It’s been more than 60 years since Susie Blum Connors first attended Girl Scout camp, but her memories of the time she spent there are fresh in her mind.

“I remember I used to hide lima beans in my napkin, because I just hated them,” she said with a laugh. “I also disliked oatmeal. I couldn’t even look at it.”

Despite the minor obstacles she sometimes faced in the dining hall, Connors committed fully to camp, particularly Camp Archbald.

“I started going there when I was 8 years old, in the late 1950s,” she said. “I went for two weeks, and I begged my parents to let me stay another two weeks, but they said no.”

She continued attending summer camp at Camp Archbald until she graduated from high school, and in the summer of 1968, she served as a counselor with many of her high-school friends.

“We earned $25 a week,” she recalled. “So we took home $200 for the entire summer, but it was never about the money. We just loved being at camp.”

In the summer of 1965, Connors participated in a trip that greatly impacted her life. She canoed down the Susquehanna River from Towanda, Pa., to Tunkhannock over the course of several days.

“There were 16 of us,” she said. “I still remember my canoe mate’s name. I remember a bunch of kids stole our canoes one night. I also remember I didn’t shower for five days.”

While Connors still recalls how to complete a canoe-over-canoe rescue thanks to that trip, she also took away a variety of life skills from Girl Scout camp.

“You learn so much about responsibility and respect,” she said. “You learn how to work with others, and how to live together in a cabin or a tent with four or five or even six other people. You learn how to clean a latrine.”

To this day, Connor remembers how to tie a clove hitch and a square knot as well as the proper way to fold a flag, all things she learned at Girl Scout camp.

Although her Girl Scout days are behind her, Connors continues to support the organization. “Once a Girl Scout, always a Girl Scout,” she said. “I still have my sash with all of my badges on it. I continue to buy Girl Scout cookies.”

Living in Scranton, Connor still runs into girls she went to camp with, and they all share happy memories of their time together.

“Everything you do at camp gives you a sense of camaraderie,” she said. “When you go to Girl Scout camp, you really feel like you are a part of something.”

Written by Cathy Molitoris, Marketing Coordinator for Girl Scouts in the Heart of Pennsylvania.