Dancing With the Girl Scouts

Learning the Chinese Dance

                This weekend Theta Phi Alpha and a couple of the other sororities on campus volunteered to work at a Girl Scout camp last Saturday. The program was for girls from low-income families between the ages of seven and ten, and it provided them the opportunity to experience camp (because many of them would never get to otherwise). The focus of the camp was to teach the girls a little bit about other cultures that they may not be exposed to in their own everyday lives. The two cultures we chose for the day were Chinese and Greek.

We were split up into two groups. The first group helped about fifteen girls at a time, color their own paper flags while they taught them a bit about the culture and just chatted. I was a part of the second group; our job was to teach the girls a dance from each culture. It was a fun, new experience for me because I had not seen very much Greek or Chinese dancing, so I did not know what to expect. The moves were simple (and I’m pretty sure they were from YouTube), so we picked them up quickly. They were at just the right level for the girls.

The day was exhausting because we were on our feet the whole time, but what made it all worthwhile was getting to talk to and work with the girls. They all seemed so happy and excited to be there. I guess I expected their excitement walking into the camp, but their joy was a little confusing. I learned a bit about a few of the girls’ stories from one of the camp leaders and, honestly, it was upsetting thinking about what some of these little ones have to go through on a daily basis. It is more than have ever had to go deal with, so I couldn’t help but wonder how they could just put it all behind them and smile like that. My time with the girls remind me of how truly blessed I am. It also made me happy that I was able to share some of my blessings with them, even if it was only for a day.