Dani and Nico both hail from Providence and attended Girls Rock Camp in our first year in 2010. They have been involved ever since, attending camp 3-4 times each and going on to become GRITs* and Post-GRITs. This year, Dani turned 18 and joined our volunteer force as a band counselor before heading off to college at Clark University. They have (mostly) stopped throwing stuff at people.
*GRITs are a part of the Girls Rock Internship & Training program where return campers have the opportunity to take on leadership roles, teaching and mentoring, at Girls Rock Camp.
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DANI: I’m actually part of the little group of girls who have been part of the program since it started in Rhode Island back when I was 13.
NICO: I’ve been here for six years as well.
DANI: So we actually met in the vocal lessons the first year - oh god, help - what year was it? 2010. And then, the next year I took guitar. What did you take?
NICO: I took guitar, too. And then I never picked up another guitar. Then, did you do drums the next year?
DANI: Yeah. Then I did bass and realized I was horrible at all of those and went back to vocals. You’ve cycled through everything.
NICO: I stuck with hitting stuff. It’s just my passion.
DANI: So we were in the first GRIT group. We had a GRIT band and we all decided that we were going to be [called] the Instant Grits.
We decided to take a band picture outside on the playground - and they have this giant purple dinosaur. We managed to fit everyone from the GRIT band on top of the dinosaur to take a picture. And the dinosaur ended up becoming our band logo.
And during the actual performance, we got packages of instant oatmeal and instant grits and started chucking them at the audience.
NICO: [What band] will be most likely to throw something this year based on the names? Faceless Knee Socks, maybe?
DANI: I’d throw knee socks into the audience.
[laughter]
DANI: Everyone here is just - it’s such an amazing group of people. Even people you haven’t known for a while, it’s almost like an instant connection. And it’s just a really welcoming, really warm atmosphere.
NICO: We’re almost a family here, because we’ve all known each other for so long. Dani and Emma and Lauren and all of [the other GRITs], like, we’ve known each other since the first year. So like, I think coming back is just like coming back to a small family.
DANI: **It’s really inspiring, and it’s really incredible to be able to come back and watch and help other girls have the same experience too.**
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Dani and Nico’s story is part of a weekly series called ON THE MIC that shares voices and faces from camp this summer. A new story will be posted every Tuesday through the end of the year. __The stories are produced by Alex Braunstein of One Little Did.__
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