Meet the FGBG Girl...
She is the girl next door. Downtown metropolitan or small town main street. She's aware. She's fashionable. She's quality conscious. And, she desires growth. For Girls By Girls Magazine.

Story by Becca,
continued...

From this backyard experiment, "AstroTots, Space Camp for Little Dippers" was born. (www.astrotots.org) What began with a handful of girls in my backyard has become a major event multiple times a year that involves dozens of volunteer youth scientists, science professionals, educators, and government officials. All organization, planning, and leadership roles are strictly for female youth volunteers (with the exception of my little brother). The volunteers are split up into Team Leaders and Activity Specialists and together they work to help the girls with experiments, rocket launches, and crafts. Our last event was in such demand that we had to turn away over 100 girls!

We have a core group of activities that we do each camp, but sometimes we mix it up a bit with new ideas we've come up with. One of the most popular events is the Martian Landscape activity. Girls imagine what life might be like on other planets. With toy aliens, astronauts and a batch of red salt dough they create their own concept of life on Mars and have lively discussions about our neighbors on the red planet. Campers watch a real model rocket launch, learn about how craters are formed using pudding and chocolate chips, build rockets out of pipe insulation and launch film canisters into the sky with nothing more than seltzer tablets and water.

People often ask me how I thought of doing my own space camp. When I attended my first space camp it changed how I felt about myself and helped me discover my true passion. I knew there were other girls out there like me, and wanted to provide for them the things I wished I could have done when I was little.

Running a camp of any kind isn't cheap. I learned I had to find funding to keep up with the demand for camps. It was important to me to continue to provide these camps FREE for girls so that financial restrictions wouldn't be a roadblock for any girl who wanted to attend. Luckily I discovered Youth Service America (www.ysa.org) and Youth Venture (www.youthventure.org) who not only have funding available for kids who want to change the world, they have amazing resources to teach you how to be successful!

Today. Tomorow.
The future. Your future.
You.