Cooked on the Campfire Trivia Quiz

Answer: 1912

Although the Camp Fire movement was originally conceived in 1910, it was not officially founded until two years later. The movement was inspired by the Boy Scouts. William Chauncey Langdon organised a Boy Scout parade in Thetford, Vermont, in 1910 and wanted girls to have a part in the parade, so he discussed the idea of creating a similar movement for girls with Luther and Charlotte Gulick, and Mrs Charles Farnsworth, a local teacher. The Gulicks had established a camp for girls three years earlier, near Lake Sebago in Maine, and seventeen girls attended the camp in 1910.

The movement initially considered merging with the Girl Scouts and becoming the Girl Pioneers of America, but the merger ultimately failed. The Camp Fire movement was incorporated as a national agency in Washington DC on 17 March 1912.

Answer: Wohelo

Wohelo stands for 'work, health, love' and is made up of the first two letters of each word. It was also the name of a camp set up on the shores of Lake Sebago by Camp Fire founders Luther and Charlotte Gulick. The original Camp Wohelo still exists today and is run by the Gulicks' descendants. Camp Fire also offers the Wohelo Award, a leadership award in the shape of a medallion and the highest achievement in Camp Fire; teens from 9th grade up must complete several tasks in order to obtain it, including three major service projects (Advocacies).

Answer: Beads

The beads come in five colours: red for the Trail to the Future, blue for the Trail to Knowing Me, yellow for the Trail to Family and Community, green for the Trail to Creativity, and brown for the Trail to the Environment. There are also smaller purple beads for special projects. Camp Fire members can sew them onto their Adventure Vests in various patterns, and earn beads by doing tasks; for example, tracing their family heritage for a blue bead, or learning woodcraft skills for a brown bead. The Bullock Museum in Texas contains an example of an Adventure Vest from the 1950s, belonging to a girl called Keenie Lou Wylie, with a flower pattern made of blue beads and red and green bead trim.

In the past, there were also royal blue beads for Citizenship, orange beads for Home Craft and turquoise beads for Science, but these were all discontinued in 2003.

Answer: Symbolgram

Each Camp Fire member chooses a symbolgram to represent themselves. The five Trails have their own symbolgrams; for instance, the Trail to the Future is a triangle edged in red, containing a diagonal blue line representing thought and a red triangle on either side representing hands. Symbols used in symbolgrams can represent nature, such as snow or the sun, or concepts such as knowledge. One example of a symbolgram used Arapaho symbols for a rainbow, an eagle and a tree, representing faith, courage and strength. Keenie Wylie's symbolgram included yellow wings for adventure and a green mountain to represent climbing higher, with a red heart.

When a symbolgram is created, it is turned into an emblem and sewn on the member's vest.

Answer: Elsie J. Oxenham

Elsie J. Oxenham is considered to be one of the 'Big Three' writers of "Girls' Own" fiction, along with Elinor M. Brent-Dyer ('Chalet School') and Dorita Fairlie Bruce ('Dimsie'). She was involved in British Camp Fire, an offshoot founded in 1921, and qualified as a Guardian while living in Ealing, London.

She tried to start a Camp Fire group in Worthing, Sussex, but it never took off because local girls in the Camp Fire age group were already involved with the Girl Guides. Camp Fire is featured in several of Oxenham's books, such as 'A School Camp Fire' and the 'Camp Keema' books, which are set in a fictionalised version of Sussex.

Answer: True

Camp Fire was originally known as Camp Fire Girls and only admitted girls, but it began to allow boys in from 1975 onwards. The organisation changed its name to Camp Fire Boys and Girls, then Camp Fire USA in 2001, and finally Camp Fire in 2012. The organisation's headquarters also relocated from New York to Kansas City in 1977.

Answer: Starflight

Bluebirds was the name of Camp Fire's elementary school group. Sparks was created for kindergarten children in 1983, and in 1989, the Sparks and Bluebirds were combined to form Starflight. The Little Stars group was formed for children aged between three and five. The Starflight Trail Explorations programme involves fifteen projects, five for each of the five Trails.

The other Small-Group Clubs are Adventure (for third to fifth grade children), Discovery (for middle school-age children) and Horizon (for older teens, ninth to twelfth grade).

Answer: Gowns

In its earlier days, Camp Fire borrowed heavily from Native American culture; new members were given Native American names, and girls of high school age wore fringed brown ceremonial gowns similar to those worn by Native American women. They would sew emblems onto these gowns. Some museums, such as the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, have them on display. However, since 2019, there have been attempts to dial this back due to growing awareness of the issue of "cultural appropriation". In November 2023, Camp Fire partnered with the National Indian Educational Association in order to tackle this question and become more inclusive for Native American members.

In 1946, the gown became optional and was replaced by the Adventure Vest. Members could also choose to wear alternative ceremonial clothing from their own ethnic background, such as a kimono or apron.

Answer: She Cares...Do You?

In 1960, Camp Fire launched the 'She Cares...Do You?' project for their golden jubilee. They planted over two million trees and built 13,000 bird houses, amongst other things, and a special commemorative stamp was launched. A forest fire prevention poster also featured Smokey the Bear with a Boy Scout and a Camp Fire girl with the caption, 'They Help...Do You?' Like Girl Scouts, Camp Fire girls sold sweets from door to door, although it was doughnuts and then sweets (usually mints) in their case, and 'She Cares...Do You?' featured on the 1959 sweets box.

Answer: Taylor Swift

Taylor Swift has never been a Camp Fire Girl, but the other three were. Janis Joplin, a Texan by birth, joined the Bluebirds while at Tyrell Elementary School. Beverly Cleary, who wrote the 'Ramona Quimby' books, attended Camp Namanu - a Camp Fire summer camp by the Sandy River in Oregon - during the 1920s. Ramona also wears a Camp Namanu t-shirt in the 2010 film 'Ramona and Beezus' as a shout-out to Clearly. Madonna was a Brownie and a Camp Fire Girl, and stated that Camp Fire had a 'cooler uniform'; she also got into trouble for camping with boys.

Other famous Camp Fire Girls include figure skater Kristi Yamaguchi, politicians Amy Klobuchar and Dianne Feinstein, singers Gladys Knight and Rickie Lee Jones, and actresses Lynda 'Wonder Woman' Carter, Morgan Fairchild and Shirley Temple.