Catching Up, Moving Forward

For three years, I've been trying to catch up. "Catching up" is my least favorite thing. I am not the kind of person who falls behind; I don't procrastinate; I always get things done ahead of time.

When I arrived at camp that first year, I walked from building to building, making my "to do" list. By the end of my tour, I was overwhelmed, whimpering, crying and the list was so long I wasn't sure what to do. There were piles of broken furniture, garbage, the grounds were overgrown and covered in downed trees and brush. S, J and I cleaned 12 hours a day for a full month and we didn't even make a dent in the list. That whole summer, I had parent after parent make comments about how run down camp looked and everyone who came to camp had "helpful" suggestions about what I should do to fix it up.

Three years later, it's a different camp. It's still 63 years old and in need of some major remodeling. It's not perfect by any means, but the garbage and junk is gone, all gone. Everything has a place (with labels, shelves and bins), we've taken down random bushes and weeds and trees and moved the random piles of wood to orderly stacks. It's clean, neat, and taken care of. It's what it should have been three years ago.

Very few people can fully appreciate how far we've come. It took three years to get it to bare minimum (clean and safe). It's easy to take for granted that things are the way they are because that's the way the are supposed to be. If you look at a fire pit and it has big, heavy rocks that make up the circle, it's easy to assume it's always been there. That's how all fire pits are, so there's nothing special about it. But when you've personally moved every single rock, you understand the blood, sweat and pain that went towards creating it and you never ever take for granted that things just happen. I have personally touched every corner of this camp and every inch is the way it is because of long hours of thought, planning and effort. I am immensely proud of this camp, regardless of the fact that there are so few to share that understanding.

We've now begun the process of moving forward, improving and adding to camp. And that is so exciting, so rewarding and 99% why I pushed through the difficult times. We're adding new programming areas (a slingshot range last year, a tomahawk range and several other small things this year), building a stage at the fire pit, putting up colorful signs, new picnic tables and small touches that are beautiful, interesting and memorable to kids. Even without very much funding, the sky is the limit in how creative I can be in additions. My dad is incredibly talented and has been using a small amount of materials and tools to make major changes.

We are still very much in the process of turning this camp around. We still have a long way to go before I can stand with pride and say that everything is exactly the way it should be or the way I want it to be. But I feel like we've made it over some major hurdles and will be able to gain some significant momentum in the near future. It is an incredible feeling to have had a role in the progress and I am more excited for summer than ever before.

When I began my career, my mentor K asked me what I ultimately wanted to do. I said I eventually wanted to be the director of a well run resident camp. I wanted it to have a long and rich history, but I also wanted a challenge, wanted to be able to make improvements and wanted to have a role in helping it grow. I wasn't sure if there was a camp out there with that combination, but I have learned that I need to be careful what I wish for. I wanted a challenge...