“Ambassador Ambassadors” for PA Palooza Posse Applications Due

A new posse has been formed to bring a totally awesome opportunity to our seasoned teen program aides and VITs (and LIT/CITs).

At Fall Experience 2025, September 12-14 @ River Ranch, we will be holding our inaugural PA Palooza. This will be a weekend for polishing existing and mastering new outdoor skills, filling tool kits with new songs, skits, and games, learning de-escalation and conflict resolution skills, and having time to meet new friends and of course eat too much junk food.

The Palooza will be open to teens with at least one full season of working at camp, generally our 8^th– 11^th graders. We are not currently open to PAs in training as we want to work on polishing our teens’ skills and teaching them tips and tricks for dealing with situations they have already dealt with at camp. We are hoping to make the Palooza an annual event, so our new teens will have another opportunity to join us.

Keeping with the teen-led mindset of our camps, we are looking for several Ambassador Ambassadors (clever name, I know) to be part of the PA Palooza Planning Posse. These Ambassadors will help us focus our plans on what they feel are the most important issues facing our teen volunteers and what would be important skills to learn and build upon.

We are looking for teens entering 11^th or 12^th grade next fall. We would like you to nominate teens who you feel would be an awesome addition and pass this information on to them.

Any teens interested should send a brief letter to our committee at PAPaloozaCommittee@gmail.com with the following information.

1. Your camp name, government name, best email address and grade level in Fall 2025
2. What is your experience volunteering at Day/Twilight/Community camps or Encamporees? Please specify which camp(s).
3. What is your experience and or desire to work on planning events?
4. What skills do you believe you can bring to the team? (organization, enthusiasm, knowledge of every Girl Scout song ever written, knot tying wizard)
5. What is your favorite knowledge/skill/talent you need at camp?
6. What is your least favorite task you need to perform at camp?

We would also like a couple sentences from you endorsing your nomination. Just simple, ex: I think Skittles would be awesome because they are such a great role model for their peers, they can tie a one-handed bowline, wrangle 10 feral Daisies at a time, and always have a smile on their face.

We would like to have “applications” in by January 1^st so we can make an official announcement at the retreat on January 11^th.

Thanks for your help making PA Palooza a great success and ensuring your older youth voice is heard!