Glaciers aren’t all ice, Millstone girl discovers
14-year-old Girl Scout has
an adventurous summer

SARAH McCOLGAN Lipica Shah of Millstone displays her trophy from the Pre-teen America Nationals Scholarship and Recognition Program in Louisiana this summer.

Lipica Shah is 14 and will begin her high school education this fall at Allentown High School. That adventure will have to be pretty dynamic to match the adventures the Millstone resident has already experienced this year.

At the beginning of July she traveled to Louisiana to participate in the Pre-Teen America Nationals Scholarship and Recognition Program. A competition that places emphasis on academic achievement, community service and personal experience, Lipica competed in three categories: speech, talent (singing) and costume. She tied for first place in the speech category with another girl.

Less than two weeks later, Lipica left her parents, Pradeep and Shrabanee, and her brother Arjun, 12, to journey to Alaska with nine other members of the Monmouth Council of Girl Scouts and three adult chaperones. The 10-day trip was started last year as announced in the Girl Scouts’ monthly Gazette. She attended an initial meeting of 50 girls where she learned what she needed to do to qualify to go on the trip, including the submission of three letters of recommendation and payment of $1,900.

The letters were written by Lipica’s guidance counselor, her Girl Scout service unit leader and her cross country coach. The fee was raised through the sale of Girl Scout cookies – 1,700 boxes to be precise – which was the highest number sold by any of Girl Scout in Monmouth County. As a result of her sales proficiency and the high praise contained in the letters of recommendation, Lipica was chosen to be one of the travelers.

Lipica is currently working toward the Silver Award in her second year as a Cadet Scout. She has been active as a Scout for about nine years, and when the other girls in her original troop dropped out, she continued as an "independent" with the help of her mother.

After learning early last winter that she had been chosen, Lipica and the other girls, who came from Rumson, Neptune, Manalapan, Point Pleasant, and other towns in Monmouth County and northern Ocean County, met monthly. Over time they came to know each other pretty well, she said, as they learned how to work as a team and develop patience and trust.

One of the most interesting and fun meetings, she said, took place at Camp Sacajawea in Howell where the 10 girls were confronted by a criss-cross maze of different sized ropes through which they had to climb.

"Each time you went through, the holes closed behind you so the next girl couldn’t go through the same way," she explained. "Everyone had to help each other; some girls had to climb through pretty high up and needed a boost. Also, we couldn’t touch the ropes. It really tested our patience, and our ability to have good teamwork."

Panning for gold and

visiting the North Pole

The tour of Alaska covered an area from Fairbanks to Anchorage and included a range of activities including panning for gold in a town called Fox, and visiting Santa’s house in the North Pole.

One of the first interesting changes the group encountered was the fact that summertime in Alaska brings nearly 24 hours of light, with about two hours of dusk occurring around 2 in the morning.

"It was easy to lose track of time," Lipica said. "We would be out shopping, and the stores would be closing. It was really late, 11 p.m., but it didn’t feel like it!"

In Palmer, Alaska, the group visited a musk ox breeding farm where they learned about the value of the animal’s hair, called quivit. It is softer than cashmere and is sold to the surrounding villages along the West Coast. The women there have made an industry of making scarves, sweaters and other articles of clothing from the fur.

An eight-hour bus tour of Denali National Park was arranged for the group where they saw an amazing array of wildlife, including caribou, grizzly bears and sheep. They also watched as a fox killed and ate a squirrel. Mount McKinley is located there, but they couldn’t see the top, Lipica said, because of rain. She also described how the natives had always called the mountain "Denali" until American settlers arrived to claim the territory and changed the name to honor President William McKinley.

When asked about her favorite part of the trip, Lipica answered without hesitation, "Walking on Natanuska Glacier!"

"Most people think glaciers are all ice, but that’s not true," she said. "Only part is covered in ice, and the rest is ice underneath with soil on top."

Twenty-five miles long, the glacier was actually 10 times larger a thousand years ago, she said. It moves about a foot a day, forming canyons, rivers and lakes. The water temperature, said Lipica, stays at about 33 degrees, not freezing, but certainly uncomfortable for people to swim in.

Tunnels have formed through the glaciers, and the group jokingly dubbed them "The Holes of the Giant Ice Worm." In order to walk on the icy surface, the group had to wear "crampons," which are shoes with spikes on the bottoms, to keep their footing.

One of the most interesting aspects of the trip, Lipica said, involved the interaction of the girls with their three adult leaders.

"They were so cooperative and really treated us well. They let us make decisions about what we wanted to do instead of just telling us. They were really great," she said.

The meetings and training prior to the trip really paid off as they worked together to make their trip a success, she said.

With the first day of school just a few weeks away, Lipica is excited and apprehensive. "I’m mostly worried about getting lost," she said, echoing the sentiment of many new freshmen. She said she looks forward to participating in cross country and track, the drama club and the debate club.

She also wants to continue as a peer leader, called a Life Saver, in high school. After attending a special program last year at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Lipica developed a deep interest in exercise physiology, and said she is considering a career in sports medicine.

"But I also loved my job as a defense attorney in mock trial last year," she said, "so I’m thinking about studying law."

Lipica sings in a choir, taking private lessons at the Westminster Conservatory in Princeton, and also considers performing as a career path.

Whatever she ultimately decides to pursue, Lipica Shah will certainly continue to include plenty of adventures in her life.