If you can’t be at the 2024 Great Escape, but you wish to support  our Girl Scout Camps, please donate to our auction now, by clicking on the Donate button.

Live Auction!

By popular demand – our amazing live auction!  GE Committee members will be making and donating wonderful gifts in hopes you’ll support our camps by bidding high!

Winning bids range from $25-$150. The auction benefits our Girl Scout camps.

What Happens To Our Auction Proceeds?

Some of the many items purchased through Great Escape donations are listed below. We have been assured by GSEMA staff that most of these purchases have been moved to other camps. Rest assured, your prior donations have not been in vain!

Since Great Escape has been keeping records of fees and donations, the Committee has paid over $16,000 for the use of the camps during underutilized time periods.  Great Escape, by running a fund-raising auction each year, has raised more than $26,000 most of which has been earmarked for Camp Wabasso, and will now benefit Camp WInd-in-the Pines.  The money was used by Girl Scouts, Eastern Massachusetts to provide new tables and windows in the Dining Hall, chairs, a new chair rack in the Lodge and to purchase mildew-resistant paint, a dehumidifier and a new stove for the basement of the Lodge, making it cozier and user-friendly.  Among other items, more than 25 new mattresses were purchased for the camp cots; all Wabasso Girl and Adult campers can be grateful for these clean and comfy mattresses!  In 2013, we donated money to help buy new ceiling fans/lights for the theatre so that it can be used more often.  In 2014, we donated $1500 towards restoration of the Challenge Course at Wabasso.  We gave $3,500 towards outfitting all the winterized spaces with new cooking stoves and buying new cross country skis.  In 2018, we voted to purchase a commercial washer and dryer for the Wabasso infirmary so that staff won’t need to leave camp to launder sleeping bags that meet with the unfortunate accidents that happen when campers become ill.  In 2023 we were proud to purchase an electric golf cart. It enabled summer camp staff to navigate this large property, assist and supervise campers more efficiently. It serves us well during the Escape to bring campers from site to site more quickly, while supporting those for whom the long walk could be a challenge. When you participate in our Auctions or purchase our merchandise, you are helping to support our Council properties and the staff and girls who camp there.

In addition to our monetary donations, Great Escape has provided hands-on service through several projects.  At the end of each annual Great Escape Weekend, participants break down the cots in the tent units at Wabasso, saving the Council the cost of hiring help to do this.  A handmade quilt was created by Committee members and donated to the American Room at Foxlease in England.  Several Committee members collaborated to make curtains for Camp Laurel Wood in Spencer where we have spent Committee “retreats.”

We are grateful to all who have laughed and cried and sung and played with us at our weekends in the woods.  We look forward to having new Girl Scout Adults and High School Senior Girl Scouts join us.

September 2023