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Submitted by Cricket Hawkins Fifteen chaperones and 56 Girl Scouts, grades 2 through 9, from Chaffee, Eagle, Lake, and Routt counties attended the Keystone Science Camp overnight camp. Activities included “getting to know you” games; toasting s’mores around a campfire; evening dance party; viewing stars and planets through the school’s high powered telescope; hikes offsite; and STEM including sessions on snow-pits and layers, snow to water equivalency, and avalanches. Camp wrapped up on Sunday with another hike and STEM, short skits by the girls on what they learned, and a special slideshow of the weekend!Girl Scouts of Colorado Mountain Communities would like to thank the following sponsors for supporting this remarkable collaboration with Keystone Science School: Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Foundation Climax-Area (CO) Community Investment Fund for the girls of Eagle, Lake, and Chaffee counties; and the Craig-Scheckman Family Foundation, American Carpet & Floor Care, Ski Town Lions Club, Wyndham Vacation Rentals, Peabody Energy/Twenty Mile Coal, and Donna Garth for the girls of Routt County.Story on Keystone Science Camp’s Blog A parent’s view of Keystone Science Camp Dear Cricket, Thanks so much for coordinating the wonderful camp for Girl Scouts at Keystone Science Camp. We had a truly wonderful time and I think our girls had a really memorable experience. As you know I was mildly concerned before we went that at 7-8 years of age, our 5 girls might be a little young to truly benefit from the snow science curriculum. However, you were totally right – the team at KSS had carefully tailored their educational program and activities for the different age groups and our girls’ interest and involvement was maintained throughout the weekend, and they definitely came away having learned valuable information and skills on how to manage themselves in the winter mountain environment. The weather was pretty rough on Saturday with plenty of wind and cloud and snow. After a late night getting to bed on Friday night, my 7 year old daughter was tired and grumpy and announced during our Saturday field trip that she hated the cold, the snow and everything about winter. However, after getting to play with interesting new tools, learning about different types of snow, looking at it through magnifying glasses, building snow pits and caves, building model avalanches and watching how they work, and learning how scientists measure snow conditions throughout the winter, she became quite the self-appointed expert! At one point during our Sunday field trip, I sank knee deep and fell beside her. While I laughed and exclaimed at falling in “the snow”, she rolled her eyes and sighed with faux patience and explained knowingly, “It’s not just ‘snow’ Mummy, it’s ‘melt freeze crust’!” At that point, I knew the camp had successfully pulled her out of her winter attitude funk, and by the end of the weekend Eva announced that it was all “really cool” and that when she grew up she wanted to be a “snow measurer” too. She also told me that she never wanted to leave KSS, and that we should stay for “at least the next 17 weeks” but if we couldn’t do that, then we absolutely had to come back for the weekends in April and September as well as the two week camp in summer. Experiences like this that encourage inquisitiveness and boundary-pushing and develop confidence and enthusiasm in our girls is why we joined Girl Scouts. Well done! Best regards, J.W.