Camp's third annual Rally Day was this morning. As always, I was SICK to my stomach, terrified no one would show up or that some sort of disaster would occur. I hope that there comes a time when I don't agonize over every event, because today was lovely and all of my worrying was pointless.
7 of my summer staff from last year, Nurse J, my boyfriend, my mom and I arrived early to set up. We did it in a different location this year, which was a much bigger space, but, I feared, if only a few people came, would be awkwardly empty.
We set up an information table, camp store items to sell, face painting, a coloring contest, a scavenger hunt, as well as several other games, including a makeshift gaga pit. Both dogs were there, my saint of a mother walking them around, making sure they got water, went outside and didn't cause any trouble.
Families started rolling in 10 minutes before it was even supposed to begin. Two of my board members came, and at one point, I'd been deep in conversation and when I looked up, I was overwhelmed to see a HUGE crowd of people happily playing games, talking with the staff, cooing over the dogs- everyone smiling and enjoying themselves.
I have been saying since the first day I began this position that I could turn this camp around in 5 years. It's been three years and the programming, administration, physical property, marketing (and many other areas) are running well, really well. But we are still at 50% capacity. Building relationships is the most time consuming, slowest, most intense piece of this effort, but it is the most important element in our future success. We had significantly more people at Rally Day this year than we did last year or the first year. Today was a great example of how many relationships I've already made and how crucial it is to build a community. I feel very positive about our progress and I'm looking forward to Rally Day 4.
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