Compliment

Today I got a great compliment. Two girls came up to me and said, "this is our 8th summer coming to camp. It was really fun, and then for a while, it really wasn't, but you've really made camp fun again. Thank you."

So often at camp, I hear kids whining or I receive calls or emails with parents complaining. Good things don't often inspire someone to write or call or give positive feedback. So I appreciated that they made the effort to come and talk to me. Also, teenage girls are definitely the toughest critics, so it was a big deal for them to say that.

Last summer, I heard about the directors from 5 years ago over and over. "When M and B were here..." Kids never mentioned the directors after them, or the director before me. I contacted M and B in the fall and we've talked several times. I have made a HUGE amount of changes to camp since last summer, and so to be told camp was "back to being fun" really made my day!

Exhausted

"At least we won't have to paint at 11pm tonight." Famous last words from Program Director S, encouraging me through my exhaustion yesterday. We'd been up late on Sunday night, painting the code on the field and then finishing schedules.

As we left the dining hall last night (it was nearing 10pm), we discovered that someone had taken down all of the signs (the prayer sign, decorations, photographs, etc) and had left a ransom note at our table, identifying themselves as a terrorist group, demanding cookies.

Our oldest male cabin had chosen the wrong people to mess with. They messed with people who have more free time, no bedtime, a better budget and who are WAY more creative.

Cue to us at my kitchen table, at 11pm last night, painting...

It took nearly two hours, but we put together some very nice "anti-terrorist squad" uniforms. We painted shirts and hats, gathered sunglasses, walkie talkies, fanny packs, and matching shorts. We made several signs and gathered materials and made plans for putting it all together.

At 5am this morning, I briefly considered giving in to the ransom note and going back to bed, but instead, S and I headed to the dining hall where we took down their tale and chairs, replacing it with a red outline and a sign that read, "this table has been removed due to terrorist activity."

When we finished, we headed to their lockers, and put up another big red X and another sign that said, "condemned due to terrorist activity."

Then we tip-toed to their cabin and covered their entire doorway with a really big sign we had painted bars on with the message, "Camp does not negotiate with terrorists."

Our final act was to hang a pair of underwear (borrowed from my dad's drawer) that we had painted "Funk Master P" (the name of the counselor who had lead this bunch) and strung them up on the flagpole.

At breakfast, we had already set up the speakers and music, and one of the JCs helped us by blasting the theme song to "Cops" (downloaded the night before around 11:30pm) as we marched in, in full "Anti-Terrorist Squad" gear, and ambushed their table. When we got to the table, the music shut off, S blew her whistle, and we announced that we would not negotiate with terrorists while we ripped the note up in front of everyone. We tied a rope around the whole group and marched them outside.

It was brilliant.

Even more brilliant, was arriving to the flagpole after breakfast, hearing counselors say (in awe), "is this really happening? Are we in a movie" as they gazed upwards towards the underwear in the sky. Hilarious.

Yes, I am so exhausted I can't keep my eyes open today. But it was well worth it.

MYSTERY!

This morning, campers awoke to a challenge! On the steps of each cabin, there was a box. Inside the box, a letter with their mission. Here’s what it said:

Go to the field.

There is a code on the field, which is the answer to the following riddle:
This is the most valuable treasure on Earth .

Throughout the week, there will be hidden clues all around camp that will help you decipher the code.

Collect these clues and work together to decode the answer to the riddle. The first cabin to do so will be victorious.

Enclosed in this box, you will find items to help you in your mission.

Good luck. Remember to work together as a team…

Inside the box were the following items: a bible, a book of poetry, a chocolate kiss, a photo of Taylor Swift, and a clue notebook to gather information. The items are supposed to help campers solve the riddle.

When the campers went to the field, they discovered a code.

Here is a picture of the kids discovering the code and also a condensed version of what is painted in huge letters on the field.

Kids and staff have been stopping at the field all day, trying to figure out what it means and everyone seems to have a different theory.

Program Director S and I are beside ourselves with pride this morning. This is going to be the best, most elaborate activity ever! At 11pm last night, we were sneaking around to each cabin, delivering clue boxes and then out in the field, getting eaten alive by bugs, in the pitch black, covered in paint and giggling at our own genius! The entire code is close to 30 feet across. It looks super awesome.

Each day, kids will discover clues for decoding. Today, they will find the seventh symbol (a rectangle with part of it colored in) on all of their napkin dispensers at lunch and at dinner, will see Shayla wearing a really big hat with the swirl symbol on it. Hopefully they will realize that the symbols correspond to the items they are on (Napkin and Hat). By the end of the week, they will be able to spell out the answer.

I am eager to see how it goes...

Worst Idea...

Bad idea- piercing your ears with a safety pin while getting ready for bed in the camp bathroom.

Worse idea- lying to the Camp Director when she asks you about it.

Worst idea yet- while said Camp Director is standing in the bathroom watching you carefully braid your hair to cover your ears, whisper to your friends, "did you snitch?"

Here are my questions-

A- Did you think I was going to believe you, or trust the Junior Counselor who you asked to go get you ice because your ear hurt?

B- When you lied and I didn't leave, did you think you had really pulled it off?

C- Did you really think you were playing it cool with that hairstyle and the whispering? Follow up question to that- do you know that whispering is supposed to be MUCH quieter than out loud?

D- Safety pin... SERIOUSLY???

And it wasn't just one camper who did this. Two 14 year old girls thought that would be a great before bed activity.

I told them I knew they'd pierced their ears and I knew they lied to me when I asked them if they had. I told them lying was a worse choice than piercing their ears. They looked like they might cry (I'm not sure what they thought I was going to do, it was 9:30pm and they leave tomorrow morning, but I'm glad I have that kind of power).

I made them take the earrings out. I told them that since they jabbed them into their ears today, they could easily do it again tomorrow when I wasn't responsible for them, but until then, their ears belong to me. They looked at me with angst and annoyance and looked like they might roll their eyes, but luckily had enough sense not to. Tomorrow I will call their mothers to let them know they need to pick up some cotton swabs and peroxide and that they need to have a conversation about good choices and bad choices with their lovely daughters.

Seriously, a safety pin?!?!

Good Staff and Um...

Bitch slapping staff: unprofessional or an effective way of communicating my displeasure?

It's probably not a good sign if I'm really unsure of the answer to that question. Hmmmm...

I have some incredible staff this summer. Focused on campers, creative, constanly dreaming up new ideas and filled with enthuiasm. They not only make my job easy, but they inspire me and make me feel so proud and impressed and they give me hope for the future of this little camp. Their positive attitudes and energy are unmatched. As I type this, a comittee of 5 people are busy planning a staff event for Friday night. They have decided to turn the art barn into an Italian Bistro. They have decorations, menus and food for diners to order, table cloths and placemats, music, and I heard a rumor the Pope might make an appearance. They are creating invitations and costumes. This is all spontaneous because they are hilarious and fun people who I adore.

And it's not just weekend stuff that they put energy into, the work they do with kids is WONDERFUL. They don't just teach archery, they create contests and games at archery. If kids get sick of fishing, they teach them how to craft their own fishing poles, or make paper fish. The ideas I've seen this summer are innovative and impressive.

One of the counselors in particular, P has been consistently amazing all summer. He created a Cabin Council, and each of his boys are elected into a position (President, Vice President, Itinerary Manager, etc.) and they all have a role. He created a whole new activity- bucket drum line. He created a "Man of Virtue" award based on the conversations his cabin had all week about what it means to be a strong man (keep in mind,, we're talking about 10 year old boys here). When the overnight camping trip got cancelled because of rain, he single handedly planed an alternative cookout, boating adventure. He's the most exceptional staff I have ever worked with in ten years, and that's saying a lot because I have worked with some truly gifted people. During his review, I struggled to give him anything to work on to improve or grow, because I literally just want to follow him around and listen as he works with kids and has brilliant ideas. And he inspires the rest of the staff to be creative and focused. I am blown away by him.

Because there are so many exceptional staff here, it makes the ones who are just average or who are getting burned out and coasting along look that much worse. Yesterday there was an incident that made me so mad I was shaking and had to call my best friend and literally scream at her for several minutes before I could calm down. When kids divided up into activities, one girl was missing. I had been dealing with a malfunctioning fire alarm, and when I came upon lead staff S and A, they had already searched the nurse, the bathrooms, the beach and were kicking into the "not panicking, but moving really fast because it's getting serious" mode.

10 minutes.

That's how long our camp couldn't locate a child.

I can't even begin typing why that is terrifying, horrible, and filled me with such rage I wanted to violently shake her counselors. Where was she? SLEEPING IN HER BUNK! Her counselors didn't wake her up. They mis-counted, or didn't count at all, both as the kids walked out of the cabin and also at the flag pole as the kids were waiting to go to their activities. No words can describe how many things they did wrong. Firing both counselors on the spot crossed my mind. I wanted to scream at them. It took ALL of my energy to calmly, patiently meet with them, ask questions, explain where the mistakes occurred, and warn them in such a way that they understood I was serious, but in a guiding, "this is a time for growth and learning" way. I tried to remember they are 19, this is their first job, and it is my job to help them develop. I imagined bitch slapping them as I did all this and that seemed to help.

Imaginary bitch slapping continued this morning as I had the, "you are not allowed to speak to me like that, I am your supervisor" conversation for the 4th time with my head cook (who is also 19). He has a lot of strengths, but flexibility isn't one of them. He thinks the kitchen is his personal 5 star restaurant and his overall attitude is "I run the show, no one (including his boss) is allowed to alter his plans." ...Um, yeah, it's camp. Sometimes it rains and we have to cancel the cookout. Sometimes I need someone to make me a gallon of pudding. And if I say tacos aren't a good lunch for Friday because they take too long and we end up running late with the parent program, I expect an answer of, "okay, we can solve this problem" and not a reaction filled with attitude and the tone of "how dare you." Also, when I say, "can I talk to you about lunch yesterday..." the appropriate response is, "sure" and not, "don't even talk to me, I'm not in the mood" (directly quoted from 8:30am this morning).

Once again, my patient, guiding, "here's what the professional response would be" re-directing voice came out while I imagined slapping him in the mouth and saying, "19 year old, don't push your luck, I haven't even had any coffee yet." I will inspire these young people and I will refrain from striking them, but clearly both are going to be a challenge.

Flexible

Last night as we were sitting in the chapel, it started to thunder and lightening and the sky got really dark. Program Director S and I quietly slipped outside to gather up all of the drying flags that cabins had spent the afternoon painting. By the time we had them all, it was POURING. Our evening activity was supposed to be an all camp game that we play outside. Our other evening activities during the week are a dance party, a talent show and a campfire. None of those was an easy switch, so instead, we had Counselor P tell stories and do comedy improv for the hour. Luckily he is incredibly gifted and enjoys entertaining, so it was a great night.

We woke up this morning to the same downpour from last night, so at breakfast, S and I reassigned activities and came up with a plan until the rain stopped. Counselors got to spend the morning coming up with new activities instead of canoeing or shooting archery and all of the other outdoor activities we do at camp.

Our oldest group of kids go on an overnight adventure every Tuesday night and this morning I received a very well-written note from some of the girls, detailing all of the reasons why they shouldn't go on the overnight. I actually agreed with all of them, so I cancelled it. However, both the boys and the girls want to do something special, so the counselors and I have been planning and re-planning all day. Pontoon trips, camping inside of buildings, cookouts and several other things are on the schedule.

For the rest of the day, we have plan A and plan B in case of weather, and we also have plans C-X, which are all variations. I feel like I've been planning all day and my head is spinning. After several suggested plans, requests and conversations during lunch, I am now planning only one hour at a time and I am prepared for ANYTHING. What a day!

Good Idea/Best Idea?

At camp this summer, we have the question, "good idea or best idea?" Counselors like to come to me and pose this before sharing their thoughts. And so I ask that question about my newest ridiculous idea...

This week at the camp store, I have been experimenting. I gave a few of the more popular counselors red shorts and visors, both of which haven't sold at all this summer, and asked them to promote these items. I wanted to see if we could sell some of the merchandise that is gathering dust on the shelves.

It worked like a charm! And so I took a picture of some of the counselors wearing camp store clothes, and I hung that up too. As I was hanging it up, several campers asked how much the photo would cost. I laughed and asked how much they would pay for a photo of counselors. $10 was the average bid. And that was around the time that the idea for counselor trading cards happened...

If I didn't already have enough to do, I decided to create staff trading cards. Program Director S and I went around and took photos of each staff member and gathered statistics like favorite food and future aspirations for the back. 24 hours later, I was in the dining hall, asking staff if they had been to the camp store lately, as I held up my deck of trading cards.

Absolute pandemonium.

You would have thought I brought out actual treasure. The kids surrounded me, begging for a look and demanding to know how much they would cost and when they could buy them. I told them $500 dollars and then S jumped in and said, "wait! We should have a sale." Cue campers cheering and screaming "Yeah!" So tomorrow, kids will be spending $2 for the set of 17 staff trading cards (including a fat bulldog puppy card as well).

I gave them a preview, allowing them to choose just one staff card to look at, despite begging and pleading to let them see, hold, "just touch" or get near the set. And tonight I will be printing like it's my job... Good idea or best idea? I'm not sure yet...

Jello

6 hours- that's how long it takes to make 40 gallons of jello. The slowest part is boiling that much water- that takes a REALLY long time. It is also a challenge to find enough containers, enough space in the refrigerator (even a big walk in camp-sized one) and of course there is the issue of mixing and then carrying sloshing bowls of liquid across the kitchen while your head cook looks on in disgust.

I ran back and forth from the dining hall to my house most of the day. My hands are stained red and I am sticky, really sticky, but I am also very proud of myself, because I was a jello making machine.

On Wednesday, we will spread the containers across the field and let the kids throw it at each other until they are covered head to toe.

Just another typical day at the office...

Operation Purple

Operation Purple was a success! It was as whirlwind and I'm exhausted, but it was a great week.

I was a little nervous the weekend before the kids arrived. Our camp nurse was going through the kids' health forms and there were many more needs that usual. Kids who had had serious medical issues like a kidney transplant and a cracked skull, and serious trauma like abuse, parents with terminal illnesses and kids who had behavioral problems, in addition to the fact that every kid had a parent deployed. Normally we have a few kids with needs, but this week, it was the majority- 9 or 10 out of each cabin of 12. Add to that, each of the counselors was going to be without a co-counselor because we had so many more kids than usual, so I was anxious.

But the week was great. There were a few more cases of homesickness than usual, but otherwise, there wasn't much of a difference, despite the long list of needs. By the end of the week, the staff was exhausted, but they handled it well, putting on their "counselor faces" and staying positive.

Tuesday was "military day" and it was a wonderful day! When I went to the Camp Director training in February, many people who had done OPC before made military day sound difficult and awful. They told us to have backup plans so that if your military personnel cancelled, you could still have activity and so I was a little nervous. I didn't even technically have a military liaison (a contact to help me arrange the day). I'd called a military family organization and a woman there had said she could help me take care of it, and the next thing I knew, someone was calling to make arrangements to land a helicopter, but I never actually knew who my contact would be. In my wildest dreams, I couldn't have imagined such a well-done day!

The National Guard sent 12 soldiers who had an inflatable obstacle course, face painting, military time bingo, relay races, and MRE packs (meals ready to eat) which I'd been told are impossible to get, but they arrived without my asking. The kids rotated between stations and the soldiers lead them through everything. At noon, the helicopter landed and it was SPECTACULAR! I was as excited as the kids were. The helicopter was there for the day and groups got to get inside, touch everything and I stood and took pictures of every single kid and staff in front of it. I figured if my staff and myself were that excited, the kids would be too. Program Director S and I took over 600 photos over the course of the day. The whole day was so organized and fun and I couldn't believe I had pulled it off as I looked around. Midway through the day, one of my staff asked me very seriously, "did you have to pay a lot for all of this?" which was a good question, and impressive to look around and know it was all free!

More parents than usual dropped their kids off and picked them up from camp, so I talked to 70 or 80 parents. They were so appreciative and had such great feedback. MANY of them had been following the week on the camp blog and had been looking at pictures and it was great to hear that they enjoyed those things (which are time consuming and sometimes annoying jobs that I usually do at 11pm when I am exhausted and want to skip to go to sleep). The entire week was gratifying and while I firmly believe all kids benefit from camp, this week in particular, the kids needed camp and it was an honor to be able to give that to them. I don't have a lot of experience with the military, but this week gave me a new appreciation and made me feel really connected.

Next week is a much smaller group, which will be a good break for the staff. We are entering our 5th week out of ten, so we are almost halfway through.

HOORAH.

Ice Cream

The game of camper trivia works like this- counselors start out asking if they can have the Camp Director help out with a little game they want to play.

Camp Director acts shocked and excited to be invited.

Counselors explain the rules- for every trivia question campers get correct, the Camp Director will get a prize!

Camp Director gets SUPER EXCITED and cheers! The counselors go on to explain that the prize is an ice cream sundae and Camp Director licks her lips shouting, "ice cream is my favorite!"

Camp Director is further excited when the trivia questions are super easy, like "what state are we in?"

When it comes time for the first prize, Camp Director is SHOCKED and her eyes bug out and she screams when ice cream is DUMPED ON HER HEAD!! She continues to FREAK OUT as chocolate sauce, whipped cream and sprinkles are also added.

The kids go WILD. WILD like you can't imagine. They have never seen anything funnier. Even the counselors watching are pretty amused. When the game is finished, campers take pictures and try to take swipes of chocolate off of the Camp Director's arms and they go on and on about how amazing it was and how shocking it must have been and how well the counselors pulled this off.

Camp Director continues to act amazed as she squishes to her house, fights off a puppy (who follows her into the shower, desperate for a few more licks of drippy sugary goodness) and shows up to dinner with a full head of chocolate sauce (which I stand behind as the best plan because it took 20 minutes and two washes to get out, and I didn't have enough time before dinner, so I simply dried the mess off of my body, changed clothes and left my head a sticky mess until I could deal with it in peace after dinner).

Campers don't realize that this whole thing was the Camp Director's idea, that the Camp Director drove the hour round trip to town to get all of the supplies and also suggested that they leave the ice cream out for a while so it would be extra drippy. Somehow those details make it all a little less fun, so Camp Director will continue to shake her head all week and agree when campers say, "those crazy counselors are hilarious!" Because they are, and making kids laugh is by far the best part of my job.

Young Adults

The oldest person on the staff this summer (besides my dad and myself) is 21 years old. This is a young bunch.

Yesterday was a frustrating day and I repeatedly wanted to scream, "where are all the adults?!?" which is a phrase I have heard come out of more than one parent's mouth. It bothers me when they say that (I am always tempted to say, in my most snotty, teenage voice, "um, hello, you are looking at one"), but yesterday, I was right there with them.

Yesterday afternoon, four of us went to the grocery store to buy some food to have a 4th of July barbecue. Between long lines and road construction, it took forever and I was leading an in service from 5-8pm. We got back around 4:45 and I dropped two of the staff off at the dining hall and asked them to take the groceries in with them so that I could go back to my cabin and grab a few things before the meeting.

Around noon today, Program Director S came into my house and let me know that the guys hadn't put anything in the refrigerator the night before, so the pork chops, bratwursts, potato salad and coleslaw (pretty much everything we had bought) were all ruined. That left chips, corn and cake for us to serve. The reason we rushed to the grocery store last night was because it was closed today. I am so frustrated.

I found some hot dogs and ground beef and managed to pull together a full meal, but I just keep shaking my head. Seriously??? They were with me when I bought everything. Maybe it was my fault for not being more specific. I try to give them the benefit of the doubt by assuming that they have common sense, but apparently not. Next time I will say, "please take this to the dining hall AND put everything that needs to stay cold in the refrigerator." Ugh.

Yesterday afternoon, before the in service, I needed to make about 500 copies. I have been working all week (literally all day, every day) putting together information for next week. I had a HUGE stack of papers that I set on the copy machine and planned to copy after the campers left. When it was time to photocopy, my papers were nowhere in sight. I looked everywhere and I finally had to start the training with nothing. I asked the staff if anyone had been near the copy machine or seen my papers. One of the staff said, "oh yeah. Yikes... Um, I made a copy and when I opened the top, I heard, "whoosh" but I assumed it was just scratch paper so I left it." I hadn't thought to check behind and under the copy machine, but that's where all the papers I had worked for 5 days to put together were. Shaking my head again...

My job has many parts, but one of the biggest (at least during the summer months anyway) is working with these young staff, many of whom this is their first job. During training, I talk to them about how it is their job to make sure kids are safe by watching their behavior and preventing them from making poor choices. Their job is to guide campers through the camp experience, helping teach them activities and also to make sure that they help them through any emotions they experience. Our goal is for campers to develop life skills through the activities at camp and that counselors will be patient as the kids learn. All of these are the things that I am responsible for too, but my group is the staff.

They look like adults. They even act like it sometimes. But they are young and they need guidance and sometimes that means I have to take deep breaths and speak in a patient voice rather than lunging at their throats and screaming like a madwoman. It has been an exhausting weekend for that and I am working hard to come up with a motivational speech that reminds them to "use your common sense or I am going to start killing you off one by one."

Is This the Same Camp?

What a week... and it's only Wednesday. Last year I had several "what a week" experiences, but it was due to broken toilets, misbehaving staff, and all around chaos. This week, there have been so many exciting, awesome things going on, I can't figure out if I'm at the same camp or if I'm having a really good dream.

My staff totally rock, they are creative and camper focused like non-other. Today I walked up to a group who were supposed to be fishing, but none of the kids wanted to, so the counselors had them drawing, cutting out and attaching paper fish to sick and yarn fishing poles. They were "catching fish." Brilliant. Later, I went down to the archery range and watched a game that the counselors had created with teams of kids earning points for shooting at targets. I was not your typical boring line of kids standing their shooting.

On Tuesday, I got an email letting me know that we are in the final stages of approval to bring a black hawk helicopter out to camp next week. If we have a helicopter land at camp, my head my just fly off in excitement, and if I'm that excited, I can't imagine what the kids will think! I also got a call from one of the National Guard members I have been talking with and he let me know they would be bringing out a giant, inflatable obstacle course as well as several other cool things for our military day. A little while after that, I got another email, this time from a local congressman asking if he could come and visit as well.

My dad has been saving pennies and desperately wanting a utility trailer for camp and so far, we haven't had any luck. A few weeks ago, I hung a sign in town, asking if anyone had one they wanted to sell. On Tuesday, I got a call from a neighbor and so A and I went to look at it and it was practically brand new! When I googled it later, I found out it is a $1500 trailer. He sold it to me for $450! My dad is going to be so excited when he gets back to camp and sees it!

If all of that wasn't enough to make my head spin, later in the day a gentleman arrived and let me know he has a 16 foot catamaran that he doesn't use anymore and he would like to donate it to camp. I asked if it needed any work or anything replaced and he told me it was in great shape and he would bring it by later this week. Awesome.

There are so many good things going on, I've just been walking around smiling to myself. Wonderful