By Mikayla van Loon
A little over 14 years ago, Lilydale’s Bridge Builders identified a need to allow young women to explore their potential.
In a few weeks, the UR Retreat will celebrate 15 years of taking young women aged 13 to 15 on a four day discovery camp to find their inner butterfly.
While generally, the retreat only takes 50 girls, which throughout the years has added up to over 700 young people, this year to mark the birthday milestone, event manager Bonnie Knight said 70 young girls have been selected for the camp, with many on the waiting list.
“We decided that after doing it for 14 years, we’ve probably got the recipe of how the retreat works and decided we do have the capacity to take more girls,” she said.
“But also especially over the past couple of years with Covid, the demand for it is pretty high as well.”
Bonnie said the idea of the four days is to give young women the time and space to feel empowered.
“A lot of the time young women, especially at that age, they’re still figuring themselves out and it can be really difficult, especially if you’re in a tough environment, to find a really positive view of yourself and try to figure out some of the really good things within yourself,” she said.
“So the girls retreat is all about encouraging the young women on what they can be and what they are capable of and the work that’s inside them.”
Every day throughout the retreat has a different theme: create, immerse, empower and celebrate, something Bonnie said really helps the girls build confidence.
“The biggest thing I see over the four days is when they actually start to believe in themselves, and they start to see their own worth and their own potential and you can see them get really excited about that.”
Activities range from a high ropes course, to vision boards and a dance workshop, alongside some incredible guest speakers to share stories about identity, confidence and self worth.
As a registered charity, ensuring the costs of the camp are covered, volunteers have been fundraising for the event, with a tin rattle coming up this weekend in Lilydale.
“There’s about 20 leaders and they all volunteer their time. We’ve been planning for about 12 months and all the leaders have been finding community sponsors and trying to fundraise money so we actually can take the girls on camp and run the camp,” Bonnie said.
“$50,000 is what we need and we’re probably nearly over halfway. So this tin rattle is going to be one of our biggest contributors to that.”
Funds raised sponsor each participant to attend, making the cost of the camp quite low so girls from all demographics and socioeconomic backgrounds can attend.
Drivers will be able to spot the Bridge Builders team on the corner of Maroondah Highway and Anderson Street in Lilydale all day as they collect coins.
“Anyone coming through there, any amount helps us really because it all adds up over the day.”
Bonnie said should anyone be looking to come on board as a sponsor, the website www.bridgebuilders.com.au/events/ur-retreat/ allows businesses or people to directly sponsor as many participants as they like.
“We refer to it as a four day journey and we sometimes refer to the young women as young butterflies because the journey they have on the camp they’re going through the process of a caterpillar to a butterfly.
“So we take them through that process of really emerging and coming out of themselves and really starting to believe and encourage themselves. It’s that first step on their journey.”
