Greetings from Hilltop. It’s been a wonderful week. We’re just over halfway through Second Session, and Camp is just as it should be. Camp feels like home. Campers are having a great time, enjoying their time with friends, and enjoying all that’s on offer here at Camp. We’re at the point in the session where people are starting to think to themselves, “I’m comfortable now, how can I really make the most of this experience?” It’s one of the huge benefits of a four week camp experience. Campers can get beyond the simple adjustment to a new environment, and find something deeper.
Please don’t get me wrong. I’m not arguing that the above thought quote is how the thought is exactly worded in each camper’s mind. But, you can feel that energy all over Camp. As it happens, the Helping Hands were in charge of Sunday Assembly today, and did choose making the most of your Camp experience as their theme. The Helping Hands are an interesting group in Camp. They’re 16 and 17 years old, all former campers, who have jobs in Camp like dishwasher, office helper, barn hand, and so forth. They come for one session, arriving and departing with the campers, and live with a Helping Hands Mom and Dad, 21+ staff members. Their jobs are very behind the scenes, and their role in Camp is not as intuitive as our Counselor Trainees, who are more or less the same age and have the same living arrangement. It was a rare treat to see them speaking in front of the whole group, talking about making the most of Camp.
It did take a minute before the campers got into the flow of sharing what making the most of Camp meant to them after the Helping Hands finished, I think because the Helping Hands are in such a unique place in their Camp careers, very different from the campers. They’re in an in between place, and their role in Camp is changing. Many of our counselors are former Helping Hands. I think the reason that the Helping Hands program works so well, why it produces such great counselors, is that the Helping Hands are demonstrating, in a very tangible way, that they are willing to put their own needs second for the good of campers. When you’ve grown up at Camp, washing dishes while the rest of Camp is playing Capture the Chicken is an extraordinary sacrifice. As I write that sentence, I realize that some of you may take it as glib, but please believe me when I say it’s not. The Helping Hands are putting themselves second. That’s what we ask our counselors to do every day, and by practicing and demonstrating that they can do it, the Helping Hands are proving that they’ll be great staff, next year, the year after that, or whenever it makes sense for them.
It’s been a great week at Camp. On Monday, we played Capture the Chicken, which is exactly like Capture the Flag, but with a rubber chicken. It’s a huge camper favorite. On Tuesday, we had our second Cabin Adventure. On Wednesday, we had a unique Second Session tradition, Garbage Auction. The cabins and tents had earned points by picking up garbage, pulling an invasive species called laurel spurge, and returning Camp owned gear to its home on Sunday during work projects, and were able to spend those points at an auction on Wednesday evening. They earned prizes that will be delivered all session long, dropping little bits of wish, wonder, and surprise into Camp for the rest of the summer. Thursday was Gypsy Day, and we had a fantastic one. We adventured all over Camp and Westsound, using our imaginations on a giant, all day scavenger hunt. Later in the day, we celebrated eight campers who have done a great job exhibiting the qualities we try to exhibit at Camp at our Gypsy Court, and had a lovely concert in the Garden for our Evening Activity. Friday night, we played the Game of Life, an elaborate game of tag, and last night we had Sports Night. It was a big week.
This coming week, on Tuesday, the Seniors will leave on their six day trips. They will be challenged in a new setting, in new groups, and will have great adventures. Those of us left back in Camp will have a changed up feel with a smaller, younger group, and special traditions just for the Juniors and Intermediates. I’m particularly looking forward to the peak of the Perseid meteor shower on Thursday night. With seniors on trips and many groups in Camp sleeping outdoors, far away from the lights of the city, it should be stunning.
Thank you, once again, for sharing your children with us. It’s been a fantastic session so far, and I can’t wait to see what’s in store. Until next week…