Here's the 'Dream' that could come true for Augusta-area Girl Scouts by 2026

Joe Hotchkiss, Augusta Chronicle
·2 min read
An artist's rendering shows a proposed activity area within a Girl Scout DreamLab, a new organizational and educational concept that could come to Columbia County by 2026.
An artist's rendering shows a proposed activity area within a Girl Scout DreamLab, a new organizational and educational concept that could come to Columbia County by 2026.

Augusta-area Girl Scouts by the end of 2026 could have one of the nation’s first multipurpose activity “DreamLabs” at Camp Tanglewood if Columbia County grants the organization’s rezoning request.

Tanglewood, 4687 Columbia Rd., has been used as a Girl Scout camp for more than 80 years. Now the Girl Scouts of Historic Georgia want to erect a 5,000- to 6,000-square-foot center, separate from camp facilities, to replace the council’s smaller, out-of-the-way offices in a commercial strip on Augusta’s Shartom Drive.

Dring the COVID-19 pandemic, the Girl Scouts of the USA inventoried its 111 councils’ real estate holdings and found that more than 1,000 troop buildings, offices and camps were, like its CSRA Service Unit, difficult to reach, which discouraged better participation among girls and parents.

The new Augusta-area headquarters at Tanglewood would be part of one of the organization’s first DreamLabs, designed to provide a welcoming environment for Girl Scouts and their families to earn achievement badges, stage group activities and assume roles intended to foster responsible citizenship.

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Several such facilities already have opened, such as in Lowry, Colo.; Gonzales, La.; and North Brunswick, N.J.. The Girl Scouts announced last November that a DreamLab was coming to Vestavia Hills, Ala.

Local Girl Scout officials said that, pending Columbia County’s rezoning approval, talks with architects could begin as soon as April, when fundraising efforts for the DreamLab will begin in earnest.

The camp underwent a high-profile improvement project in December 2010. The ABC home improvement show Extreme Makeover: Home Edition paid tribute to longtime dedicated council employee Earnestine Graham by rebuilding and augmenting a Tanglewood activity cabin that burnt down the previous summer. The fast-paced show, which promises completed construction projects within seven days, also rebuilt Graham's south Augusta home.

The Columbia County Board of Commissioners is scheduled to vote on the rezoning March 5.

This article originally appeared on Augusta Chronicle: Girl Scouts in Augusta region propose 'DreamLab' for Columbia County