Tara Pracht’s first impression of Camp Farnsworth was swift.
“I loved it,” Pracht said of the time she attended the Thetford Girl Scouts camp for four years in the early 1980s. “I got to try a lot of different, new activities and interact with a lot of different people that I wouldn’t normally get to interact with where I went to school.”
Upon arriving, she soon got swept up in the activities that thousands of girls took part in over the decades at the Thetford camp, which will celebrate the 110 years it has been in existence from 8 a.m.-8 p.m. next Saturday (Aug. 3) with a gathering of past campers. It costs $55 for the day and attendees may stay overnight on Friday and/or Saturday for an additional $25 per night. The event features a canoe ride, flag ceremony and campfire.
Prior to attending Camp Farnsworth, Pracht had never been camping or cooked over an open fire.
“All the things I learned at camp just really impacted who I am today, and I still draw on those skills,” said Pracht, who grew up in Lebanon and now lives in Thetford. “It seemed like it was a world away.”
Camp Farnsworth was founded as Camp Hanoum by Charlotte and Charles Farnsworth in 1909, according to a history provided by the Girls Scouts of the Green and White Mountains. In 1911, it became a girls camp and was referred to as the Camp Fire Girls. After Charles Farnsworth died in 1946, two former campers (and sisters) Helen Joiner and Martha Hightower became the owners and operators. In 1959, the Girl Scouts took over the camp, renaming it to Camp Farnsworth in honor of its founders.
Jane Brickett was a camper that first summer.
“I absolutely fell in love with it,” Brickett, of Lancaster, N.H., recalled in a recent phone interview. Her younger sisters — twins — also attended. “I got separated from them, which was delightful.”
It was her first time at sleepaway camp. Was she homesick?
“Oh, gosh no,” Brickett said. “As a counselor, I had homesick girls, but I was never homesick.”
Brickett has been a member of the Girl Scouts for most of her life and is currently co-leading her granddaughter’s Girl Scouts troop.
“The funny answer is that my birthday is March 12, which is the Girl Scouts’ birthday, so my blood has to be green,” Brickett said. “I just have a really strong feeling that Girl Scouts is a great organization for girls.”
Girls learn essential skills including leadership and planning. Girl Scouts programs are “girl-led,” meaning that a group decides what they want to do and figures out how to do it. Some campers stay for one week while others attend for multiple weeks.
“It was the foundational experience I had as a girl,” said Brickett, whose three daughters all attended Camp Farnsworth where they experienced some of the same traditions Brickett took part in. “Before dinner either the CITs (counselors in training) or the other counselors would always lead the whole camp in singing when they were waiting to go into the dining hall.”
Like Brickett, Pracht’s experiences as a young Girl Scout influenced the rest of her life. She currently is chairwoman of the Board of Directors of Girl Scouts of the Green and White Mountains.
“Growing up in poverty, I didn’t have access to a lot of different foods,” Pracht said. “It’s only as an adult that I realize what camp provided to me that I wasn’t able to get at home due to financial situations.”
Years after attending Camp Farnsworth, Pracht learned she was able to because of a scholarship and she is determined to make sure other Girl Scouts have the same opportunity so “that we have the funds to provide camp for everybody and not leave any girl out.”
At Farnsworth, Pracht sang in front of a crowd for the first time. She swam across the camp’s lake “which I never thought I would do,” Pracht said. She helped plan a bicycle ride from Thetford to Hanover.
“That was a big deal for us,” Pracht said. “We were leading those expeditions. We were leading that charge.”
Pracht even became an expert in pie iron cooking, which involves two cast iron pans connected by a wire that are then placed over a campfire.
Pracht’s daughter became a Girl Scout, attended Camp Farnsworth and even got married there three years ago, with girls she attended camp with by her side.
Even if former campers didn’t attend Camp Farnsworth at the same time, there are still bonds that hold them together.
“We have shared memories of watching different performances or swimming across the lake,” Pracht said. “We didn’t have a chance to interact when we were at camp, but we still have shared memories.”
Editor’s note: For more information about the celebration, visit https://www.girlscoutsgwm.org/en/events-repository/2019/camp_farnsworth_110t.html. Liz Sauchelli can be reached at esauchelli@vnews.com or 603-727-3221.
