How the first Black Girl Scout leader in Nashville’s work continues through Camp Holloway
When Heather “Glee” McCathern became the camp director for the Girl Scout Camp Holloway north of Nashville, she says it was truly a full circle moment for her.
For the past two summers, McCathern has served as director of the camp and is headed into her third summer stewarding the grounds, staff and campers at Camp Holloway in Millersville. More than 20 years before, she was a camper and then counselor herself at Holloway, where she earned her “Glee” nickname, a sign of being a longtime camp attendee.
“I first attended in 2003 when I was a Brownie with Troop 1857 in Lebanon, Tennessee,” she says. “We did troop camping for three summers, and I loved it so much that when I became a senior in high school, I applied to be a camp counselor. I worked at camp for over six summers before moving to California to continue working with children at a small mountain church in Tahoe City.”
Former Camp Holloway Director Lauren Reichstein shared that she was looking for someone to step up as the director right around the same time McCathern moved back to Tennessee to be closer to family in 2023.
“I immediately said yes,” McCathern says. “Camp Holloway helped shape who I am, so stepping into this role truly felt like coming home.”
Years and years before McCathern first camped there as a Brownie, the camp’s namesake and founder Josephine Groves Holloway paved the way for Black girls to enjoy the Girl Scout experience in Middle Tennessee. She established the area’s first Black Girl Scout Troop — Troop 200 — in 1942 and pushed to desegregate the Girl Scout Council of Cumberland Valley, which is now known as the Girl Scouts of Middle Tennessee.
Integration of the local Girl Scouts happened between 1960 and 1965 throughout the region. In the interim, Holloway was the first Black professional Girl Scout employee in the area, working as a field advisor, district director and camp director for Black Girl Scout troops.
“Josephine opened doors for girls who had no way to walk through them,” McCathern says. “She broke down barriers that took only moments to create but years to tear down. In the early 1900s, Black girls in our state did not have the same opportunities to learn, grow, and explore. For one woman to recognize that and say this needs to change, and then actually take action, speaks volumes.”
Over the years, Holloway has been celebrated more and more locally, but it was an uphill battle for her to form a troop at all. Holloway first attended a Girl Scout training session in Nashville in 1924 and was authorized through her training to form troops for Black girls, but they were not officially recognized until Troop 200 formed. After that, more than a dozen troops for Black girls popped up in a year and a half.
But to many involved in scouts in the area, including McCathern, Holloway’s greatest lasting legacy is the piece of land she laid out to ensure there was a place young, Black girls could go to be fully themselves.
“She did not just help form Black Girl Scout troops in Middle Tennessee,” McCathern says. “She wanted those girls to experience the outdoors, learn new skills, and have a space where they could fully be themselves. So she found land and made it happen.”
The 76-acre property opened as Camp Holloway in 1955 for Black Girl Scout troops and over the years began to integrate scout troops at the camp. Today the camp has campers from all over the place. In February each year, the camp invites Girl Scout troops, staff and leaders to celebrate Holloway on Josephine Holloway Day.
“It is also important that our council continues to recognize her through programs and opportunities that reflect her mission, inspiring girls to be more than they think they are, to dream boldly, achieve confidently, and believe they can do anything,” McCathern says. “That is Josephine’s legacy, and it is still alive today.”
At this year’s event on Feb. 21, folks gathered to hike together, cook over a fire and learn about the camp’s founder and leader.
“I want the Girl Scouts at this event to see that one dream became our reality,” McCathern says. “Camp Holloway exists because Josephine believed something better was possible. Giving girls the opportunity to see where it all began and understand the depth of her impact allows them to connect with her story in a deeper way. This space was built on a dream, and it continues to be a place where girls can dream, create, grow in confidence, and feel brave in exactly who they are.”
For McCathern, it’s important that campers know that Holloway is the reason the camp exists at all.
“The first thing we do is make sure Josephine Holloway’s name stays at the forefront of what we do,” she says. “She is often recognized once a year in February, but at camp we talk about her all summer long.”
The camp also engages campers in a tradition called Holloway Heroine. McCathern says the tradition pre-dates her time as a camper at Holloway, and it is a way to cement the values Holloway brought to her work.
“During each session, campers vote for a counselor who has shown the true traits of Josephine Holloway, including being caring, courageous, kind, adventurous, enthusiastic, and overall a safe place for Girl Scouts to belong,” McCathern says. “The girls write why they are voting for that counselor and place their note in a special box. At our closing campfire, we read some of their words and announce the winner. It is always a powerful moment because it connects Josephine’s legacy to the leadership our campers see in real time.”
Camp tours for parents and others also include a viewing of a memorial to Holloway. Staff shares how much Holloway invested physically, emotionally and financially to the camp.
Holloway operated everything with the idea of making the space right for the girls and for expanding the opportunity to include Black girls.
“We want campers to understand that they are part of something much bigger than just one week in the summer,” McCathern says. “ It truly starts at camp. In many ways, her legacy is Camp Holloway. Every time Girl Scouts come here to play, laugh, grow, and discover something new about themselves, they are living out the vision she had. When girls leave camp, tell their friends about it, and bring more friends back each summer, that legacy continues to grow year after year.”