We joined Camp Fire!

One day we were at the park and just after I told the kids to do their favorite thing because we were leaving soon, I spotted a little kid wearing a Camp Fire Inc Tshirt.  Camp Fire? No way!  I kept my eye on the kid to figure out which mom on the sidelines she belonged to.

I figured it out and approached the mom. Sure enough, the little girl was in Camp Fire. I was hoping it wasn't a thrift store find, but you never know. I had no idea there was a Camp Fire group out here. Girl Scouts and Boy Scouts are very popular, but Camp Fire and 4-H are unheard of around here. At least that's what I thought. So glad I was wrong! I found Camp Fire!  The gal was more than happy to give me some information to find it online and she wrote her name and phone number down for me too. Nice!

I looked it up and found it easily. There is one Camp Fire group in Riverside County and it's right here in our area. There are only about 8 or 10 kids in the group, most of them are second graders, but the ages do vary a bit. They allow kids from age 5 - 17 in the group. There is a bigger Camp Fire presence in San Diego, but even that is fairly small for the size of the area.  I was added to the Riverside Camp Fire facebook group page and found them to be very friendly there.  We were invited to a meeting before registering. Score!

The Camp Fire year starts with the calendar year rather than the school year, so we were able to join at the beginning of a year and not mid-stream. Awesome!  First, I wanted to attend one meeting before we officially joined because I wanted to make sure we fit in and we understood the expectations and that it would fit in with our lifestyle.

Meetings are held once a month and they are project based. Each meeting is a mini-session to learn, make, or do something. This sounds more like 4-H to me than the Camp Fire I remember. What a great blend! I love the once a month meeting schedule; it isn't an overwhelming time commitment for us and that's perfect in my little world. The group wasn't going to meet in January though because all of the families were too busy so they decided to meet twice in February instead. Cool, they are flexible! I love that!

I was afraid that I was getting my hopes up and I didn't want to set myself up for disappointment. I didn't really tell the girls much before we went to the first meeting. I told them it was kind of like a playgroup, which they understood better. I had to leave myself a window to escape without hurting their feelings just in case it was anything like our brief Girl Scout experience (even though I wasn't getting that vibe at all).

We went to the first meeting and the kids blended right in!  They  had a great time making friends with the other kids. Gracie especially had a good time since most of the kids were her age, and the older kids were the same size as her, so she just hit it off with everyone! Libby tags along well, so she had a good time too.  I spoke with the moms about the organization, expectations, projects, badges, beads, and the program as a whole. It has changed a lot since I was in it!

Since there is only one group here and the kids are different ages, they don't break it down into age groups. The age groups do exist though. The little ones are no longer called Bluebirds. Darn. Why would they change that! I don't even remember what the age groups are called now, but this group just calls it all "Camp Fire".

A lot has changed. The beads are different and I'm sure there are different badges. Hard to say at this point, but they do earn beads and badges.  The logo changed. It doesn't look like a campfire, more like a fire cracker.

One gal in particular seems to be the "Leader" although they told me that each family leads a meeting/project. I signed up to lead the September meeting. I have 8 months to prep for it. Whew! They needed another project in the art category so I am going to do a sewing session. I think they can make super-hero capes or tote bags.  When I lead a 4-H sewing meeting back in Pierre when the older girls were in elementary, we made tote bags.  I like that each family leads a meeting and contributes to the group. I remember my mom did most of the leading back when I was a little Camp Fire Girl.

At the first meeting, I was very impressed! It was heartwarming to know that Camp Fire draws in the best of people. The adults at the meeting were all jolly and involved. They laughed and all contributed to the project. They were very welcoming to us too. After the meeting, we knew we were going to be Camp Fire Girls! Gracie and Libby each got a vest, I had some enrollment forms (not a huge stack of paperwork), and we had signed up to host a meeting! We're IN!