'sup? SUP!

'sup = slang for What's up?
SUP = Stand Up Paddleboarding!

This year we've scheduled two workshop sessions of SUP taught by GSEM staffer Mary Jane!  The new Girl Scout Senior Paddling badge includes canoeing, kayaking and paddleboarding as GS approved paddle sports, and our GSEM camps are going in for paddleboarding in a big way.  As always, if the girls want it we have to provide it and learn it ourselves, if physically possible.  So get ready to sign up for fun at the Great Escape this year!

Quiet! It's the Great Escape Book Club Selection for 2016.

Read either or both of these books (or just come to the discussion to see if you can learn anything from the books.) We’ll discuss the power of Quiet in our family lives, our work, and Girl Scouting!  The book for teens, Quiet Power, will be published on May 6th, so request that your library purchase it for you.  Our leader, Julie, and I have read Quiet and we think it has a lot of relevance for all Great Escapers.

Happy Spring

Last night we had our Great Escape Committee meeting, and we are almost ready to open registration!  Lovely Wynelle brought us these lovely messengers of spring.  Wynelle is gracious living personified, for sure - how many of your committee meetings are decorated like ours?

We've chosen our Book Club selections, a wonderful free gift for every attendee this year, and we have some great and totally different workshops on the schedule!  We missed Kathy and Kaye - they are in Scotland and I'm sure they will be bringing back some great new songs.  It's going to be an amazing year.  Watch this space!

Happy Birthday Beverly Cleary

On April 12, 2016, Beverly Cleary reached her hundredth birthday.  Someone mentioned that she also has reached 100 million books sold worldwide as well!

My friend Jen suggested that our book group should celebrate.  Our book group is no ordinary "let's pick a book and read and discuss" organization.  It's a group which is loosely organized around love for Maud Hart Lovelace's Betsy-Tacy books and youth literature in general. After discussion, we decided that Jen would provide lots of fun games, I would provide the venue and a birthday cake, and friends would be asked to bring food inspired by Cleary's books. Jen brought her beautiful daughter, donut holes (The Luckiest Girl) and sesame noodles (Jean and Johnny.) The spread was as good as at Great Escape!

Dessert was carrot cake cup cakes, because carrot cake was what Beverly had for her birthday cake, contributed by former Newton GS leader Mary K.(who says she'll try to get to GE this year) and a refrigerator (or icebox) cake with extra whipped cream frosted on top, because the cake also appears in one of the teen books, and Ramona had a birthday cake frosted with whipped cream.  Lovely decorative writing by GE attendee and sometime presenter Holly! 

Former Worcester GS leader and fantastic botanist Judith (whose arm probably aches from my efforts to entice her to present at GE) made an exquisite custard pie, generously flavored with tangy nutmeg - yes, also inspired by a Cleary book episode.  CLM, who blogs at Staircase Wit, brought warm meatballs in the fanciest crockpot insert I've ever seen!

Happy Birthday Beverly!  Book fans everywhere rejoice!  GE attendees, we'll soon announce this year's GE Book Club selection so watch this space.

A Girl From Yamhill and My Own Two Feet, Beverly Cleary's Autobiographies.

Yoga is Go!

Those who have attended Great Escape in the past few years will attest that one of the most popular classes we offer is Lynne's yoga session.  Lynne has agreed to offer yoga again in 2016!

We are working hard on the workshop lineup for 2016.  We've got more really active outdoor workshops scheduled this year (including a session on the new Wabasso Challenge Course,) but no fear, the traditional GS crafts and games won't be neglected!  We hope to get the schedule pinned down and registration open within the next couple of weeks.

So, if you were thinking of offering a workshop this year, let us know ASAP!