Greetings from Hilltop. First Session 2023 has begun. It always feels good to say that. There is so much preparation that goes into a Four Winds summer. We on the year-round staff work, well, all year to prepare for this moment. Our returning summer staff think at various stages of the winter about whether they can fit another Four Winds summer into their lives, interview, get selected for a new job or the same one but coming to it with more experience, and then mentally prepare, mostly as they’re finishing their university classes every spring. Our new summer staff are hearing about us for the first time, from a friend, an ad, or an international placement agency and going through some process that boils down to “could this place be for me?” Our campers, new or returning, look forward with their own unique combination of feelings toward an adventure, a word that has mostly positive connotations but necessarily contains a bit of the unknown.
Then, staff week begins. Our staff make their way here from near and far to this little, beautiful, inconvenient island. They learn and start to build a community. Camp starts to feel like camp. But then, at some point towards the end of staff training, it becomes clear that as lovely as the staff week community can be, this place makes no sense without children. Fortunately, by that point, they’re scheduled to arrive in a few days. We make our final preparations in anticipation of their arrival.
Finally, the day comes. Many of us wake up at ungodly hours, still in the dark despite it being one day after the solstice. Staff work incredibly hard to move the campers through each stage of getting here. Campers are patient, but also sometimes wish it could all move along faster. Parents and guardians help with what needs to be done to move the campers where they need to be, but more importantly, engage in an act of intentional separation with their children, sending them off on their own. It’s been said that parenting is just a process of constantly letting go. That’s true, but we often struggle with it. Parents who choose a quality camp experience for their campers are engaging in that process in one of the best possible ways. If you have to go through the challenge of separation, you might as well also get the reward of a child learning to be a better friend, becoming more independent, and being a part of something bigger than themselves. Today, while it might not have felt like it at 4 AM at the airport, a whole bunch of parents and guardians did just that.
And it all culminates in boats pulling into Four Winds Bay, campers running up Greenie Hill to meet their counselors and cabin mates, introducing themselves, and beginning this grand adventure. It’s always an incredible moment, and this year was no different.
Thank you for sharing your campers with us. We look forward to a wonderful weeks. Please check back here every Sunday during the session for another update, and Twitter every day for a shorter one.