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By Kris Harrell

The Butler County Concern Citizens (BCCC) invited the girls of Butler County to a Girls’ Day Out Summit, hoping to give participants a safe space to talk and enjoy games and food. The event held on Jan. 20 was organized by BCCC members Shannon Crum, Brittany Blankenship and Rosena Womack. 

“[BCCC] is an organization that targets the elderly and the youth in our community, and a year ago the guys had a male summit,” Blankenship said. “So, we got together and said ‘hey, it’s our turn. Let’s get our girls together just as they’d done the previous years. [The girls] have so much going on and sometimes they just need an outlet, and we wanted to create that safe haven outlet for them to come and to talk to us.”  

Girls aged 10- to 14-years-old came together and played games, enjoyed food and refreshments and talked about things that are going on in their lives. Additionally, some family members took part in the day’s events, participating in some of the early activities like introductions and a game of telephone. 

“We did the icebreaker game of telephone because we wanted to share with them how rumors get started and how one person can tell someone something but by the time it gets back to them it’s a totally different story,” Womack said. “[They saw] how it’s just not nice[when] something that can be innocent can be turned into something that’s a big deal.”

After the game, the group played the game Taboo and danced a few line dances. 

Then, parents were asked to separate from the girls for the organizers to hear directly from the young women about their concerns and things going on in their lives. 

“When you’re speaking with teenagers, they might not feel compelled to share with their parents around,” Womack said. “So we did ask the parents to leave. I am a parent of one of the girls, so I sat for some of it, but I did leave as well because I wanted my daughter to have the same opportunity as the other girls to share or voice any concerns.” 

After the event, the hosts hope to organize more of the summits, to continue to help provide a safe space for participants.

“I felt really honored and proud [to do this]…,” Blankenship said. “We came up with this together as three members of Butler County Concern Citizens: Rosena Womack and Shannon Crum. Those two ladies are outstanding, we all put this together, everyone played a big part in it. Rosena prepared the food, Shannon came up with the games and the questions, and we all just spearheaded this together.” 

To learn more about future events with the Butler County Concern Citizens, please visit the group’s social media page.