NORMAL — As a young Brownie, Rebecca Starkey is very excited about her first camping trip.

The Bloomington eight-year-old is one example of the thousands of girls the organization is trying to reach through innovative activities while still maintaining the traditional camping trips that have been a mainstay of the organization for 97 years, said Pam Kovacevich, CEO of the Girl Scouts’ Central Illinois region.

About 500 area Girl Scouts met Saturday morning at the Marriott Hotel and Conference Center for their annual extravaganza, and participated in activities including a climbing wall and archery.

Meanwhile 200 of the volunteers and adults who run the not-for-profit organization met in the next conference room for their annual meeting to set the organization’s goals for the next year.

Kovacevich said among the topics they will tackle are using technology to keep the Girl Scout programs fresh, improving fundraising efforts in the wake of the poor economy and determining programs for the organization’s camping properties.

Although girls have more choices on how to spend their time, from team sports and other service organizations, the scouts maintain their appeal by offering many of those activities along with leadership skills, said Girl Scouts President Connie Lindsay. The national leader was the group’s featured speaker.

“We know that we are relevant to girls today, as we have been for the past 100 years, and we will continue to do our part to be relevant for the next 100 years,” Lindsay said.

The organization’s principal mission, to give girls confidence and leadership skills, will always be needed, Lindsay said. “When I was 11 and started scouts, my troop leader told me something every girl needs to know: ‘You matter and don’t let anyone tell you differently,’” Lindsay added.

About 3.4 million girls are members of the national organization, Lindsay said. Nationally, about 10.5 percent of girls participate in scouts. In Central Illinois participation is much higher, at 15.4 percent, or about one of every seven girls.

Kovacevich credits the higher local average to the volunteers who work to find programs that girls can’t do anywhere else.

But for Starkey and fellow troop member Gabrielle Graham, 8, scouting is about the camping and the activities they get to do.

Graham said she has had a lot of fun with some of the recent service projects her troop has done, including helping clean-up one of the Girl Scout camps.