Girls Empowering Girls

You can’t help but smile watching our 5th and 6th-grade girls in the week-long Girl Power camp. It’s one of the amazing Shoestring Saints Mini Camps. a collaboration between St. Andrew’s Episcopal School and Operation Shoestring.

The activity of the day is to draw a self-portrait. Then other girls are to write positive words on each portrait describing the girl in the picture.  The girls’ bright faces epitomized pure joy as they completed the confidence affirming activities.

Girl Power camp is the brainchild of Isabelle Moseley, a Brown University senior and 2016 graduate of St. Andrew’s. When Isabelle was in high school and a Shoestring Saints camp counselor, she didn’t always feel empowered or affirmed by her peers. With the encouragement of her teacher, she decided to start the Girl Power camp to change that narrative for girls in Operation Shoestring’s summer camp.

Now five years later Girl Power camp still helps girls, like 5th grader Deanna Hunt, see their full potential. “I’m learning to always be kind to others and not to bully because everyone has feelings,” Deanna said.

And Isabelle’s influence hasn’t only affected the campers but counselors too. Xenia Minton, a camp counselor, and a junior at St. Andrew’s said “ This camp is needed especially in the world we live in today. It’s important, more than ever, for girls in our generation to know they can empower each other. Girls empowering girls is what it’s all about.”

“Some of the counselors are learning just as much as the campers,” said Lynda Morse faculty sponsor. “And when the end of the week comes, it’s amazing to hear what our girls have learned. Even the campers who didn’t want to come at first end up really glad they came,” she continued.

Thanks to Isabelle’s vision our girls are learning to love and uplift themselves and their peers. Our summer camp is filled with these kinds of experiences. The kind that shape and mold our young campers so they feel encouraged to spread a little joy everywhere they go.

And one day – like Isabelle – they will encourage, empower and inspire others to make a difference.

Click here to support our Shoestring Saints Mini Camps and enter to win a $50 gift card to one of these great local restaurants.