June 18, 2008

The morning sunrise activity was fishing and boating which was really exciting for the campers. However, we didn’t have any luck catching any fish which was a bummer. Only 3 fish were actually caught all week. It’d be great if they could stock the pond with a few more fish.
After breakfast and cabin cleanup we went to woodshop and worked on various projects. We then had our rotation with the horses. I sat around and hung out with the campers that weren’t riding.
An afternoon free choice that I took a camper to was called AMP. Basically the campers were driven in golf carts to a bunch of different areas at camp while we all yelled “there’s not enough time!!!” They did things like push the canoes out in the water, switched golf carts, and pet a donkey. I had the pleasure of riding a bike that you could rent out from the administration office since the carts were all full. My choices of bikes consisted of one with a flat tire and the other with the handle bars up side down. I chose the latter. It made for quite an interesting experience since we were flying up and down hills all over camp and the brakes were above my hands while I was holding the handle bar grips. One classic moment was when I braked a little too hard after a down hill ride and sent the back wheel completely vertical. Luckily, I was able to get my feet down in time before I flew over the handle bars.
When we were making our way back to the cabin the facilities guy was dropping off cleaning supplies which signaled to one of the veteran campers that camp was coming to a close. His reply was “NOT ALREADY” knowing that another magical week of camp was soon ending. I had a nice reflection with another counselor discussing the life expectancy of the campers and how it’s sad to think about how many of them won’t live to fulfill the incredible and awe inspiring aspirations that they have. We also talked about how amazing the spirit is of the campers and just how much we all take for granted in life.
Prior to dinner we had a volunteer appreciation meeting where we had pop corn and DIET COKE! I don’t usually drink coke but I had been craving one all week so that was a very nice addition to the meeting. After dinner, for the oldest camper activity we had a marshmallow fight which was so much fun. One camper brought plenty of laughs when instead of picking up the already thrown marshmallows and throwing them he was collecting a handful of them and eating them! We then played a few games of Capture the Flag which was a lot of fun to get out and just run around for me personally and the campers.
At the camp closing we had a great reflection where the campers were allowed to state their most memorable moment (s) of the week and a really nice slide show. After the reflection was an emotional time. Lots of our campers were crying uncontrollably. I had the chance to facilitate the cabin chat for the evening with only about 10 minutes of notice. I asked two questions in the cabin chat which made for a good discussion. Earlier in the evening the campers wrote down a wish they had and so I put together a “wish list” to close the cabin chat which described how I wish I could be like one attribute from each camper.
After we completed the camper evaluation forms the entire cabin of counselors got slap happy. We couldn’t stop laughing and knew that this signaled that we had done our job for the week to give the campers the highlight of their summer (and for most their entire year).