Melting Down

It's so hot! Sunday of camp is always the same- kids arrive, we do a welcome and introductions, kids get divided into cabins and then spend the afternoon and after dinner touring camp, playing get-to-know-ya games and then we have an opening campfire. But it was so hot on Sunday, we actually added an all camp swim time right after dinner because we just needed to get all of the kids and staff cooled down. I don't remember it ever being this miserably hot at camp.

It's Operation Purple Camp this week, so all of the kids have a parent (or, in some cases, both parents) who are in the military. It's a great week and an honor to be able to run this program. Last Saturday I had a mandatory staff in-service to help prepare the staff for the week ahead. Even though kids are kids and it shouldn't be different, these kids are under a lot more stress, have a different set of worries, more responsibilities and therefore, different needs than most of our campers throughout the summer.

One of the kids I've been working with all week is a great example of why these kids are a little different. Hunter had been homesick all week. Homesickness is my specialty and I rarely send kids home because of it. Actually, I pride myself on how well I handle the homesick kids and my ability to turn them around to have a successful week at camp.

I used all of my strategies with Hunter and he was doing well until yesterday. Yesterday was military day and it was hot, he was tired and by lunch, his melt downs were unmanageable. I want kids to be successful at camp, but more than that, I want kids to be happy, and if camp isn't working, I am honest with parents and will sen a kid home if it is necessary.

Hunter had been at a camp all last week, home for the weekend and then come here on Sunday. Added into that mix, his dad was leaving for a year-long deployment on Tuesday while Hunter was at camp. I'm not sure what his parents were thinking. All of those factors set him up to fail and it wasn't at all surprising that he was struggling. I felt bad for him and I felt bad for his mom who had to drive all the way up to camp to come and get him. I want every kid to have the best time of their lives at camp, so I felt sad that it didn't work for him. There's nothing else I could have done to improve the situation, but it was still kind of a bummer.