At Camp Lakamaga in the St. Croix River Valley, Girl Scouts ditched the cookie boxes and picked up power tools for something way cooler—a hands-on project where they helped build a mini golf course from scratch. And they weren’t just crafting decorations. They were using real drills, saws, and measuring tapes, all with the guidance of professional tradeswomen by their side.
It was all part of Power Girls, a yearly camp program that’s turning traditional Girl Scout expectations on their head. Sure, cookies and crafts are part of the experience, but this is where girls get to roll up their sleeves and take on jobs usually associated with hard hats and tool belts.
“A lot of folks think about Girl Scouts and they think cookies, camps and crafts,” said Marisa Williams, CEO of Girl Scouts River Valleys. “We are so much more than that”, reported CBS News.
The Power Girls camp is designed to introduce girls to careers in the skilled trades—fields often dominated by men—and show them there are rewarding paths that don’t require a four-year college degree. And judging by the excitement and energy at the camp, the message is getting through loud and clear.
“When you think about the trades and using your hands and getting creative, we want to make sure that we’re exposing our girls early to what that looks like,” Williams explained.
The girls didn’t just learn how to use the tools—they also built confidence with each cut and measurement. Some started off hesitant, unsure if they could handle a power tool. But once they got that first screw in or figured out how to read the plans, something clicked.
“You see them first kind of get discouraged and feel like they don’t want to participate,” said Artemis McAllister, a carpenter with Ryan Companies. “And then you give them just that little pointer to make it easier, and then when they do it successfully, their whole attitude changes and they want to do the next one, do the next one.”
Girl Scout Lateefat Sowemimo admitted it wasn’t all easy. “There’s like a lot of steps to it and a lot of measuring,” she said. “It takes a lot of time and perseverance.”
But the payoff was worth it. Beth Duyvejonck from Opus pointed out how much the girls were getting beyond just building skills. “They’re learning confidence, they’re also working as a team. They’re doing problem solving, they’re learning how to read plans, which is great for their spatial awareness,” she said. “I’d say confidence is really the most fun to watch.”
And that confidence? It was everywhere.
“It’s all women, there’s probably only one male here,” said Girl Scout Priya Homagai, clearly impressed. “So that shows that women can power anything.”
Lauren Estis, another Scout, summed it up perfectly. “It really shows that any gender can do anything and that we’re all powerful and we can all do something that’s out of our comfort zone.”
Once the mini golf course is finished, it’ll stay at Camp Lakamaga for future generations of Girl Scouts to enjoy—a lasting reminder that building something with your own hands feels even better than earning a badge.