By Cathy Kimmel-Srock
Review Staff Writer
Over 60 girls and 20 adults from southeast Michigan were at Camp Agawam last week, braving the heat, camping out and developing character and understanding through the American Heritage Girls camp.
American Heritage Girls, according to their website, is a “national character development organization for young women that embraces Christian values and encourages family involvement.”
Oxford resident and program director Sandra Martin has been part of American Heritage Girls, or AHG for short, for three years, and involvement in the organization has been a blessing for her and her daughter as it has been for many others.
“It’s a great opportunity for girls to come out and bond with other girls in a safe environment,” Martin explained. “We let the girls fail here. It’s a safe place to fail because that’s how you grow, and build character, by failing.”
“If everything is always handed to you and you are always successful, then you will never learn anything. That is why I’m here,” she added, “because I want the girls to have a safe place to fail where all the adults around them teach all the girls around them to step beside them and bring them back up, to learn from their mistakes and to try again.”
The organization, which is open to girls aged 5- to 18-years-old, operates with six emphases: life skill enhancement, social development, girl leadership, developing teamwork and building confidence, spiritual development and character development.
In this spirit of these emphases, the older girls, called Pioneers (12 to 14 years) and Patriots (14-18), develop and run the camp for the younger members. They developed all of the activities for the camp’s theme, which was All God’s Creatures, as well as oversaw them during camp.
“We are doing a badge called All God’s Children, which is a badge to educate them about people with disabilities and let them get to know firsthand how difficult it is to be a person living with disabilities,” said Martin.
It’s been about an eight month planning process for the girl leaders with this theme.
Lake Orion resident Danielle Boeneman served as the camp’s material coordinator and oversaw the distribution of all the materials needed for each activity. She explained that they would have the girls test their activities at their meetings, and the girls would constantly add and tweak their activity plans as they identified additional needs or weaknesses in the activities in preparation of the camp.
“It’s been an amazing experience with girl leadership,” Boeneman explained, “especially watching them grow and change.”
In addition to activities where campers got to experience what is like to be deaf, blind, or in a wheelchair, they also got to listen to guest speakers, including two veterans that lost their arms during service. They were also visited by a deaf person, along with her interpreter, so they could learn some sign language and hear about her life.
While the main focus of the camp was learning about disabilities, according to Martin, they were also working on badges in geology and zoology and developing their camping skills.
And it wasn’t just girls and their moms at the camp but also some dads, too.
AHG dad Joe Flange, from Belleville, is a unit leader and was one of four dads that was present at the camp.
“AHG welcomes and encourages dads to participate,” said Flange. “And the girls love having their dads involved in their lives.”
“We love being a part of it,” he added. “It makes a big difference in our lives, too.”
This is the first year that the local AHG groups have held their camp at Camp Agawam, having held it at Addison Oaks last year, and they are pleased with their new location.
“We are loving it here,” said Martin.
“Everything is well-contained and I’m not waking up other people with the ‘lil birdie’ song except the campers,” she added with a laugh, explaining the song is the way they wake up the campers every morning. They hope to return to the location again for future activities.
For additional information about American Heritage Girls, they can be visited online at americanheritagegirls.org. If there are local girls and their families that would like to get involved in the organization, they can also contact Martin at ahgmi1308@yahoo.com or (248) 969-1352.