Gaggle of Girl Scouts camps out on White House lawn
Fifty fourth-grade Girl Scouts camped out at the White House as part of Michelle Obama's 'Let's Move! Outside' initiative.
Fifty fourth-grade Girl Scouts camped out at the White House as part of Michelle Obama's 'Let's Move! Outside' initiative.
Pitching tents, singing campfire songs, and tying knots are all part of the typical Girl Scout experience. Doing all those things on the White House lawn, however, is not so typical.
The first-ever Girl Scout camp-out at the White House, designed to promote first lady Michelle Obama鈥檚 鈥淟et鈥檚 Move! Outside鈥� initiative, was held Tuesday night. The event also celebrated the upcoming 100th聽anniversary of the National Park Service.
鈥淒id you know that the White House is a national park?鈥� Mrs. Obama, who is the honorary national president of the Girl Scouts, asked the group of 50 fourth-graders gathered on her front lawn. 鈥淲e have so many beautiful parks all over this country that are free to families and kids. We want people to find their parks all around.鈥�
鈥淲hat better way to highlight 鈥楲et鈥檚 Move! Outside鈥� than by having the Girl Scouts camping out right here at a national park at the White House?鈥� she added. 鈥淭his is something you can tell your kids and your grandkids.鈥�
Over the course of the night, Mrs. Obama engaged in a variety of traditional camping activities with the youngsters, including knot-tying, tent-pitching, rock-climbing, and star-gazing led by Catherine "Cady" Coleman, a US astronaut who spent two years on the International Space Station.
The group also sat on bales of hay and sang songs around a makeshift 鈥渃ampfire,鈥� a pile of lanterns arranged in the middle of the circle, with the president and first lady.
"Remember to put the fire out before you go to bed," President Obama reminded the Scouts before retiring into the White House. "That's what Smokey the Bear said."
When a thunderstorm hit, the party didn鈥檛 stop 鈥� instead, it moved from the lawn to a conference room in an office building near the White House.
The night ended with a massive group hug, in which the president was swarmed by a mob of young Girl Scouts from all over the country.
"I thought he was like a serious man who only wanted to work and do business, but he actually has a really nice soft side," one of the Scouts, 11-year-old Blaire Batista of Washington, D.C., told Reuters. "Until I die ... I'm going to have this memory not in the back of my head, but right in the front.鈥�
This report includes material from Reuters.