Omaha Girls Rock goes virtual

Omaha Girls Rock is a summer camp empowering Omaha’s female and gender expansive youth to use their voice through music education and performance.

I’ve been attending and volunteering at Omaha Girls rock for eight years now, and unfortunately due to COVID-19 the camp is cancelled this year. This would have been the last year I was eligible to attend.

Last years camp was virtual so I haven’t had the normal experience of camp for around two years.

Some of my best memories as a kid have been going to summer camp. Especially Omaha Girls Rock. Getting to preform with my friends, and learn about cool female musicians seems like a foreign experience now. But I know I will always live by the values and lessons taught to me at camp.

It helped me develop female remodels and build confidence as an individual that I wasn’t  learning from anywhere else. It taught me so many things, that I didn’t realize I was learning in the moment.

In a normal year, camp lasts one week in the summer. Throughout this week you meet your band, make a song, and perform at the Slow Down at the end of the week. I’ve even had the opportunity of preforming at Maha Music Festival with my band.

You also do other team bonding activities, dance parties, yoga and meditation, crafts, herstory workshops, meet and listen to local musicians and many other events.

I’ve had so many opportunities throughout camp of meeting so many people that aren’t like me, and listening to new music I had never heard of before.  I think that’s the best part of this camp, the community created inside of it.

I’ve never felt more welcomed or able to freely express myself as I have at camp. It’s truly the most non judgmental environment I’ve ever had the opportunity to participate in.

It helped me to realize and develop my love for music, and my love for meeting new people. It has allowed me to do that for eight years, and I am forever grateful.

Girls Rock has been a part of my life for so long, that the idea of not attending it seems unusual. Although it is bittersweet to know I won’t be performing at the camp anymore, I will continue to volunteer in the future.

Seeing girls who were like me at a younger age, and being able to help them, like my camp mentors did, is going to be an amazing thing to watch. I plan on teaching bass lessons at camp, along with being a band coach.

I’m excited for what’s next with camp, but what I’m most looking forward to is the normalcy.  The countless dance parties, teaching Omaha’s youth to play an instrument, and empowering future female generations to come.