After the rest of the students went home on Friday, Cayuse Prairie seventh- and eighth-grade girls rolled out their sleeping bags and waited for new friends to arrive.

Cayuse Prairie School hosted its first rural schools girls camp-in with students from Deer Park and Fair-Mont-Egan schools.

Cayuse Prairie guidance counselor Annelies Pedersen organized the inter-school sleepover as a way to help prepare the rural-school girls for their transition to a large high school.

“The idea is to start bonds early,” Pedersen said.

Pedersen got the idea from a fellow guidance counselor in Ravalli who has had great success with a similar program.

The theme of the camp-in was “Be BeYOUtiful,” and activities were designed to encourage students to find beauty from within and encourage them to work to fulfill dreams and aspirations.

“Our hope is that they make friends and get excited about what’s next,” Pedersen said.

About 20 seventh- and eighth-grade girls attended.

The event piggybacked off the Graduation Matters initiative.

The night was filled with crafts, baking, yoga, skin care and learning about what it takes to be successful in high school and into college.

Montana State University junior Melissa Livingston, a graduate of Columbia Falls High School, gave the girls advice about high school and college.

Livingston warned against slacking off during freshman and sophomore years of high school as she did. Livingston said she was one point away from graduating with honors because of her early school performance.

Despite that, though, her later hard work and relationships she built with teachers paid off and she received $10,000 in scholarship money, which paid for her first year at MSU.

“It really takes the work, it takes being a driven student,” she told the girls.

Current high school students who graduated from Deer Park and Cayuse Prairie volunteered their time at the camp-in and gave advice to the younger girls over hot chocolate.

“It went well,” Pedersen said. “I was pretty darn happy with the whole thing.”

Numerous local community members and businesses donated or volunteered their time for the camp-in.

“I’m completely amazed by people’s enthusiasm and support,” Pedersen said.

She hopes to continue the camp-in annually and eventually have alumni from the rural schools that attended a camp-in come back and volunteer.

“I’m excited. The energy is there for what’s coming next,” she said.