“To Young Women Campers,” Young Women Camp Manual (2002), 5–26

“To Young Women Campers,” Young Women Camp Manual, 5–26

To Young Women Campers

Welcome to Young Women camp! With the world of nature as your classroom, you can experience the wonder of God’s creations and learn skills that will help you become self-reliant and able to live comfortably in the outdoors. At camp, you will make new friends and develop lasting friendships with your leaders as you work and play together. Through shared experiences, you can draw closer to your Heavenly Father and strengthen others in living the gospel.

The goals of Young Women camp are to help you:

Draw closer to God.
Appreciate and feel reverence for nature.
Become more self-reliant.
Develop leadership skills.
Respect and protect the environment.
Serve others.
Build friendships.
Enjoy camping and have fun.

To help you reach these goals, you will be participating in the camp certification program. There are four levels that correspond to your first four years in Young Women:

Level 1—age twelve
Level 2—age thirteen
Level 3—age fourteen
Level 4—age fifteen

During your last two years in the Young Women program, when you are sixteen and seventeen, you can be a Youth Camp Leader and share what you have learned with others. This is an exciting part of your own learning. The younger girls will look up to you, and you will have the opportunity to make a difference in their lives.

Think about the fun you will have at camp. Imagine looking into the starlit heavens before going to sleep each night and waking to the sounds of birds each morning! You will organize and cook meals with your new and old friends. You will work beside them on projects to help protect the environment. High adventure activities can be physically demanding and will help you feel a special fellowship with those who share these challenges.

Think about how fun it will be to have leaders and young women living together—participating in mealtimes, sharing times, presentations, firesides, creative surprises, cultural activities, and certification classes. There will be laughing, singing, praying, and maybe even some crying as you move through your days and nights at camp.

Imagine yourself returning home knowing how to do things you have never done before, feeling the glow of new and old friendships, and realizing that you are closer to your Heavenly Father. All of these things are waiting for you at camp!

First-level Certification Requirements

Complete each of the following:

Each day while in camp, find a quiet spot and read from the scriptures for at least fifteen minutes. Include in your reading the account of the Creation found in Moses 2:1–31 or Genesis 1:1–31. After the Lord created the earth, he surveyed his work and saw that it was very good. Share your thoughts about God’s creations with a leader or friend.
Learn the basic principles of sanitation for your camp setting. Learn how to correctly dispose of refuse while hiking. Learn how to dispose of garbage at camp and leave the campsite cleaner than you found it. Follow these principles during your stay at camp.
Learn the fire regulations for your camping area. Learn the procedures for properly extinguishing a fire.
Help to plan and participate in a three-mile hike. Learn what to do if you become lost.
Cook at least two items using a fire or a camp stove.
Explain the purpose of first aid, and learn the first four steps to take when treating accident victims.
Demonstrate how to perform the Heimlich maneuver to help a person who is choking.
Demonstrate how to give first aid for excessive bleeding and poisoning.
Learn how to fold a cravat bandage. Demonstrate the uses of the bandage.
Learn what should go into a basic first-aid kit and the use of each item.
Learn the basic principles for storing and preparing food in the outdoors.
Find an opportunity to serve another camper or leader. Help with something you are not assigned to do. This could include helping with camp chores such as cleaning the camp area or preparing a meal and cleaning up afterward.
Help to plan and present a song or skit on a topic such as the camp theme; the Young Women Values, Motto, or Logo; or stories from the scriptures.

Complete two or more of the following:

Spend at least thirty minutes in nature observing Heavenly Father’s creations that you can see, hear, smell, or touch. Thank Heavenly Father for the beauty around you. Share your thoughts about nature with a leader or friend.
Sort used glass, plastic, and aluminum containers, and see that they are turned in for recycling after camp.
Learn to identify six kinds of plants and three kinds of animals, birds, or fish that are found in your area. Observe interesting details about each one.
Learn how to tie a square knot, two half hitches, and a bowline knot. Know when to use these knots.

Optional certification requirement:

You may choose to replace one of the certification requirements with one of your own design. However, the one you design must be approved by the camp director before you begin to work on it. Write the requirement you design in the space below.

Approved:

Camp Director

I have successfully completed all the requirements for the First-level Young Women Camp Certification.

Your Name

Date

Approved:

Ward or Stake Camp Director

Ward or Stake Young Women Leader

Camp Journal

What I have learned at camp and my thoughts about my experience this year:

Second-level Certification Requirements

Complete each of the following:

Each day while in camp, find a quiet spot and read from the scriptures for at least fifteen minutes. Include in your reading Joseph Smith—History 1:1–20, the account of Joseph Smith’s prayer in the Sacred Grove. Record or share your thoughts about Joseph Smith and his vision.
Learn about the various kinds of cloud formations. If possible, identify three different formations during your stay at camp.
Demonstrate two methods for purifying drinking water.
Learn how to signal for help in the outdoors. Identify local authorities who could provide help, such as park rangers, local emergency personnel, ski patrols, and search and rescue teams. Learn how to contact these authorities.
Help to plan and participate in a five-mile hike. Plan and carry a nutritious meal for the hike.
Demonstrate how to find directions by observing the sun and stars.
Demonstrate how to treat someone who has fainted or is in shock.
Demonstrate how to give first aid for heat exhaustion and heatstroke or for hypothermia and frostbite, depending on local circumstances.
Demonstrate how to give rescue breathing.
Learn the basic principles of good nutrition. Plan and prepare one meal at camp.
Help to plan and participate in a flag-raising ceremony or devotional.
Find an opportunity to serve another camper or leader. Help with something you are not assigned to do. This could include helping with camp chores such as cleaning the camp area or preparing a meal and cleaning up afterward.
Help to plan and present a song or skit on a topic such as the camp theme; the Young Women Values, Motto, or Logo; or stories from the scriptures.

Complete two or more of the following:

Spend at least thirty minutes in nature observing Heavenly Father’s creations that you can see, hear, smell, or touch. Thank Heavenly Father for the beauty around you. Record what you have seen and your feelings about it. Share your thoughts with others.
Learn how to build two kinds of fires. If fire regulations permit, light them and extinguish them properly.
Identify three to five poisonous plants and three to five edible plants in your area.
Demonstrate how to properly sharpen, use, and care for a knife.

Optional certification requirement:

Approved:

Camp Director

I have successfully completed all the requirements for the First-level Young Women Camp Certification.

Your Name

Date

Approved:

Ward or Stake Camp Director

Ward or Stake Young Women Leader

Camp Journal

What I have learned at camp and my thoughts about my experience this year:

Third-level Certification Requirements

Complete each of the following:

Each day while in camp, find a quiet spot and read from the scriptures for at least fifteen minutes. Include Mosiah 18:1–17 in your reading. Review the covenants the people in the Book of Mormon made at the time of their baptism and the feelings they had. Record your feelings about your baptism.
Spend time observing an event in nature. It could be a sunrise or a sunset, the movement of clouds, or a rainbow. With artwork, poetry, song, dance, or the written word, express your thoughts. You may want to share your thoughts with others.
Learn one way to help preserve and protect the environment in your area. Use what you learn to make an improvement in your area.
Demonstrate the procedures for extinguishing accidental fires, such as those caused by grease igniting while cooking, clothing catching on fire, or wind blowing sparks into dry vegetation.
Learn two ways to start a fire without using matches. Learn how to waterproof matches.
Learn how to use a compass to find directions. Participate in an orienteering activity.
Show how to give emergency first aid for insect bites or stings, burns, blisters, and snakebites if snakes are common in your area.
Demonstrate how to give cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR).
Learn what you would do if the water in your camp were unsafe to drink. Describe how you would make it safe. If there is a stream, lake, or ocean near your campsite, survey the area and report any sources of pollution. Where possible, correct these problems.
Participate in an organized hike.
Complete an assignment made by your stake or ward camp director.
Find out who in the camp has a need; then help to fill that need.
Teach a song or a game to a group.

Complete two or more of the following:

Learn the guidelines for safety during hiking or water sports. Teach these guidelines to a group.
Learn how to construct three types of emergency shelters, including those made with a tarp or other waterproof material.
Try two types of outdoor cooking that you have not tried before, such as pit cooking, cooking without utensils, or cooking with a Dutch oven or reflector oven.
Volunteer to help a younger camper or one with disabilities complete a requirement for certification.

Optional certification requirement:

Approved:

Camp Director

I have successfully completed all the requirements for the First-level Young Women Camp Certification.

Your Name

Date

Approved:

Ward or Stake Camp Director

Ward or Stake Young Women Leader

Camp Journal

What I have learned at camp and my thoughts about my experience this year:

Fourth-level Certification Requirements

Complete each of the following:

Each day while in camp, find a quiet spot and read from the scriptures for at least fifteen minutes. Include in your reading Matthew 26:36–46, an account of the events in the Garden of Gethsemane. Record your feelings about what Christ did for you.
Spend some time observing the night sky. Identify two or more constellations. Then read Doctrine and Covenants 88:42–44; Moses 1:37–39; and Doctrine and Covenants 67:2. Share with a leader or a group your thoughts about what you observed and what you read in these scriptures.
Demonstrate or teach ways to protect the environment in your area. Carry out a project that helps to preserve or restore the area.
Learn what to do for your safety during severe weather conditions in your area such as lightning, tornadoes, typhoons, avalanches, or floods.
Prepare a meal using two different methods of cooking.
Help to plan an activity for the whole camp or your own group that will help the campers get to know each other. Involve everyone.
Discuss a need in the camp with the camp director and, with the help of the Youth Camp Leaders, develop a plan to fill that need.
Help to organize and participate in a nature walk or hike for younger campers.
Describe the signs of a broken bone. Demonstrate first-aid procedures for handling broken bones.
Learn and demonstrate four methods for transporting someone who is injured.
Review the first-aid skills for the first three certification levels. Demonstrate the Heimlich maneuver, rescue breathing, and cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR).
Help to plan and present a song or skit on a topic such as the camp theme; the Young Women Values, Motto, or Logo; or stories from the scriptures.

Complete two or more of the following:

With another camper or by yourself, learn something new about nature and teach it to your group.
Develop a project to help campers with disabilities. For example, develop a nature trail or an experience with nature for someone who is blind or in a wheelchair or who has other special needs.
Demonstrate how to make a bedroll or an emergency ground bed from materials that are not living.
Plan and participate in an overnight backpacking trip or other adventuring activity.

Optional certification requirement:

Approved:

Camp Director

I have successfully completed all the requirements for the First-level Young Women Camp Certification.

Your Name

Date

Approved:

Ward or Stake Camp Director

Ward or Stake Young Women Leader

Camp Journal

What I have learned at camp and my thoughts about my experience this year:

First-year Youth Camp Leader Requirements

Complete each of the following:

Choose a scripture that illustrates a quality of Christlike leadership you would like to develop. Set a specific goal to help you develop this quality.

Scriptural reference and goal:
Select a topic or skill related to camp that you would like to learn more about. Discuss it with your camp director and then learn all you can about it. Prepare yourself to teach the topic or skill to others while you are at camp.

Topic:

Reviewed:

Camp Director
Accept and complete assigned leadership responsibilities before and during camp. Write your assignments on the following page. Your camp director may ask you to do some of the following:
- Plan menus, purchase food, and pack camp gear.
- Set up the campsite.
- Set up schedules for cooking, cleaning, and fire building.
- Help select the camp theme for the year, and carry out activities related to the theme.
- Plan and carry out assignments at camp, such as devotionals, flag ceremonies, presentations on the camp theme, campfires, testimony meetings, recreational or sporting events, adventuring activities, crafts, music, activities that protect the environment, service, and hiking.
- Serve as a camp specialist in an area of expertise.
- Teach and approve certification requirements.

Steps in Completing Assignments

1. Choose two young women. 2. Ask them each to find a favorite scripture and be prepared to talk about it. 3. Invite the campers to bring their scriptures to an assigned area.

Camp Journal

What I have learned at camp and my thoughts about my experience this year:

Second-year Youth Camp Leader Requirements

Complete each of the following:

Choose a scripture that illustrates a quality of Christlike leadership you would like to develop. Set a specific goal to help you develop this quality.

Scriptural reference and goal:
Select a topic or skill related to camp that you would like to learn more about. Discuss it with your camp director and then learn all you can about it. Prepare yourself to teach the topic or skill to others while you are at camp.

Topic:

Reviewed:

Camp Director
Accept and complete assigned leadership responsibilities before and during camp. Write your assignments on the following page. Your camp director may ask you to do some of the following:
- Plan menus, purchase food, and pack camp gear.
- Set up the campsite.
- Set up schedules for cooking, cleaning, and fire building.
- Help select the camp theme for the year, and carry out activities related to the theme.
- Plan and carry out assignments at camp, such as devotionals, flag ceremonies, presentations on the camp theme, campfires, testimony meetings, recreational or sporting events, adventuring activities, crafts, music, activities that protect the environment, service, and hiking.
- Serve as a camp specialist in an area of expertise.
- Teach and approve certification requirements.

Steps in Completing Assignments

1. Learn how to treat for shock (see p. 37). 2. Practice teaching what I have learned to another camper. 3. Teach young women at camp when assigned. 4. Sign campers’ certification pages.

Camp Journal

What I have learned at camp and my thoughts about my experience this year:

Sunlight provides some of the most beautiful sights in nature. When it shines through drops of water during a rainstorm or in a waterfall, it separates into beautiful bands of violet, indigo, blue, green, yellow, orange, and red light. As the sun sets in the evening, its rays travel a longer path through the earth’s atmosphere. More blue and yellow rays are filtered out, and the reds come through most clearly. Clouds and dust in the atmosphere reflect the red rays, and we see a glorious sunset.

On the grasslands of Africa live the tallest animals on earth—the giraffes. These graceful animals have been described as gigantic long-stemmed speckled flowers moving slowly through the grass. Giraffes spend sixteen to twenty hours a day browsing for food. They usually gather foliage from an area about seven to eighteen feet above the ground. Sometimes they trim the trees they are eating into hourglass shapes or circles!

When you return home from camp, you can do many things to remain close to nature. Where do wild creatures live? In the desert? Yes. In the forests? Absolutely. But they also live in cities, suburbs, and backyards. Birds, squirrels, butterflies—many wonderful creatures live nearby for you to observe. To attract wild creatures, you can plant flowers, bushes, or trees that provide berries, seeds, or blossoms. You can make a bath, watering place, or feeder for birds. Learn about and become good neighbors with the wild creatures that live near you!

Do you know which bird is the smallest in the world? The hummingbird, of course! This tiny acrobat can fly past your ear sounding like a jet airplane, or it can hover like a helicopter in front of you to see if you are a flower. Hummingbirds are constantly eating to keep heat and energy in their tiny bodies. A rufous hummingbird will draw nectar from about 1,500 flowers each day. Hummingbirds often adapt to where they live. In the Andes Mountains in South America, they have extra feathers around their legs to help them keep warm.

In warm seas you may see what you think are small, inflated, blue or pink plastic bags floating along the surface. These little “bags” are a kind of jellyfish called the Portuguese man-of-war. A crest sticking up from the bag catches the wind and acts as a sail. Underneath the man-of-war, like strands of beads in a curtain, long tentacles hang down to sting prey and eat food. Enjoy this beautiful sea creature at a distance!

Many wildflower names originate from a story or legend. Indian paintbrush received its name from a Native American legend. A brave who was trying to paint the colors of a prairie sunset threw down his brushes. Later, flowers grew where the brushes had landed. The flowers were red, yellow, white, and pink like the sunset. What traditions can you discover about the wildflowers in your area?

Have you ever heard someone say, “I’m as hungry as a bear”? Bears can eat huge amounts, as much as ninety pounds a day, and they can gain up to seven pounds in one day! Why do bears eat so much? Their food is available for only a short season, and they must prepare for winter. When camping in bear country, carefully follow the regulations for storing food, and keep an eye on the camper who says, “I’m as hungry as a bear!”

Who gnawed the bark off this tree? Who flattened the grass in this meadow? Whose footprints are these in the mud by the water hole? Learning to recognize tracks and signs of wildlife is like becoming a detective. Clipped edges of foliage; animal droppings; markings in the sand or snow; and the size, shape, depth, and direction of tracks—all have a story waiting to be read by you.