Camp Fire was the first nonsectarian, multicultural organization for girls in America. Its programs emphasize camping and other outdoor activities.
Its informal roots extend back to 1910, with efforts by Mrs. Charles Farnsworth in Thetford, Vermont and Luther Gulick, M.D., and his wife, Charlotte Vedder Gulick, on Sebago Lake, near South Casco, Maine. Camp Fire Girls, as it was known at the time, was created as the sister organization to the Boy Scouts of America. The organization changed its name in 1975 to Camp Fire Boys and Girls when membership eligibility was expanded to include boys. In 2001, the name Camp Fire USA was adopted, and in 2012 it became Camp Fire.
Camp Fire's programs include small group experiences, after-school programs, camping, as well as environmental education, child care and service-learning; they aim to build confidence in younger children and provide hands-on, youth-driven leadership experiences for older youth.
In 1910, young girls in Thetford, Vermont watched their brothers, friends, and schoolmates—all Boy Scouts—practice their parts in the community's 150th anniversary, which would be celebrated the following summer. The pageant's organizer, William Chauncey Langdon, promised the girls that they too would have an organized role in the pageant, although no organization similar to the Boy Scouts existed for girls at the time. Langdon consulted with Mrs. Charles Farnsworth [Charlotte Joy (Allen) Farnsworth, known as "Madama"], preceptress of Horace Mann School near Thetford, Vermont. Both approached Luther Halsey Gulick M.D. about creating a national organization for girls. Gulick introduced the idea to friends, among them G. Stanley Hall, Ernest Thompson Seton, and James West, executive secretary of the Boy Scouts. After many discussions and help from Gulick and his wife Charlotte, Langdon named the group of Thetford girls the Camp Fire Girls.
In 1907, the Gulicks had established Camp WoHeLo, a camp for girls, on Lake Sebago, near South Casco, Maine. There were seventeen WoHeLo maidens at the camp in the summer of 1910. Both the Vermont group and the Maine group would lead to the creation of the organization formally organized as Camp Fire Girls in 1912.
On March 22, 1911, Dr. Gulick organized a meeting "to consider ways and means of doing for the girls what the Boy Scout movement is designed to do for the boys". On April 10, 1911 James E. West issued a press release from the Boy Scouts of America headquarters announcing that with the success of the Boy Scout movement, a group of preeminent New York men and women were organizing a group to provide outdoor activities for girls, similar to those in the Boy Scout movement.
Mrs. Charlotte Gulick with Campfire Girls in 1915 In 1911, the Camp Fire Girls planned to merge with the Girl Scouts of America, formed by Clara A. Lisetor-Lane of Des Moines, Iowa, and Girl Guides of America (of Spokane, Washington) to form the Girl Pioneers of America, but relationships fractured and the merger failed. Grace Seton quit the group over the rejection of her committee's draft of a handbook, followed by Linda Beard in September 1911 over differences with the Gulicks.[16] However, there was an organization meeting held by Lina Beard on February 7, 1912 in Flushing, New York of a Girl Pioneers of America organization.
Camp Fire Girls of America was incorporated in Washington, D.C, as a national agency on March 17, 1912.
In late 1912, Juliette Gordon Low proposed that the Camp Fire Girls merge with her group, Girl Guides of America, but was rejected in January 1913 as the Camp Fire Girls were then the larger group. By December 1913, Camp Fire Girls' membership was an estimated 60,000, many of whom began attending affiliated summer camps. The Bluebird program was introduced that year for younger girls, offering an exploration of ideas and creative play built around family and community. In 1989, the Bluebirds became Starflight.
Flushing, New York, 1917 The first official Camp Fire Girls handbook was published in 1913. During World War I, Camp Fire Girls helped to sell over one million dollars in Liberty Bonds and over $900,000 in Thrift Stamps; 55,000 girls helped to support French and Belgian orphans, and an estimated 68,000 girls earned honors by conserving food.
The first local Camp Fire Girls council was formed in 1918 in Kansas City, Missouri. Kansas City would later become the national headquarters for Camp Fire in 1977.
She's On Fire Aerosmith Written by: Steven Tallarico, Anthony Perry Album: Done With Mirrors Released: 1985
