Camp Woodlands Gets Funding Gift
By Keri Luise
Editor’s note: The funding mentioned in this story will not be final until passed by the full Senate. Additionally since the Congress passed a Continuing Resolution to fund the government at current levels until February, this funding will not be finalized until at least then. Sen. Van Hollen’s office says he will continue pushing to pass these new appropriations bills early next year.
Christmas is coming a little early this year for the Girl Scouts of Central Maryland. The Girl Scouts are in the process of being awarded $500,000 in federal funding from U.S. Senator Chris Van Hollen for improvements to the Girl Scout Camp Woodlands in Annapolis.
Senators have requested funding from the Appropriations Committee in order to directly benefit their states and communities. The Girl Scouts of Central Maryland have been lucky enough to be one of four projects awarded federal funding within the Annapolis and Southern Maryland area and final approval for the funding should arrive before Christmas.
“These federal funds will help renovate Camp Woodlands and allow it to expand its programs to even more Maryland children, from a greater array of backgrounds,” says Van Hollen. “I was proud to work in my role on the Appropriations Committee to include this and other key funding requests for our state in our annual funding legislation.”
According to the Senator’s office, the funds will be used to renovate the camp in order to expand access for underserved families and individuals with disabilities while also upgrading storm-water management to protect the shoreline in the Chesapeake Bay watershed.
Camp Woodlands is 40-acre campsite located on Broad Creek with deep woods and a ravine. It is home to the nationally acclaimed historic Lamb’s Lodge teepee, a 12-sided polygon built in the 1950s with a central fireplace that serves as the camp’s main lodge.
The private camp has been owned by the Girl Scouts of Central Maryland ever since the mid-1940s. With several cabin units, some open space campsites for tent camping and the main heated lodge, Camp Woodlands serves mainly as a Girl Scout camp but also provides access to the general public. Various local schools use the site for environmental programming and the Annapolis Rowing Club has used the Broad Creek waterfront at the site for their rowing program over the years.
“For generations, young Marylanders have enjoyed Girl Scouts Camp Woodlands in Annapolis,” says Van Hollen. “We want to ensure that generations to come can do the same.”
Lynne Durbin, current chair of the Nominating Committee for the Girl Scouts of Central Maryland and former board chair, has been involved with Camp Woodlands and its improvements to come.
“The Girl Scouts are incredibly grateful to our senators for getting us this money and we really look forward to being able to upgrade this camp for our girls, for the use of Anne Arundel County, and for the state,” Durbin says. “It’s a substantial amount of money and we are very glad to have it.”
The funding will mostly go toward infrastructure work. Durbin says they will be doing roadway repairs as well as putting up new cabins, new platforms for tent camping, and incorporating more water, sewer and electricity access around the site.
“We are re-envisioning Camp Woodlands,” Durbin says. “The intent would be that with new and more modern facilities we will hopefully be able to open it up to [more]…and that the property will be usable by many more people on a year round basis and at the moment with just one heated lodge it cannot accommodate [that].”
The Arundel Rivers Federation has also done some restoration work at Camp Woodlands with money awarded from the state. Durbin says there has been runoff and erosion from Riva Road and the Arundel Rivers Federation has “done stabilization work all throughout the ravine.”
“We have granted them an easement to continue with the work on the gully portion of the land hopefully leading to cleaner water going into Broad Creek and for stalling the erosion from Riva Road,” Durbin says.
According to Durbin, the Girl Scouts of Central Maryland has already raised about $1.7 million towards the campsite renovations project from individual donors and more funding from appropriations.
“We really hope that with this (federal) money coming through that we will get the construction drawings, and be able to start in the spring with the infrastructure work,” Durbin says. “The infrastructure work itself will probably take six months…and then it’s essentially a year to 18 months to build everything that we would build in the first phase, not including the big lodge.”
Enrollment in Girl Scouts dropped off a bit last year, Durbin says, due to COVID. Meetings were essentially all virtual with online programming and “Girl Scouting in a Box” kits so that the Scouts could do some projects at home.
“They have been able to go back to meeting in-person this fall,” Durbin says. “We had a very healthy summer camp and the girls are back in force. We’re still working on building enrollment because people did take a pause last year and we’re just hoping as things continue to open up…that more activities will be able to take place for the girls.”
