Scout marks 40 years camping

There is a ladybug on every wall and in every nook and cranny in Donella Lais’ house.
She has ladybug tea sets, wind chimes, rocks painted as ladybugs and ladybug hand bags. She has so many ladybugs, she can’t fit them all in her house, and many are in boxes in storage.
But this collection is not just a collection of knickknacks. Each one has been a gift from a child, friend or fellow Girl Scout leader in her more than 40 years as a Girl Scout leader and camper.
Lais plans to continue as a leader, but after years leading girls in exploration of the outdoors, failing health may cut Lais’ camping days short.
“I think this might be the last year for my husband and I. Our bodies are not working like our brains do,” she said as tears began to well up in her eyes.
Lais, 71, of Newton, was never a Girl Scout when she was a girl. But when her oldest daughter started going to Scouts, she got interested in what her daughter was doing at meetings.
She was soon invited to volunteer with her daughter’s troop.
It has been a long-standing tradition in Girl Scouting for adults and girls to choose nicknames to be used at camp.

How the Ladybug got her name

One year, Lais was volunteering at a camp for which there was a bug theme. Lais choose the name Ladybug, and it stuck.
Lais said she likes everything about Scouting. But she said she and her husband have treasured their outdoor experiences.
“I have loved this so much,” she said. “The best part is taking the girls out — taking them out in the world.
Lais said she was never one for housework, but she loves all things outdoors.
She still has a piece of cloth from her first Girl Scout tent. After many years of well-worn service, it was taken down in a wind storm.
Lais can put up a tent, start a fire and is a master of outdoor cooking.
She started rattling off the menu from her recent week of camping at East Lake — meatballs, boiled potatoes, pork loin, chicken —  all of which was cooked outdoors.

Roughing it

Lais said she doesn’t mind roughing it and scowled as she talked about the running water and electricity outlets that have been installed at some Girl Scout camps.
At Camp Four Winds near Leon, where Lais started her camping experience, there was no electricity at the camp sites and you had to hand pump your water from a well. The leaders almost never got warm showers, because the water tank was heated by the sun, and as the girls took their showers first, it was frosty well water for the adults.
“I never minded the outdoors. I don’t mind mice, but I don’t like snakes,” Lais said.
Lais won’t let her girls mention the “R” word, but she has been caught in her fair share of thunderstorms during camping trips and once had to save her belongings from a flood at Camp Hawk.
Lais said she learned her outdoor skills along side the girls.
“It has been fun to discover what they can do,” she said. “It is amazing what these little girls can do.”

Living by the promise

Whether the girls were camping or at home, Lais said she tried to teach her girls to abide by the Girl Scout promise — to be honest, fair and to help people at all times.
Her troop members have helped veterans, volunteered at the senior center, made tray favors for Meals on Wheels and donated to the Girl Scout Festival of Giving.
“When I started, I was dumb green,” she said. “I gave an interest. I made up my mind I was going to let parents know where their kids were, we would have fun and learn too.”
Lais has a necklace with two beads on it for every year she attended camp.
“I am sure people think, ‘Who is this 71-year-old woman with this garb on?’ I’m sure I look pretty silly, but I think the little kids relate to me better.”
There are green beads for her 29 years at Core camp at Four Winds Girl Scout Camp and plastic Angel beads for her 11 years directing Angel Camp at Harvey County East Lake.
“I choose the name Angel Camp because I think of them as little angels — at least most of the time,” she said.
Lais produced an angel made out of tissue. She said one of her girls gave it to her. She said she has many trinkets like this that she can’t bear to part with.
“It’s just a single little tissue angel. People may wonder why I keep all these things, but it means so much to me to look at these. I remember all the fun looking at these. It does this good,” she said, patting her heart.
Lais also is having difficulty giving up her camping days. She told friends and family this would be she and her husband’s last year camping. But as Lais looked over piles of pictures from her camping days, she said she is not sure she is ready to give up. She put a in reservation for the camp grounds at East Lake next year and may try to get in another year of songs, weeny roasts and smores before she calls it quits.
“I know I have been a part of a lot of young people’s lives,” she said. “I’m not read to give it up — not yet.”