The only Girl Scout camp in Broward County will close, despite an effort by volunteers to save the beloved Parkland acreage.
Camp Telogia, a Girl Scout camp for 55 years, will shut its gates to overnight campers in June and will close to all events in June 2017, the Girl Scouts of Southeast Florida told members.
“We want to honor their need to say their goodbyes,” Girl Scouts chief strategy officer Lisa Johnson said of the lengthy timetable to closure.
From the youngest “daisies” to the older teen “ambassadors,” thousands of girls from South Florida have slept in tents, roasted marshmallows over campfires and sung traditional Girl Scout songs at Camp Telogia since the county donated it — asking a token $1 payment — in 1961.
“It’s sad. No one’s happy this is where we are,” Johnson said Wednesday. “But it is absolutely imperative for us to look at the needs of our entire membership and to ensure we’re here for generations to come, really.”
Rebuffed by Broward County commissioners in October in an attempt to sell the 9.5 acres to developers, the Girl Scouts organization has decided to relinquish the property anyway, its officials said.
Under the deed restrictions attached to the donation, if the property lies unused for two years, it reverts to county ownership. Johnson said she didn’t know if the Girl Scouts would let the camp sit unused until 2019, or actively return it to the county in 2017.
The Scout-friendly County Commission, most of whom were involved in Scouting as children or as parents, will ultimately decide what to do with Camp Telogia, when it’s back in county ownership. Mayor Marty Kiar said he’d like to see it host Girl-Scout-only camping nights. But no decisions have been made.
Parkland Mayor Michael Udine said his city already weighed in against development of the site, off Holmberg Road.
“From the city’s point of view,” Udine said, “we want it to stay green and open.”
The Girl Scouts’ decision to give up Camp Telogia comes despite an outpouring of support from Broward girls and their parents to keep it open, and pledges of $60,000 to help defray its costs.
“It’s poor leadership and it’s so sad,” Girl Scout leader and mom Marilyn Bonilla Krantz said. “It really is sad to see such a good organization decline in this way, and witnessing it right in our back yard.”
Krantz said the Girl Scout board didn’t communicate with those who were working to save Camp Telogia. They were abruptly told last week that their efforts were in vain. Krantz said they had no opportunity to negotiate who would control the pledge money, or any other detail the Girl Scout board ultimately objected to.
“That’s just not the Girl Scout way,” said Krantz. “We’re a democratic organization chartered by Congress. Democracy is at the cornerstone of the Girl Scouts.”
The Camp Telogia controversy is a symptom of a national crisis for the Girl Scouts. Membership has been dwindling, as girls’ schedules are jammed with other activities, and fewer adults have raised their hands to volunteer, the national organization has reported. As they attempt to turn the trend around, Girl Scout groups across America have made similar tough decisions, shedding or selling off real estate.
Camp Telogia’s annual $20,000 operating expense is low relative to the Southeast Florida organization’s $4.6 million budget. After revenue, the net cost is $17,900, Johnson said.
But she said a recent estimate of the price tag to bring the camp into “good usable condition” — including new roofs, bathroom upgrades, a new front gate, new steps and entrance ramps for buildings, new tent platforms and tents — was $391,000.
The regional Girl Scouts organization, the result of mergers from years past, covers Broward, Palm Beach, St. Lucie, Martin, Indian River and Okeechobee counties.
A long-range task force for the organization recommended selling the camp and an adjacent 3 acres owned by the Girl Scouts. It also recommended consolidating offices into one headquarters. That could mean a sale of the Girl Scouts office in Oakland Park. But Johnson said it’s undecided which county would house the consolidated office. She said if the Oakland Park building is sold, the organization will still have a “brick and mortar” presence here.
Despite the dismal national trends, Johnson said there is reason for hope. The latest Broward membership numbers show a reversal in the slide-off of membership. There are 5,215 Girl Scouts registered in Broward, compared to 4,700 this time last year, she said. (According to the U.S. Census, there are 160,818 girls ages 5 to 19 in Broward.)
Nevertheless, Johnson said the Girl Scouts need to focus on financial strengthening, and on camps and activities the girls want to use.
In a May 2015 email from Southeast Florida Girl Scouts CEO Denise Valz to leader and mom Joy Smith, Valz said a survey of Girl Scouts found that 67 percent of them had never been to Camp Telogia. The survey included girls in other counties; 57 percent surveyed were from Broward.
Leaders, parents and girls complained about security there, a lack of space, insufficient parking, and said “it was too much like camping in their backyard and not worth the drive,” Valz wrote in her email.
She said the girls preferred camps that have water, so they can swim and canoe. The Girl Scouts’ two other camps, the 640-acre Camp Nocatee in Clewiston and the 640-acre Camp Welaka in Tequesta, have lakes and swimming pools.
“The issue was not solely a financial one,” Valz wrote. “The truth is that Camp Telogia is not a property that the majority of the membership wants to use.”
Johnson said overnight camping at Telogia will cease in June, because as the area around it developed, the girls’ safety has become less assured.
The Florida Department of Law Enforcement reports 67 registered sex offenders and predators in a five-mile radius, though only one is in Parkland city limits.
Krantz, a lawyer, said she doesn’t think the Girl Scout board of directors has the authority to discard the camp, and will push for a vote of the organization’s council.
“There are a lot of us that are lawyers that are leaders, but we were hoping to work in good faith with them,” she said. ” … We’ll keep fighting. We’re not going to just give up.”
bwallman@tribune.com or 954-356-4541. On Twitter @BrittanyWallman or @BrowardPolitics
