Girls in that stage between adolescence and the teenage years can have a hard time making new friends. It is the time when aspirations and ideas are formed that will shape who the girls will grow up to be.
That’s where Debra and Lisa come in.
Debra Rieder and Lisa Gibbs both remember how difficult their own “tween” years were. They also relived the experience with their daughters.
Now they devote their time to trying to help other young girls transition into happy, healthy and confident young women.
Rieder and Gibbs are the founders of Beecuz You Matter, an annual girls camp for kids aged 9 to 13 years old.
This year, 33 girls attended the camp and had fun while learning life lessons that will influence how they treat their peers and how they treat themselves.
But Rieder and Gibbs are quick to tell parents that they are not counselors.
“We’re just moms who have children, and we want to make a difference,” Rieder said. “We want to make a difference in this world, one person at a time, with one act of kindness at a time.”
The camp encourages girls to dream big and to make new friends instead of sticking into cliques.
“Just because you have a little group of friends doesn’t necessarily mean that’s the best fit for you,” Rieder said. “Sometimes girls stay in that group just because they want to be included.”
The women group the girls differently every day to make sure that each girl at the camp meets every other girl.
The theme of the camp this year was “Bee yourself … everyone else is taken.” The camp lasted five days, and focused on a different theme each day, including growth and entrepreneurship, healthy eating and healthy lifestyles, water day, feel good-do good and pajama day: dare to dream.
During the growth and entrepreneurship day, the girls had the opportunity to get piano or guitar lessons and to make jewelry and other crafts.
“Sometimes the girls need to see it, touch it, feel it — to grasp it,” Gibbs said. “It was so much fun because I got to let that little girl in me come out too.”
On health day, Rieder and Gibbs introduced the girls to self defense and healthy eating choices, using vegetables disguised as cookies and brownies.
Everyone at the camp took a break on water day to play on waterslides and participate in relay races or water-balloon fights.
Feel good-do good day included pampering sessions where the girls were treated to massages by a professional masseuse, manicures, facials and make-up lessons.
The final day was pajama day: dare to dream. The girls spent the day creating boards that listed their hopes and dreams, doing scavenger hunts and having pillow fights.
“All in all, the week was a huge success. Feedback from the children and parents alike was overwhelmingly positive, making all of the long hours of hard work and coordination worth every minute,” Rieder said.
Monica Haab, whose daughter Sophie attended the camp, said she was amazed that the camp helped her daughter make friends.
“The first day, Sophie was very nervous, but by the end of the day, she had met two girls already, and it just kind of blossomed from there,” Haab said.
Wendy Cartozzo’s daughter, Hannah, also attended the camp and made new friends.
“Debra and Lisa really encouraged the girls to all be friends and not to pair off. Being a little girl, that happens a lot where there are cliques in certain groups, but at that camp it wasn’t even allowed — everyone was friends with each other,” Cartozzo said. “Hannah had a great time, and I definitely recommend that camp to anyone. She’ll be back next summer.”
Rieder and Gibbs founded the camp with fellow parish mother Dianne McAndrew, who hosted the first camp with them in 2009 and started the tradition that Rieder and Gibbs hope will continue for a long time.
But after a struggle with cancer, McAndrew passed away just a couple of weeks before this second camp took place.
“She was a big part of this camp,” Rieder said. “She lost her battle but left her legacy.”
The three women came up with the idea for the camp after they met in a prayer group.
“We talked about our own struggles in our own lives,” Rieder said. “This is based on the three of us, on our own hurts and trials we went through.”
This year’s camp members took part in a community-service project to commemorate McAndrew by planting a tree at the St. Charles United Methodist Church in Destrehan.
The camp also has volunteers from area high schools who help “bridge the gap” between Rieder and Gibbs and the girls.
“We have the passion but they have the youth,” Rieder said, laughing.
Sarah Duhe, 17, started volunteering with the camp as a way to earn community service hours. but soon realized it was more than a quick commitment.
“It’s not just a camp that keeps the kids busy — it’s more like they’re learning stuff with every activity we do with them,” Duhe said. “We’re teaching them the stuff we had to go through without them having to learn it the hard way. I wish I had that when I was their age.
“We act like an older sister, and they really get a lot out of it, and we do too as team leaders.”
Although the camp has no outside funding, Rieder and Gibbs hope to change that in the future by applying for grants. But even if getting money takes a while, the two said they are still happy with how things are going.
“It’s been an incredible paycheck to the heart,” Gibbs said.
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