With two girls attending camp I knew it wouldn’t be
long before I’d be asked to serve at camp as some sort of adult leader. I didn’t have the best experiences at
camp as a teenager so it wasn’t something I was necessarily excited to
experience. Apparently my feelings
aren’t shared by most women in our stake because the women line up to go up to
camp for the week and are heartbroken when they aren’t asked to go up for the third-fourth-fifth
time in a row. I was totally fine
sitting back and letting them have all the “fun”. I’ve been involved in camp the last few years from behind
the scenes – which is totally my mo-jo.
This would be my third year serving as the stake camp finance
specialist. Basically I invoice
the ten wards in our stake, pestering them if necessary to transfer funds to
the stake in a timely manner and then compile all the reimbursement requests
and all other camp related expenses into QuickBooks and provide reports to the
stake leaders. It’s as close to my
dream calling of finance clerk that I’ll get :) Anyhow, so the finance part has been my
contribution – and it is quite a time commitment. But apparently that wasn’t enough because I was asked to go
up to camp as a Unit Counselor this year.
Unit Counselor would be the last position at camp I would choose because
you are responsible for making sure your group of 10-12 girls is having an
amazing life-changing experience at camp.
Dealing with other people’s kids and teenage girl drama and emotions are
not within my skill set so I wasn’t quite sure how it would all go down.
The buildup to camp alone is quite stressful. Each of the 12 units picks a theme
within the overall camp theme for the year “Joy in the Journey.” My unit – consisting of myself, my
adult partner and three YCL’s (5th year girls who help lead the units) – chose
“Jungle Safari” as our unit theme.
So over the course of the summer we have to work together (teenage girls
with big ideas and not the best follow-through) to plan how to transform our
campground into a Jungle within our allotted budget. Which apparently NOBODY stays within budget because souping
up your unit is a HUGE part of the excitement of camp. Crazy? Yes. But I’ve driven girls up to the first day of camp the last few years and it really does add to the excitement and fun of the entire
week. So justified or not it is
what it is and the girls (and women) LOVE it. Anyhow, let’s just say I had my family cutting jungle leaves
out of butcher paper for hours as we prepared for camp and Carly was a huge
help twisting “vines.”
So our stake mixes up all ten wards, which I
love. It gives the girls a great
opportunity to branch out and meet new people. They always get at least one requested friend in their unit. The twelve units consist of approx ten 1st, 2nd, and 3rd campers. I also like the idea of having first
years with some of the other girls – the dynamic is fun and the older girls
tend to be looked up to. All the 4th year campers participate in a two day hike at the beginning of the week and
then get to camp all together when they arrive at the main camp on Wednesday. The 5th years are the YCL’s
that help lead each unit and the 6th and 7th years run
everything else. It’s a pretty
incredible system and extremely well organized. The young women LOVE camp. So many girls bring friends with them and there are so many
that continue coming up until they max out all seven years. (I only made it to year four and then
was OUT).
Anyhow, so all the adult leaders and YCL’s head up
to camp on Monday and get everything set up for the campers to arrive on
Tuesday morning.
I dropped Abigail off at the church to head off on
her 2 night backpacking trip. All
smiles!
Here
are a few pictures of Abigail’s adventures with the all the 4th years.
We were ready back at camp to meet the 10 girls
assigned to our unit for the week.
We even played a little Guns N’ Roses “Welcome to
the Jungle” tunes as the campers arrived.
We had some time to get to know the girls. We had a couple challenging girls – one
who introduced herself as “boy crazy” and spent the first couple days
disappearing to find fun. Another
that refused to participate in pretty much anything and spent the nights with
her mom. Oh, the fun of teenage
drama. Overall though it was a fun
group. The girls meshed really
well together and it was neat to get to know them.
My friend Laura, who brings her daughter up from
Texas just for our camp, hand delivered some goodies for me as she dropped off
campers. So sweet!
Carly’s unit ended up being right next to
mine. She wasn’t necessarily
thrilled with the unit theme (Star Wars – just like last year) or her YCL’s –
really odd girls, but she had two close friends with her and they made the best
of it.
Abigail marched into camp on Wednesday afternoon chanting,
“We are the fourth years the mighty, mighty fourth years. Everywhere we go,
people wanna know, who we are, so we tell them we are the fourth years the
mighty, mighty fourth years…” – the tradition is to welcome the them to camp by
squirting them with water. My unit
was ready.
Abigail’s in the second row back with the yellow
bandana.
They continue marching through camp and down into
the river. Once out of the
freezing river Abigail was happy to give a big ole wet, cold hug to her little
sister. So fun to see everyone so
excited and happy.
One of evenings the stake hosted a big dance out in
a big, secluded field. They gave
out glow sticks, had a yummy pudding bar and everyone had a great time.
The
only picture I got with my girls all week
There are so many activities throughout the week –
crafts, rock climbing, archery, rifles, service, dancing, spiritual workshops,
giant slip-n-slide, chants, skits, etc...
Ropes course was a fun albeit challenging activity
for my unit. We had to get
everyone (including myself) over this log.
My favorite part of each day was free time because
I had two hours to do whatever I wanted.
Most days that meant chilling at the river with friends who were also at
camp for the week. I floated down
the river on one of the first days with Carly. It was so, so cold.
I don’t think I let go of Carly’s arm the entire way down. That was the first and last time I
submerged myself in the river. Carly
was one of the few campers to do the polar dip early every morning – crazy
girl!
My favorite dance performed during the week was the
fourth years. The energy these
girls brought to the stage was overwhelming. The happiness and confidence that they showed was emotional
for me especially knowing some of these girls personally and the challenges
they face. I gotta share.
I can watch this over and over – love it so much!
Abigail got the sheet music for this song after we
got home and it’s a tune you’ll often hear Drew singing along to.
Camp really was a lot of fun and I loved being a
part of the experience. It’s fun
to know now first hand what everyone is talking about and I really can see why
so many women want to be there. It
is a special, spiritual place.
It takes a lot of amazing women (and men) to make
camp one of the best weeks of year for the 200+ girls that attend.
Who knows maybe I’ll be back at it again next year?
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