Songs and Memories from a Lost Girl Scout Camp
The Remembering Camp Scott archive was created to preserve and share joyful memories of the former Magic Empire Council of Girl Scouts beloved Camp Scott, a sleep-away camp founded in 1928 and situated on 400 acres in northeastern Oklahoma. This archive is a visible, interactive way to revisit the camaraderie, beauty, and sisterhood that made Camp Scott a beloved place in the hearts and memories of Girl Scouts who spent time there. All of the contributions are from former campers, counselors, and staff who were active Girl Scouts in eastern Oklahoma between the 1950s and 1980s.
Tragically, Camp Scott closed on June 13, 1977 after the devastating sexual assaults and murders of three young Girl Scout campers by a male intruder on the first night of the camp’s summer season. Besides the irreconcilable loss to the families of Lori Farmer, Michelle Gusé, and Denise Milner, the tragedy also robbed generations of Girl Scouts of their beautiful, wooded camp and traumatized many girls and women for years to come. It would never reopen.
Beginning in 2007, adult Girl Scout Michelle Hoffman began reconnecting with Girl Scout friends and campers. In 2018, she and historian Amy Sullivan, both former campers at Scott, invited everyone they could contact to contribute camp memories and Girl Scout artifacts to a History Harvest, a one-day event that helps groups digitally preserve and share special documents, photos, and objects online. Although a few small gatherings had occurred in the ten years prior to this one, the History Harvest in 2018–forty-one years after the camp closed—was also a long-overdue reunion. Despite the camp’s tragic ending, they gathered for one day to sing and celebrate the delightful, positive force that Girl Scouting and Camp Scott had long provided them.
Harm Reduction History in Minnesota
Founded in Minneapolis, Minnesota during the HIV/AIDS epidemic, Women With A Point! was the first needle exchange in the United States to focus its services primarily on the needs of women drug users in the mid 1990s. Several years later, their harm reduction services expanded to include anyone in need of their services, and their name was changed to AccessWorks! This digital collection was created in May 2017 at a one-day event in Minneapolis to document one aspect of harm reduction history in Minnesota. The collection also highlights the work of other local people and organizations who worked in harm reduction, HIV/AIDS prevention, youth outreach, homelessness, and public health.
