Around Town

LiveGirl Marks 10 Years

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Maggie Murphy remembers thinking as a fifth-grader that Camp LiveGirl “was just going to be like every other summer camp.”

A New Canaan High School senior set to graduate next week and attend the University of Michigan in the fall, Murphy recalled that she only knew that there would be sports and activities there. “What I definitely did not expect was that she [LiveGirl founder and CEO Sheri West] would bring in so many powerful speakers, so we had exposure to so many different empowering women,” Murphy recalled. “At the very end of every single day, everyone went around and told what their favorite part of the day was,” Murphy recalled. “In the beginning of the week, I was one of the younger kids at the camp and I was very shy. And I remember being very proud of myself that I eventually got up in front of the whole camp and said what my favorite part of the day was.

News

‘The Building of a Sisterhood’: Camp LiveGirl Marks 10 Years

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For 10 years, a local camp has been providing girls in grades five through eight the chance to become “confident, inclusive leaders.”

LiveGirl’s summer camp is designed to bring leadership development and mentoring skills to girls of all ages. 

While after-school groups such as “Confidence Club” or “LiveGirl League” give girls and young women opportunities to embrace their individuality, advocate for themselves, and develop resilience in the face of challenges, “Camp LiveGirl” fills a gap in the summer. Camp LiveGirl Program Director Shamare Holmes said, “We wanted to make sure that during the summer we don’t lose sight of what our girls need.”

What they need is increasingly important given rising rates among young girls of multiple mental and emotional health problems, such as depression, anxiety and suicidal ideation, experts say. And Camp LiveGirl addresses those issues head-on. In middle school, many girls experience a drop in confidence, their self-esteem reaching all-time lows. For that reason, LiveGirl—founded by New Canaan’s Sheri West, CEO—starts working with them during this period, encouraging them to build resilience and develop their strengths while connecting them with a support system. 

“When you’re in middle school it’s an awkward time so LiveGirl provides that added support to teachers, parents, guidance counselors,” Holmes said.

Around Town

Camp LiveGirl Concludes Fourth Year of Week Long Camp

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Inspiration, strength, perseverance, personal growth, and confidence are not words many young girls are used to hearing every day. Yet at Camp LiveGirl, where 5th- through 12th-graders gather together with adult mentors, the girls learn what it truly means to have their “power.”

The organization that runs the camp, LiveGirl, was founded in 2015 by New Canaan resident Sheri West after her own family’s transformative experience with the Fresh Air Fund. Launched with a group of 80 hosting girls for a week in the summer, Camp LiveGirl has grown into providing a group of 140 girls from all over Fairfield County that attracts volunteer counselors and high-profile speakers and mentors that believe in empowering young women. LiveGirl has also launched year-round efforts dedicated to provide development and mentorship opportunities for girls. With guest keynote speakers such as New York Times bestselling author Lauren Oliver, paralympian Jessica Long and Connecticut Women’s Hall of Fame education director Lena Harwood Pacheco, the campers are taught life lessons such as the value of failure and historic struggles women have faced as well as gaining exposure to female role models.