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By R.J. Cohn

What began as weekend camp for girls 10 years ago in the parking lot of a beauty salon has not only rocketed into one of the most empowering, year-round girls camps in Arizona, drawing hundreds of youngsters from around the country.

Bankrolled with corporate grants from foundations like the National Basketball Association, the little camp that started on a whim is on the cusp of building a $70 million, 100-room hotel on soon-to-be purchased 170 acres near the Bisbee Municipal Airport that would help finance the Black Women in Progress (BWIP) Confidence Camps for girls regardless of race. 

And if all the chips fall into place the way they have been since camp director/ grant writer Acacia Barnett has thrown her heart and soul into starting the camp in 2016, Hotel Seville – named after her great-grandfather – will be up and running in 2030 with groundbreaking starting in 2028. 

“This is a major undertaking, and we’re working with architects, hospitality experts and applying for million dollar grants,” said Barnett. “This is going to be a tremendous project.”

Not only would the hotel – which resembles a Franklin Lloyd Wright building, though Barnett calls it an “Arizona-Spanish revival-modern look” – become a summer confidence camp for hundreds of girls from 7-18.

Seville Hotel, complete with an enormous convention center, a STEM lab for the girls camp and other rooms, would have a tremendous economic impact for Bisbee, which for decades has been clamouring for a hotel that could stage sizable conventions. 

“Never in my wildest dreams when I started a camp in my parking lot on Highway 92 did I imagine it would evolve into something that might turn into a 100-room hotel on 170 acres,” said the 35-year-old Sierra Vista native and Buena High graduate. “We’re excited about the future and how we’re going to get there. Who would have thought this is where a girls confidence camp would go?”

Probably only one person – Acacia Barnett, the granddaughter of the late Hattie Barnett, a pillar of Sierra Vista’s Black community who founded BWIP with 20 other Black women in 1970 at Fort Huachuca to educate the community about Black culture.

“I wanted to honor and remember their legacy by naming a girls camp after them,” said Barnett, director of Cochise College’s Small Business Development Center.

An Arizona State University graduate with an M.A. in architecture and another in construction management, Barnett has not only honored a legacy. She has paid it forward, empowering thousands of young girls’ by instilling confidence and teaching life skills they may never have experienced on their own.

“We’re the only program in the state like this, and because of how it’s grown, we absolutely have to get state and national funding because there’s nothing here locally to keep us going besides the Legacy Foundation which granted us $25,000,” she said. “We’re a nonprofit that’s 80% funded by grants and constantly scouring the country to find new sponsorships. That’s why the hotel concept is so important to us.”

BWIP Confidence Camps have not gone unnoticed.

Along with the NBA – which granted BWIP $50,000 – corporate foundations like Freeport-McMoran, Charter Oak, Aerie Real, Blackstone Investment Group, the African American Legacy Fund and Mary’s Pence have delivered crucial financial support.

In 2022, Barnett received the Phoenix Suns’ Golden Standard Award for her significant contributions to the Sierra Vista/Phoenix, recognizing her leadership in empowering young Black women through life skills and leadership training.

“These camps allow kids to excel at school, improve social skills, self-esteem and perform better in all aspects of life,” she said. “We think out of the box with how we develop camp programs, what kind of instructors to bring in and what skills we can teach. This summer we’re bringing flag football players and coaches to the camps. The sky’s the limit for what we can bring to the table for these girls.”

Barnett hasn’t stopped bringing it to the table since she started her first camp in 2016 that drew 44 girls, which doubled to 88 the next year, then soared to 200 right before Covid hit. After the pandemic, Barnett began overnight camps, taking girls to Mt. Lemon in Tucson and Mayer in Yavapai County. It was such a huge success that she saw the need to make overnight camps a solid piece of BWIP.

“I’m clearly a sucker when it comes to kids,” she said. “I love seeing them grow into confident young women from our program. An 8-year-old from foster care cried because she absolutely didn’t want to be here when she came. When camp was over, she cried even harder because she didn’t want to leave.”

But the cost of running year-round camps is enormous, and Barnett and BWIP’s board of directors realized they needed hefty grants to maintain what they were building. Girls were flying in from out of state to attend, and most were returning year after year.

“When it first started, it was $20 per girl, but when the overnight camps took off, it became $450,” said Barnett. “It costs more than $2,000 per kid, plus workman’s comp, liability insurance, paid interns, transportation, food and other expenses. That's why we need deep funding.”

Barnett has watched BWIP evolve into an expansive organization with day camps throughout the year offering core camp activities, culinary classes, lessons on changing a tire and oil, anti-bullying, gardening, while nurse practitioners teach hygiene and the female body.

“We’re doing really good work here for these girls,” said Barnett. “I’m grateful that our board of directors believe in me and my vision. As long as I can get us to the finish line – building the hotel as a revenue stream for the camps – then I’ve done the job I set out to do.”