Girls Scouts from Camp Silverbrook have been visiting the Refuge each summer since 1997 as part of their camp experience. They have benefitted from numerous educational programs provided by Refuge staff as well as self-guided recreational activities. Camp director Dennis Block attended Horicon's centennial celebration on March 14, 2003, and committed to expanding the partnership. Especially because of his initiative and effort in cultivating the needed relationships, in spring and summer of 2004, the partnership truly blossomed to include service learning opportunities and a career day.

The purpose of the project was to increase the use of Horicon NWR by Girl Scouts of the Milwaukee Area who use Camp Silverbrook located in West Bend in the spring and summer of 2004 ?Going Places?Saving Spaces? project. The project integrated service, skills, career exploration, job shadowing and mentoring, and land ethics with popular summer adventure programs. Four destinations (one was the Refuge) and a unique group of additional partners offered these opportunities and experiences. (The other locations are the Cedar Lake Conservation Foundation Conservancy adjacent to the camp, the Ice Age National Scenic Trail adjacent to camp, and the Menomonee River Watershed Canoe Trail in northern Wisconsin and Upper Michigan.)

The Girl Scouts of the Milwaukee Area, Inc. publicized the Going Places, Saving Spaces summer camp opportunities; coordinated participant recruitment and registration; provided equipment, transportation and logistical support to deliver summer camp programs at Horicon National Refuge; and provided funding and staff to support the project. They also worked with Camp Silverbrook to apply for a Girl Scouts USA Linking Girls to the Land grant which was unfortunately not awarded to this project.

Carroll College provided girls with global position systems training to navigate terrestrial features at the refuge; and provided staff to support the project.

As a result of the project, Horicon NWR served as one of three Career Week sites for 18 teenage girls to launch the overall ?Going Places?Saving Spaces? summer camp program (GPS2). We hosted one additional recreational, self-guided Pedal and Paddle visit which included canoeing on the state portion of Horicon Marsh and bicycling on the Refuge's auto tour route. We provided high-quality, hands-on service learning projects for girls and counselors through the Refuge's volunteer program: 15 girls and especially two camp staff worked over 100 hours as volunteer bluebird box monitors.

Seven Refuge employees participated in the career day on July 7 which was attended by eight junior counselors from Camp Silverbrook, four senior girl scouts from Theinsville, near Milwaukee, and the statewide GPS2 crew of six girls, mostly from Milwaukee. Ranger Stoddard and SCEP Rasmussen provided them with a hands-on career exploration activity based from World Wildlife Fund's Windows on the Wild curriculum. They matched wildlife career descriptions with their job titles and calculated their wildlife career profile. They also watched the FWS recruitment video. Stoddard and Rasmussen related their own career paths and highlighted firefighting. One girl dressed up in prescribed fire clothing and equipment. The girls met fire tech Stevens and administrative officer Pieper during an office tour, and then maintenance mechanic Madel showed them a variety of heavy equipment during a tour of the shop area. After lunch they rotated through four stations at the Environmental Education Barn and Bud Cook Hiking Area including Geocaching with bio tech Krapfl and volunteer intern Bergstrom, Crime Scene Walk with assistant manager Kitchen, Water Levels with biologist Woyczik, and Whooping Cranes with manager Meyers. During the wrap up for the day, one girl commented that now she would consider natural resources for a career where before she would not. Another girl said the day's experience confirmed her direction in wanting to pursue a wildlife-related career.

Benefits of this partnership included support of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's Linking Girls to the Land initiative; increased visitation of urban youth, an underserved audience; improved and long-term collaboration and cooperation with the Milwaukee Area Girl Scout Council; connection of Girl Scouts to local and regional areas and involving them with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and other agencies as partners to become responsible land stewards; the opportunity to encourage girls to consider fish and wildlife careers; and the opportunity to educate girls about conservation and the Horicon Marsh watershed. The project was support by a Service challenge cost-share grant.

Camp Silverbrook and Girl Scouts of the Milwaukee Area have recently applied for a Nature of Learning grant from the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation to use towards supporting and continuing the project in 2005. We hope to expand the project to include possibly a mentoring luncheon, spring bluebird training workshop at camp for staff, camping in local county parks or an overnight at the Refuge, using geocaching to navigate to key visitor sites as part of ranger orientation day training, and/or building nesting boxes.