An open letter to all of the parents, volunteers, donors, fans and other members of the Girls Rock NC community and especially to ALL THE ROCKIN’ GIRLS:
I want to take this opportunity to thank everyone that has ever had anything to do with Girls Rock NC for making it the incredible organization it has become. In 2004, when I got a job teaching at Carolina Friends School, I had the chance to decide what to do with my first free summer ever since I was 14. I had heard about the Portland Rock & Roll Camp for Girls, and knew that this area was totally right for this program. With a lot of enthusiasm and some incredible friends helping, the first Girls Rock camp happened, and since then there’s been no looking back.
In six strong years, the camp has grown from a really, REALLY fun summer project to a non-profit with incredible volunteers, and four times the campers. Women’s Rock Camp Retreats are an annual event, and after-school programs are in the very near future. Girls and rock n’ roll clearly make sense to me, but the mission of the program has been the catalyst for growth throughout—encouraging these girls (and women) to see themselves for who they really are, not just what they’re told to be in big media and from society in general. Over the years I’ve had feedback from parents that they’ve seen real change in their girls after their experience in our camps or programs—that their daughters knew the value of their voices, because they had really been listened to, if even for a short week.
Here we are after six years of camp, and I have a lot to look back on. In addition to meeting and sharing time with over 300 girls, ages 7-17, becoming fans of every single, incredible band that’s been created, I have met parents, community members and individuals who all agree that there’s still tons of work to be done to help girls reach their fullest potential. Through writing, collaborating, listening, creating and performing, girls that attend Girls Rock NC have fun as they do the very real hard work that feminists everywhere aim for—speaking up and telling their stories. Many hands make light work, and as our volunteer base has grown, so has our program scope, our scholarship funds, and our outreach potential. There’s still plenty of work to be done!
These six years working with girls and women, and especially with all of you involved, have been rewarding, inspirational, moving and incredibly meaningful in my life. I am in the incredible position where I can step away from the organization to focus on my family and teaching career, and pass on the duties of Executive Director, with the knowledge that Girls Rock NC is in incredibly capable and determined hands. The board and the volunteers are outstanding, and care deeply about the girls and the programs we hope to keep growing, and they are full of spirit and ideas. I hope that by stepping away for a time, it will allow the organization to grow and bloom, as I cultivate my own skills as an educator and mother.
Thanks again to everyone for helping this vision become not only a reality for me, but a reality for so many people in our community and beyond that have been moved by our programs or mission to speak up and use their voices. Let it roar!
With love,
Amelia V. B. Shull
Girls Rock NC’s #1 fan (my new title)
