NORFOLK, Va. (WAVY) — There are lots of summer camps with themes from sports, to arts to outdoors, but there is one unique camp in Norfolk where girls are literally scaling walls and gaining skills that could help us all in the future.
Camp Fury, run by the Girl Scouts of Colonial Coast, puts girls alongside firefighters for training.
“(It’s) to open the mindset of young girls and say you can do anything you want to do and this is proof that its possible,” said camp director Nichole Collins.
The camp took place Tuesday at the Norfolk Fire Training Center. The campers are 11 to 14-years-old and most know no fear.
Camper Kayla Schulz told us she is afraid of “nothing really, just spiders,” while Elaina Butcher said that “it was scary at first, ’cause if you look up, it’s like really high up, but when you’re going down, it’s just like you’re walking.”
Rappelling from three and five stories high is just the tip of the tower for these campers, as the Girl Scouts’ immersive experience strives to build courage, confidence and character.
“We do more than just fire,” Collins said. “They get to see PD, they get to go out and see Navy Regional, they get to see some of the NCIS and meet some of the females in the military.”
They’re climbing ladders, pulling hose lines and learning to stop the bleed with EMS.
“I like that they do a lot of hands on stuff,” Schulz said, “and later we’re breaking into we’re going to like destroy a car.”
That destruction serves to teach how first responders extricate people from car accidents.
The vision of the camp is to increase the number of women in fire, emergency and law enforcement careers.
“I would love for any of these girls to become firefighters,” Collins said. “That’s what I am, so that would be my joy.”
She just may get her wish, as several campers seemed excited abut the possibility in the future.
“It seems exciting,” Butcher said, “and saving people, it’s two in one.”
