By Gary Lloyd
The sound of girls singing “Old MacDonald Had a Farm” and “Bingo” echoed between the sweet gum and big-leaf magnolia trees, and the paths of gravel crunched under the tires of trucks and SUVs.
Camp Gertrude Coleman was crowded Friday with Points East Girl Scouts, the potentially final group of Daisies, Brownies and Juniors to set light-flickering barges free on the Cahaba River, to seek glow worms in the Bear Cave, to put their feet in the water at Purple Daisy Point, to stomp their feet while crossing the swinging bridge to scare the trolls away on the way to Fairy Rock, to make fond memories at the longest continuously operating Girl Scouts camp in Alabama.
The Girl Scouts of North-Central Alabama board of directors voted last week to “rest” Camp Coleman starting at 5 p.m. Friday instead of permanently closing the camp. The grass will continue to be cut, the utilities still on, preserving the camp’s historical ranking as the longest continuously operating camp.
“We’re going to keep (the camp) and come back,” said Cheryl Lott, who has been coming to Camp Coleman since 1983, when her daughter was in first grade.
Confidence and hope were the prevailing emotions Friday, two days after Points East Girl Scouts leaders cheered when they heard the news the camp would be rested, not closed permanently. They found out while in different parts of the camp, through walkie talkies and joyous squeals.
“They got really excited because they have hope,” said Sarah Edwards, a newly elected board of directors member who first came to Camp Coleman in 1979.
A date for the camp permanently closing or reopening after the board of directors’ reevaluation is not available. The board meets Wednesday at the Fehr Fowler Service Center in Birmingham.
Julie Rowe, whose two daughters attend Camp Coleman, spoke with confidence about the future of the camp.
“We are so thrilled about coming and doing it again next year,” said Rowe, who has stayed in all but one of the 10 cabins that have housed Girl Scouts at Camp Coleman, which was originally purchased for ,000.
Zonia Rosenthal and her family moved to Trussville from Illinois in 2001, when her husband’s job at Honda relocated the family to Alabama. The family, including then-second-grader Jessica, thought about moving to Anniston or Chelsea. They settled in Trussville, largely because of Camp Coleman, where Jessica was the camp’s director last week.
“That’s what Girl Scouts is about, is going from a Daisy to being an adult every step of the way, and being the person that these girls look up to,” Rosenthal said of her daughter. “They want to say, ‘If Jessica can do it, I can do it. I can be that person, too.’ That, to me, is what a Girl Scout is.”
As the Girl Scouts sang “Barges” on Thursday night, about starboards shining green and ports glowing red, Debbie Tews set the barges free along the Cahaba River. She got emotional, knowing it could be the final time.
“It was just so memorable,” said Tews, who has been coming to Camp Coleman since 1985 and is a lifeguard at the camp.
Kathy Baier is on her third troop at Camp Coleman since starting in 1992, and her favorite part of camp is the tradition, telling little stories of things that have happened at the camp over the years. Ginny Kerns has come since the late 1970s, and remembers the goal at camp was to be old enough to stay at Tree Tops, the proverbial mecca of cabins that included platform tents. The 1993 blizzard destroyed it, camp leaders said.
Edwards pointed out that Camp Coleman remained open during the Great Depression and World War II because of volunteers. Camp leaders believe this could happen again. Girl Scouts of North-Central Alabama Community Partnership Chief Russell Jackson asked Edwards about possible endowments or alumni groups coming together to help. Edwards said those are possible in the future.
“I’m going to have it in my heart that we’re going to find some way to keep this camp open, to get it back open for the girls,” Edwards said.
Rosenthal said the young girls can’t imagine the camp closing for good.
“I can’t either,” Lott said, fighting tears.
As you climb the dusty path of rocks on the way out of the camp, passing the 5 mph signs and a green barn in which girls last week scribbled the names of all the horses they could remember being at the camp with yellow chalk on the concrete floor, a sign over the rusty gate alludes to the possible future of the camp.
“Thank You, Come Again.”
Contact Gary Lloyd at news@trussvilletribune.com and follow him on Twitter @GaryALloyd.