Dear Girl Scouts of WNY Family,  

We hope you and your families are safe and well.   

It may not come as a surprise, but given the current and expected impact of COVID-19 on our community, we’ve made the difficult, but necessary, decision to cancel all GSWNY overnight and day camps for the summer of 2020, effective today.  

We recognize that this decision may disappoint our families and Girl Scouts. The importance of outdoor experiences as a part of the Girl Scout Leadership Experience (GSLE) cannot be overstated. However, our top priorities remain the safety and well-being of our girls, volunteers, and staff. 

After careful consideration, we have made the following decisions that will impact summer programming for our Council:  

• All 2020 summer resident and day camp programs are cancelled. This includes programs at Camp Timbercrest, Camp Seven Hills, Camp Piperwood, and Camp Windy Meadows.  All registered campers will receive full refunds.  
• We are also cancelling property rentals through August 31, 2020. Refunds for the cancellations will be issued within 30 days.   
• We will offer alternative and virtual summer camp programming. Please let us know what you think our Girl Scouts would like to see offered. Please fill out this survey  by May 18th to let us know your ideas. Survey participants will be entered in a raffle to receive a gift basket of camp merchandise.  
• We also announced last week that all other in-person Girl Scout programs are cancelled through June 30, 2020. This includes in-person troop meetings, travel, events, and programs. We will continue to monitor public-health guidance and evaluate when small in-person gatherings can resume, and if there is any possibility of accessing our camp properties for troops or families this summer. We will do our best to accommodate small groups.   
• Our offices, shops, and camp properties remain closed until further notice. Updates regarding our physical locations are available on our website, www.gswny.org.  

GSWNY will continue to provide virtual and online programming for our Girl Scouts. Visit Girl Scouting at Home, updated weekly, to find more activities. Be on the lookout for exciting alternative camp programming based on your survey feedback.  

We want every girl to have the opportunity to experience outdoor adventure and develop a lifelong appreciation for nature and the world around her, whether that be at camp, with her troop, or with family. We thank you for your continued patience while our council worked to minimize exposure to COVID-19 and its spread, while also doing our best to provide a quality Girl Scout Leadership Experience. We look forward to sharing another summer of exploring nature, diving into new skills, and building friendships with our camp family in 2021. 

I want to add that I am proud of the innovative ways our girls, volunteers and staff have responded during this time of crisis. They provided service to our community, arranged virtual troop meetings, online experiences, adult training, and badge and program activities for our members. In these difficult times, our Girl Scouts are leading the way, and I thank you.  

To date, our Trefoil TV videos available on Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram (offering activities for girls and adults) have collectively been viewed over 52,000 times! While this pandemic has offered opportunities for us to grow and develop new ways to connect with our membership, it has also forced us to consider our in-person programming.   

If you have any questions about camp, programming, or any other Girl Scout opportunities impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, please reach out to our Customer Care Team at 1-888-837-6410 or customercare@gswny.org  

We are happy to continue serving our members during this time and together we are staying #GirlScoutStrong.   

Yours in Girl Scouting,  

Alison Wilcox 

Chief Executive Officer 

If you have additional questions, please click here for our Summer Camp FAQs