Cherokee Ridge Girl Scouts camp to close, decision upsets area Scout leaders

The Cherokee Ridge Girl Scouts camp in Southeast Missouri will close permanently Dec. 16 and the property will be sold.

The board of directors of the Missouri Heartland Girl Scouts council made that decision Friday.

Cherokee Ridge has been a popular destination for area Girl Scouts since it opened in 1966.

The decision came as a surprise to Scout leaders in Southeast Missouri, many of whom were upset by the decision, said Gabbie Hodgkiss, a Scout leader from Sikeston, Missouri.

�I think they didn�t see it coming,� said Hodgkiss, who is involved in efforts to save Camp Latonka. Both the Cherokee Ridge and Latonka camps are in Wayne County.

Cherokee Ridge is on a 1,100-acre tract of land near Sam A. Baker State Park on the banks of the St. Francis River.

Camp Latonka is near Wappapello Lake on an 800-acre site. Hodgkiss said the board has been mulling whether to close Camp Latonka for several years.

Hodgkiss said the Camp Latonka property can�t be sold by Missouri Heartland because the property is owned by the Army Corps of Engineers, which operates Wappapello Lake. The Girl Scouts lease the property for $1 a year, she said.

The Missouri Heartland board decided to �divest� Cherokee Ridge at its meeting, according to a news release.

Board members also discussed the Latonka camp site and �will be doing additional research before taking any further action on this property,� council spokeswoman Lori Enyart said in the news release.

Anne Soots, CEO of the Springfield, Missouri-based council, said in the release �we understand the emotional toll divesting Cherokee Ridge may have on some members. This decision was not an easy one.�

Soots said, �We have tried for 10 years to find a sustainable solution to managing our property portfolio while maintaining our fiscal responsibilities.�

She added fewer than 10 percent of its girl members attend a resident camp.

�Our board of directors made this difficult, yet necessary, decision to move our council forward,� she said.

The Missouri Heartland council has 9,500 members, according to Enyart.

The council is spread across 68 counties in central and southern Missouri, southeast Kansas, and northeast Oklahoma, according to the organization�s website.

Hodgkiss said she received numerous calls from area Scout leaders over the weekend who were upset with the board�s decision to close Cherokee Ridge, which she argued is still a popular destination of Girl Scouts in Southeast Missouri.

According to Enyart, the board made its decision after receiving a recommendation from the council�s �program property task group.�

The group comprises 16 current volunteer board members, volunteer property committee members and the senior leadership team, she said in an email to the Southeast Missourian.

Properties were evaluated for financial sustainability, property usage, program opportunities for all girls, financial stability, deferred maintenance, ongoing maintenance, amenities, safety, security risks, physical proximity and accessibility, Enyart wrote.

However, Hodgkiss said neither the board nor Soots ever indicated until Friday�s decision Cherokee Ridge might be sold.

If the board ultimately decides to close Camp Latonka, too, the nearest camp would be at Rogersville, Missouri, which is 11 miles east of Springfield, Missouri, Hodgkiss said.

�There would be nothing in this (Southeast Missouri) area,� she added.

Girl Scouts for decades have gone to Cherokee Ridge to ride horses, Hodgkiss said.

Camp Latonka used to have horses, too. But the horse-riding program there was discontinued around 2010, about two years after the Girl Scouts council was reorganized, she said.

Since then, Girl Scouts who attended Camp Latonka have had the option of being bused to Cherokee Ridge to ride horses, according to Hodgkiss.

Enyart said Cherokee Ridge has 21 horses. The council �will disperse of the herd in a responsible manner,� she wrote. Missouri Heartland Girl Scouts will continue to provide a horse program by partnering with �approved entities that provide those services,� she said.

Enyart did not disclose how much money would be saved by closing Cherokee Ridge. But she said �dollars and staff time� that supported the camp will now be allocated to other uses.

mbliss@semissourian.com

(573) 388-3641