Pictured: Camp Amahami, home to the first Camp Beyond Binary.

National Grid, in celebration of June as Pride Month, has awarded a charitable contribution of $20,000 to the Girl Scouts of NYPENN Pathways to launch Camp Beyond Binary, a weeklong summer camp for LGBTQ+ youth ages 12 to 18. In addition to the corporate donation, National Grid employees are donating in-kind supplies needed by the camp, including clothing and personal items, for a community closet.

Pictured, from left: Gwen Sanders, community coordinator, National Grid; Alberto Bianchetti, regional director of customer and community engagement, National Grid; Liz Schmidt, director of camps & outdoor engagement, Girl Scouts of NYPENN Pathways; JoAnne Morak, director of development, Girl Scouts of NYPENN Pathways; Lucian Dale, Camp Beyond Binary participant; Julie Dale, chief executive officer, Girl Scouts of NYPENN Pathways.

Camp Beyond Binary embraces the core values of justice, empathy, leadership, transformation and belonging. GSNYPENN will pilot the camp in August 2022 at its Camp Amahami property in Broome County. The camp—open to all eligible youths, and not just Girl Scouts—will run for one week and be operated by council staff and volunteers, as well as seasonal staff with LGBTQ+ expertise, including an on-staff counselor.

The idea for Camp Beyond Binary stemmed from a lack of resources for LGBTQ+ youth not being met affordably within the GSNYPENN Council’s footprint, which spans 26 counties in upstate New York and northern Pennsylvania. Attendees will experience everything Camp Amahami has to offer, including boating, archery and hiking. There will also be workshops and groups where they can explore their feelings and be part of a larger conversation about inclusiveness and acceptance — a cornerstone of the Girl Scout experience. The council hopes to run additional Camp Beyond Binary programs across all its outdoor properties in the future.

“We are very appreciative of National Grid’s support of this pilot program. The Girl Scout Mission is to hold space for those who, on the spectrum of gender identity, are not cisgender boys. We feel Camp Beyond Binary is a natural direction for us to meet the needs of youth in the communities we serve who identify as LGBTQ+,” said GSNYPENN CEO Julie Dale.

 “Our planning committee of LGBTQ+ members who have expertise personally and/or professionally in this space and GSNYPENN staff has been working diligently on curriculum for the program. We are very excited to host our first cohort in August and see this expand into the future.”

“We are proud to sponsor this needed program for New York youth. At National Grid we strive to create a workplace where all employees can bring their whole self, and this camp is aligned with that goal of inclusivity and belonging’” said Natalie Edwards, global chief diversity officer at National Grid. “It is especially exciting that our employees can donate monetary or in-kind directly to the camp and submit for company match, increasing the support for the camp as one of the company-highlighted charities for Pride month this year.”

“The camp creates equitable access to summer camp free of judgment and prejudice for children who are courageously navigating a path of personal discovery,” said Alberto Bianchetti, regional director of customer and community engagement for National Grid. “At a time in a young person’s life where they may feel loneliest, the Girl Scouts of NYPENN Pathways are providing a community.”

The camp embodies the spirit of National Grid’s Project C, which was designed to transcend convention and create a more equitable future in the communities that the company serves. The goal of Project C is to inspire positive change, including social equity, today and in the years to come.

Girl Scouts of NYPENN Pathways serves 26 counties: Allegany, Broome, Cayuga, Chemung, Chenango, Cortland, Delaware, Herkimer, Jefferson, Lewis, Madison, Oneida, Onondaga, Ontario, Oswego, Otsego, St. Lawrence, Schuyler, Seneca, Steuben, Tioga, Tompkins, Wayne and Yates in New York and Bradford and Tioga in Pennsylvania.

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