Worship God, Seek Beauty, Give Service

I was very fortunate to have found a group (at a very young age) that seemed to be made for me. When I was in second grade, I became a Bluebird...the first level of Camp Fire Girls. My decision to become a Camp Fire Girl not only changed my life, it also changed the lives of hundreds of girls who were not even twinkles in their father's eyes yet. That's a pretty big statement...but it's true.
Worship God, Seek Beauty and Give Service are the first three laws of Camp Fire. Those laws are as much a part of my every day life now...as when I first heard them in the early sixties.
Mrs. Cheatwood was my first Camp Fire leader. She had a daughter my age, named Cheryl. There were pictures in their home of a young man in uniform but I don't know for sure if he was a grown son or a husband. I never saw a man around there, and being a child, I thought it would be rude to ask who was the man in the photo...and where was he now.
Mrs. Cheatwood was a wonderful group leader. We took field trips around San Rafael, where we lived...and sometimes we even ventured across the bay to San Francisco! Community service projects were a big part of our program...which I loved. I wasn't very good with the art projects and Mrs. Cheatwood regularly told me that I had "the patience of Job" as I struggled along. One afternoon we were building kites out of wrapping paper...and I thought they were turning out pretty good. They seemed strong enough, had respectable, knotted, rag tails...I was sure they would fly. We all piled in "Ol' Betsy" (Mrs. Cheatwood's big gray Plymouth) and headed up to the top of this hill that was on the edge of town. There were no phone wires up there...it was a great place to fly kites. We tried over and over to get those kites to lift off. There was a nice breeze...so that wasn't the problem. The problem, Mrs. Cheatwood determined, was that those tails just weren't quite long enough. We were very disappointed. "Well, there's only one thing to do..." Mrs. Cheatwood announced. "We're going to have to add more tail to these kites." And with that said she went to Ol' Betsy, pulled out her purse and found a small pair of "emergency scissors." She sat on the front seat, lifted up her dress a bit and started snipping away at her slip! "I wish I hadn't worn my nice one today..." we could hear her say to herself, as she cut away one strip after another. When she stood up with a fistful of new kite tails she said, "There, that should do it." Each of us girls added extra "slip strips" to our kite tails...and we were thrilled when the kites finally went sailing. My thought at that moment was, "When I grow up...I want to be just like her!" Prepared, inventive and generous.
When Jennifer entered kindergarten, I saw that she could join Camp Fire...in a Starflight group. I called the office to make sure it was the same organization that I had belonged to. They assured me that it was. Worship God, Seek Beauty, Give Service etc. I signed her up. And since I didn't want to miss out on any of the fun...I signed myself up as the leader. Within a week, there were twenty eight kids who wanted to join. Since they all couldn't agree on a meeting date, we split them into three groups. We met separately most of the time...but did do group projects together also. When Stephanie entered kindergarten, I signed her up too. And again...I signed up to be the group leader. That group began as a group of twenty two...and stayed that big. Jenn's group stayed together through sixth grade...Steph's group stayed together through fifth grade. It was a wonderful experience for all of us. We held weekly meetings, did lots of community service projects, learned a lot of new things, went Christmas caroling every year, made some super drums for Council Fire. We camped in the back yard, at Camp Namanu and at the beach. We held annual Mother-Daughter teas and Father-Daughter ice cream socials with folk dancing afterwards. Many of those girls are still close.
It seemed very important to me, to share those values, Worship God, Seek Beauty and Give Service to not only my kids...but to the other kids around us. We made sure everyone was welcomed. At that time, there were over a dozen Camp Fire groups in their school...which was a lot. The Camp Fire district office asked if I would help train other moms to be leaders also. I was happy to. People would ask me, "How do you find the time...being a working single mother?" My answer was always the same..."How could I not?" I wanted to be around my kids. To know who they were hanging out with and to help influence their activities and choices. (Not to mention that it was fun!)
Thank you Mrs. Cheatwood. You changed my life...my daughter's lives...and hundreds of other lives by being a wonderful Camp Fire leader to me. WoHeLo! (WOrk, HEalth, LOve)