Spif's Garden

Spif’s Garden is just beyond Amity House in a wooded dell overlooking Lake Linnea.  Whimsical sculptures and colorful birdhouses are tucked amid the flowers and trees.  Benches provide “official” sitting spots, but girls perch anywhere and everywhere in the garden.  This is a hidden place for quiet thinking, daydreaming, journaling - loved for its quiet, shaded beauty.

"Spif" was the camp name of Lisa Pruett.  Lisa at age 16 was a vibrant and enthusiastic Girl Scout.  She volunteered to be the cookie manager for the Shaker Hts. Service Unit in 1990 when none of the adults would take on the job.  Leaders that year reported that it was "the best-run, most organized cookie sale" they had ever known. She earned the Gold Award that same year, which was awarded posthumously.

Lisa’s fellow troop members designed and planted a garden in her honor at her favorite camp.  Camp caretaker Stan Polo found "the perfect rock" for them and hauled it to the garden site for the memorial plaque.  The troop donated the landscaping, and every year since 1991 they return to maintain it.  Lisa’s sister scouts gather at the garden with her parents, Gary and Lynette.  They clean, weed, plant new flowers, reset the rock borders and remember Lisa.  Some troop members have moved away from the Cleveland area. They return on Memorial Day weekend with their families whenever they can.