Girl Scouts grow healthy

CALIPATRIA — Girl Scouts learned healthy habits as well as how to improve the health of the earth during a new Girl Scout Community Outreach Camp called Camp Grow Healthy.

Girls excitedly picked out worms from a compost pile, made plant pots out of newspaper, watered plants and tried out healthy food such as hummus during the camp at Bill Young Jr. Middle School last week.

“These are our future farmers. We’re trying to get kids to grow their own food,” Camp instructor Vincent Zazueta said. “They’re our future. They’re the ones that will be growing our food.”

Zazueta was invited to teach the course which is possible through a farmer’s market community outreach grant from the United States Department of Agriculture through the Neighborhood House of Calexico.

“We’re excited to partner with him and use his expertise in the program as well,” said Imperial Valley Girl Scouts Program Manager Karla Flores.

Teaching healthy and environmentally-friendly habits is “important in general, not just for them to learn as a child but how to apply what they learn to their whole life,” she said.

“Girl Scouts is always looking at way for girls to be resourceful and think about the environment” so the camp was a natural step in that direction, Flores explained.

The girls also learned basic science concepts, wrote environmentally-themed poems, planted trees and flowers as well as made their own perfumes and shampoos.

Three to 13 girls came each day throughout the weeklong program here last week, and the camp will be offered again in Holtville in July, in Imperial in August and possibly in Calexico at the end of the summer.

The camp costs $10 per girl with a $12 annual membership fee added if she is not a Girl Scout. Financial assistance is available. Call 760-353-2840 for more information.

Staff Writer Chelcey Adami can be reached at 760-337-3452 or cadami@ivpressonline.com