Caitlin Dunbar Nature Center #1

at Girl Scout Camp Conowingo

One of Caitlin’s favorite places was Girl Scout Camp Conowingo. She spent ten consecutive summers there and looked forward to becoming one of the camp’s counselors.

Thanks to the generous donations of many people, Caitlin’s memory will live on at Camp Conowingo in the form of the Caitlin Dunbar Nature Center. The goal of the Center is to promote conservation and respect for wildlife and nature, and increase awareness of the principles of Leave No Trace.

A Huge Success!

Camp Conowingo is the Girl Scouts of Central Maryland’s (GSCM) premier resident camp. It is nestled on 600 wooded acres alongside the Susquehanna River in Cecil County, Maryland. Camp Conowingo was Caitlin’s favorite camping destination for 10 consecutive summers. Today it is the home of the Caitlin Dunbar Nature Center.

The Caitlin Dunbar Nature Center was created with love, primarily by Girl Scouts who knew and loved Caitlin. Leading this project were two of Caitlin’s close friends—Patti Veasey and Ashley Kneale. Patti and Ashley both earned the Girl Scouts’ highest award—the Girl Scout Gold Award—for their work in bringing the Nature Center into existence.

Patti and Ashley, along with several other Girl Scout friends, first saw the unremarkable trailer in the woods in early December 2005. They had traveled an hour and a half to Conowingo to meet with GSCM staff to begin planning the Caitlin Dunbar Nature Center. Patti decided to take responsibility for the Nature Center’s interior, while Ashley took on the gardens surrounding the Nature Center.

Over the next four months, Patti and Ashley made several visits to Camp Conowingo to measure, research and plan their respective projects. Each girl invested many hours in independent research and recruited others to assist them as workers or consultants. Meanwhile, outside contractors were hired to install siding on the trailer to protect it and blend it with its forest setting. A deck, large enough for outdoor education activities, was constructed across the front of the trailer.

In May, everything was ready for Patti and Ashley to begin implementing their projects. Their Girl Scout troop arranged a working weekend visit that involved four additional Girl Scout troops—including Caitlin’s sisters, Kelsey and Kristy, and their respective troops. That week, Patti lost her mother to breast cancer. An abbreviated version of the working weekend took place without Patti. Saturday morning, the Scouts rushed home to be with Patti and her family for her mother’s memorial service.

Meanwhile, local Boy Scout, Zach Peoples heard about the Nature Center and offered to help. He designed the Nature Center sign and arranged for its construction. Then he led a work party of Boy Scouts and adults to Camp Conowingo to install the sign. They built a stone planter box for the sign’s base and filled it with flowers. They also added drainage around the Nature Center’s main flower bed, and lined the walkway with stones. For his leadership, Zach earned the Boy Scout Eagle Award.

Over the course of the next month many adults, Scouts, and friends joined Patti and Ashley as they planted the gardens, and painted and decorated the Nature Center. Finally, the last day of work arrived. Patti, Ashley and several other girls from their troop headed to Conowingo after school on the last day of school to add the finishing touches. They worked all that day into the evening, arose early the next morning, and worked until nearly midnight.

Two days later it was Fathers Day, June 18, 2006. That day over 500 people visited Camp Conowingo for the Grand Opening and Dedication Ceremony for the Caitlin Dunbar Nature Center. The word of the day was. “WOW!” No one could believe what an incredible job Patti, Ashley, Zach, and their many helpers had done in transforming an old mobile home trailer into such a fine nature center.

Over 900 Girl Scout campers experienced the Nature Center during the summer 2006 resident camp program at Camp Conowingo. The reaction was always the same—“WOW!”

Many thanks go to all of you who donated your time, energy, money, materials, inspiration and love to this project. Without you the Caitlin Dunbar Nature Center would not exist.

But the story does not end here…the next phase is already underway. Together with the Snyder Foundation for Animals (Baltimore, MD), the Girl Scouts of Central Maryland has creatied a portable version of the Caitlin Dunbar Nature Center to help deliver the Nature Center experience to girls who are unable to visit Camp Conowingo. A second Nature Center location is planned to open at Girl Scout Camp Ilchester in Howard County, Maryland, on Caitlin's 19th birthday, March 9, 2008. Additional branches of the Nature Center are envisioned for each of GSCM’s other camp locations. Ideas are already being discussed for expanding the Caitlin Dunbar Nature Center facility at Camp Conowingo—a larger, winterized, year-round building, nature trails, and a marine life lab at the Camp’s pond.

If you wish to make a donation to support this project, please send your check to:

Caitlin Dunbar Nature Center
Girl Scouts of Central Maryland
4806 Seton Drive
Baltimore, Maryland 21215