This is the next profile Q and A in a series entitled
Communicators Outside the Lines: Better Yourself, Better Your Community produced by the CoSIDA Goodwill & Wellness Committee. Read past profiles at
CoSIDA.com/CommunicatorsOTL.
HAVE IDEAS OR MEMBERS TO NOMINATE FOR THIS SERIES?
If you have any ideas for this series, which will revolve around CoSIDA member volunteerism and health and wellness, please contact Goodwill and Wellness Committee chair
Chris Mitchell, Washington University in St. Louis Assistant AD for Communications, at (618) 560-9280 or
mitchell@wustl.edu.
Q&A with KatieJo Kuhens
Sports Information Director, Wartburg College
by Chris Mitchell, Assistant AD for Communications, Washington University in St. Louis
CoSIDA Goodwill and Wellness Committee Chair
Kuhens with her mom and sisters.
Part of the Girl Scout Law is to “be a sister to every Girl Scout.”
For one week each summer, Wartburg College Sports Information Director
KatieJo Kuhens joins her two sisters (Kimberly, Kristin) and mom (AmyJo Jensen) to work the Roseville Girl Scout Day Camp in Roseville, Minn.
Kuhens is in her sixth season as the SID at her alma mater. She was named the
College Division Rising Star Award winner in 2013 and was one of 10 American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA)
Grant Burger Regional SID honorees in 2015. The Knights have won nine NCAA Championships in her six years at Wartburg.
Kuhens, her Athletic Director and the campus community knows the importance the week she takes off in the summer to help out at a camp that her mom has ran for 11 years.
MY EXPERIENCE
I have gone to Girl Scout Day Camp every summer since I was in first grade. I progressed through the levels of Scouts (brownie, junior, caddette) and then became a caddie (kind of a camp counselor of sorts. We are in charge of leading the campers at the various stations in the units we are assigned to) from 7
th-12
th grade. After graduating from high school, I became a lifetime member of Girl Scouts and have continued to help at camp each summer as a Unit Leader (chaperone for safety requirements by Girl Scouts in the unit) and as the kitchen facilitator in recent years.
The campers arrive each day and the day begins with a Flag Ceremony at 9 a.m. and are split into age specific groups called units. Then, the rest of the day is broken into stations (nature, arts and crafts, songs and games, archery, canoeing, etc.). These stations have programming that the Girl Scouts will earn certain badges throughout the week. The day ends with a closing Flag Ceremony and the campers go home for the night at 3 p.m. There are two overnights (Tuesday is the caddie appreciation and Thursday is for the junior overnight). Thursday, the junior scouts (4
th-6
th grade) learn how to set up ground tents, have dinner and enjoy a Scouts Own (songs, games, memories) before retiring for the day.
There is a two-hour block for lunch and the girls prepare their own food and cook over a campfire each day. The kitchen is in charge of dividing the ingredients into boxes that the scouts will “pack out” to their campsites.
MY FAMILY
I am the oldest of three daughters. We all were in Girl Scouts our entire lives and our mother was all of our troop leaders. (yes, that’s three different troops! Most occurred simultaneously as there is only seven years between me and the youngest).
We have all gone to camp each year. As I got to high school, Mom became a part of the camp’s “core team”— a group of ladies that helped run the camp. Roles included: day camp director, program director for brownies or juniors, caddie coordinator (helped mentor the caddies), child care supervisor (for kids that weren’t old enough to be an official scout), kitchen director and camp nurse. My mom was the caddie coordinator for many years.
In 2006, she became the day camp director so she was in charge of overseeing every aspect of the camp. Us three daughters also became unofficial assistant directors. We would help mom in the paperwork of registrations/camp schedule, assembling materials for the campers, orientation packets, counting pony beads for arts and craft, you name it. As we entered the work force, we all would take time off of work to go to camp for the week.
I have been a Unit Leader for one year and then became the kitchen coordinator. It was my job to make sure all of the needed food and extra cooking materials were ready for the campers to pick up before 10 a.m. each day.
For my family, it just isn’t summer without camp! We always know the third week of June needs to be reserved on our schedule to help. In 2012, we planned a surprise party celebrating mom’s 30
th year in Girl Scouts.
All three of us girls grew up helping at each other’s troop meetings or going to troop outings. My dad also helped with camp or other projects (built bird houses for a service project, did a car racing night-spin off of boy scouts Pinewood Derby races).
FAMILY – PART 2
Not only do we all help her with camp, but mom helps us in our endeavors to. She came to St. Louis and ran the volunteer check-in table for me for the three-day, 12-team GLVC men’s and women’s basketball tournament that Maryville University hosted in 2011. We had over 100 volunteers that I was in charge of coordinating. She got them credentialed, a volunteer t-shirt and reminded them of their assignment. She also arrived two days before to help with the set up and prep.
She also ran the media room check-in table for me when Wartburg hosted the 2016 NCAA Division III Track and Field Championships. This allowed me to tend to problems/questions as they arose and I knew the media room was in good hands. She also arrived two days before and helped with more prep and set up.
THE HOURS
In addition to the camp day, my family and I would help set up the camp the weekend prior. We would help set up canopies, unit boxes (all the cooking and serving supplies for each unit), hang any signage, stock the kitchen (you are responsible for all of your own food), etc. The camp facility is used all summer long with different camps each week.
My mom and youngest sister stay at the camp all week long. My middle sister and I go back and forth from camp to home (camp is about 45 minutes away from our suburb) and help at the overnights so the correct ratio numbers (adult to girls mandated by the Girl Scouts) are met.
I tracked my hours for the week for one of the #CoSIDA15 initiatives and logged over 70 hours just for the week of camp alone, not counting all the prep work throughout the year.
WHY I FEEL ITS IMPORTANT
I am a lifetime member of Girl Scouts and have earned two of the three highest honors one can earn in Girl Scouting (the third didn’t exist during my childhood). I have learned many leadership skills, organizational habits, team work, how to work efficiently, outdoor skills and endless songs and games.
I feel it’s important to give back to an organization that has helped make me into who I am today. Plus, I have an additional connection with my family’s involvement.
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