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Teen's 'Glamp Camp' teaches young girls etiquette, style
Submitted Photo - Glamp Camp counselor Rebecca Kow paints "glamper" McKenzie Galvan's nails Monday, the first day of a new day-camp held at Old Settler's Recreation Center in McKinney. The term "glamping" comes from "glamorous camping."
By Chris Beattie, cbeattie@starlocalnews.com
Glamping: camping, but not quite roughing it.
Glamp Camp: upping girls' self-worth through crafts, tea parties and fashion shows.
So was the spin Valerie Huynh put on the trendy term this week at Old Settler's Recreation Center in McKinney.
Huynh's campers -- 35 girls ages 6 to 11 -- partook in both the glam and camp. She and six other counselors, her friends from McKinney and Plano high schools, spent the week teaching them feminine mainstays -- hair wraps, manicures, etiquette -- with a camper's mix-in of s'mores, tent setup and hiking.
Huynh, last year a McKinney High School sophomore, this fall will attend Texas Academy of Math and Science in Denton. She started in Girl Scouts at age 6, and achieved her Bronze and Silver awards through earlier projects.
The idea of Glamp Camp, a wrap-up for her Gold Award (equivalent to an Eagle Scout designation), came to Huynh a few weeks ago when several girls she's tutored at the center since September asked to have a slumber party at her house.
"Obviously, that would be a little more hectic," she said.
A weeklong day-camp it was, then, as soon as Old Settler's recreation supervisor Empress Drane welcomed the idea.
"Valerie has experience with volunteering with our youth program during the school year," Drane said. "When she demonstrated leadership and the initiative to do an outreach activity, it was really a no brainer for us."
Huynh garnered funds and supplies from Walmart, Target and other area stores, and kept the camp fee at $25, ensuring more girls whom she said "usually don't have summer camp opportunities" could also do it. She posted Glamp Camp flyers at businesses around town and told Girl Scout troop leaders.
"Meet People Monday" kicked off the camp, held in and around the recreation center in eastern McKinney. Girls got to know each other through nail-painting, bath-salts crafts and basket-decorating. Next was "Tea-Party Tuesday," Huynh's favorite part, when the girls learned to properly set tableware, fold napkins and arrange flowers -- how to be a "lady" at the table.
"Wilderness Wednesday" brought about the "camp" in the program's name, as the girls set up tents, cooked hot dogs and s'mores, and learned the importance of bug spray, sunscreen and drinking water while hiking around the surrounding neighborhood. They cooled off in the pool at Old Settler's Aquatic Center.
After all, they weren't quite roughing it.
"Most of the time, girls-only camps are really prissy, what girls like to do, but this has a different element of developing leadership, teambuilding, and encouraging confidence by doing activities somewhat out of the norm for them," Drane said. "It's a really cool concept."
The "glam" returned Thursday with manicure touch-ups and meet-and-greet lessons -- preparation for Friday's Fashion Show in front of their parents. Even a guest makeup consultant taught them about face and skin hygiene.
Huynh stressed that the final two days of decadence were of course "age-appropriate, nothing crazy," considering the glampers' age range. Nonetheless, the camp finale, typically marked by rolled-up sleeping bags and final camp songs, instead ended with struts down the red carpet.
And their strut may continue, particularly if Drane helps make Glamp Camp an official Parks and Recreation program as Huynh desires. Drane said she hopes to build a partnership with Girl Scouts and other interested groups in developing similar programs.
"When we have limited staff and resources to serve as many people as there are in McKinney, these types of groups and ideas really help," she said.
Huynh plans to launch a Glamp Camp website, eager to spread its name, her transformation of a transformation.
"Camping is part of glamping," Huynh said. "And this just puts a new twist to the term."
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