell from my days as a Girl Scout, whether it be wearing my sister's uniform long before I became a Brownie, to receiving my Silver Award as a Cadette, to hanging up my sash as a Senior. I have two I would like to share.

The first time I went to summer camp at Camp Sherman I was eight years old and scared to death. I was painfully shy and though I was looking forward to going to camp for a week, I was terrified of having to meet new people. When my Mom dropped me off at the bus that would be taking us to camp, I felt so out of place. So many of these girls had been to camp before and knew each other already, I didn't think there would be anyway that I would fit in.

For the next couple of hours I was trapped on one of the many loud and boisterous buses, staring out the window at the cars passing by. After what felt like a million years, we finally arrived at Camp Sherman. I was overwhelmed by my surroundings and the activity, as I was lead to the patio of one of the many units to be placed with my fellow Girl Scouts in Whispering Winds. Again, I felt out of place, and that all of the other Girl Scouts knew one another and I was all alone and wouldn't make any friends.

There were eight girls in each cabin and as much as I wanted a top bunk, I was stuck with a bottom bunk. I'd never been on a bunk bed before and was upset when I didn't get the bed I wanted, but I chose to keep all of that to myself. I quietly placed my flashlight, hat, jacket and the other items in the song they made us sing (hats, jacket, pants and shoes, pants and shoes, and a towel and socks and flashlight, too) while the other girls laughed and sang other songs I didn't know yet.

One of the girls suddenly started talking to me. Shocked, I stammered, but answered whatever questions she had for me. She was so different than me. She was outgoing, similar to the popular girls who teased me back at my school. I didn't understand why she was talking to me. I finally decided to open up and talk with her. Over the next few days, she and I became friends. We giggled at night, snuck out to find the whispering voices at Whispering Winds, and exchanged addresses, promising to write all the time to each other.

On pure chance, we ended up going to Camp Sherman at the same time summer after summer, though we were never in the same unit. We rarely kept in contact throughout the school year, but acted as if time had never passed when we saw each other at camp. Towards the end of our grade school years, we started to see each other at weekend campouts and picked up where we had left off during the summer.

The first day of high school brought me back to the same feelings I had my first day at Camp Sherman. I was alone with no friends (they were going to a different high school than me) and eating lunch by myself. In the middle of my peanut butter and jelly sandwich I looked up to see my friend from so many summers past. She screamed. I screamed. The sandwich dropped to the floor and I ran over to her and gave her the biggest hug I could ever give.

Lorrie and I remained close friends throughout high school and remained in close contact when I moved across the country for college and graduate school. Just last year we went to our tenth-year high school reunion together. At dinner we giggled and laughed and recalled the days when we were young Brownies discovering a friendship that has lasted a lifetime.

The second story I have is when the girls in the troops I had been both a Brownie and Junior with, decided to quit Girl Scouts before bridging to Cadettes. I was placed in a brand new troop with brand new girls who had been together for years. Again I felt like a fish out of water. But I loved Scouting too much to worry about not fitting in. On one of our first weekend campouts our site was next to a troop of absolute brats. I had never met such a snotty group of girls and was appalled with the argument that ensued with our leaders about the placement of the campsites. They had many more girls than we did and they wanted some of our space. I don't remember what the outcome was, but I do remember this one particular girl who was the nastiest of them all. It didn't help that she was the leader's daughter either which gave her this sense of being above the rest of us.

As the weekend progressed, the lines were drawn. We considered each other our fiercest competitors in all of the events of the weekend. On the second night, there was a commotion with the other troop. The queen bee scout had been balancing on the log that separated our campsites and somehow tripped or fell and the log rolled over her foot, hurting it somehow. We all gathered to see what was going on and worked together to help out. All bitterness we had for each other left immediately and new friends were made.

Two years later I was at WOW weekend, hoping to get in on one of the many Indian Reservations trips. On that first night us girls were hanging out and having a great time. I was making friends quickly as I had been with many of these girls many times over the previous years. One of the girls looked familiar and I just couldn't place where I knew her from, just as she was doing with me. We knew we were in the same Algebra class at our high school, but there was a nagging feeling that we had met before at some Girl Scout function.

It finally dawned on us that she was the girl who had the log roll on her foot. We laughed so much that night and our friendship was solidified. Lee Ann became my best friend, and though we had our many ups and downs, we have remained so for 16 years now.