2002 Week # 4
"A little tired?":
Week 4, camp is almost over and the camp staff is feeling a little tired. The summer has been long and hotter than usual but staff shows up Sunday with smiles on their faces excited for another week of camp. Check in goes pretty smoothly parents are a little more protective and give out many instructions, and ask several times if their child will be okay. You reassure them and sometimes it helps. For many of the campers it is the first year they have been to camp and the first week they have slept away from home for more than one night without mom and dad. Even in the Algonquin cabin, the oldest boys cabin, many of our campers are new to TRCC.
Sunday continues without problems and we go back to the cabins early. The first night you need the extra time to get kids showered, go over rules and get them into bed. For those of you who have never been to camp as a counselor in the junior weeks repeat the following phrases 30 or more times every evening for five days and you will get a small taste of the job. "Yes, you have to take a shower." "No, swimming in the pool does not count." "You couldn't have showered your hair isn't wet." What do you mean, you only brush your teeth once a week?" "I am sure your mom packed clean underwear--where is your suitcase?" "You wore that for the last two days--you have to change, your attracting animals." Really, it is great fun being a counselor!
Monday, morning comes and the kids are excited (until they find out they have to clean their cabin every morning!) Breakfast comes with the next new task of being a boys counselor during junior weeks--Hand Police! Your assignment as a counselor should you choose to accept it is to check every hand that belongs to someone in your cabin and if it is clean allow them to eat and if not require them to wash their hands. You would be amazed how many times some kids have to go back and re-wash their hands. Apparently, if you wash your hands and then dry them on your dirty shirt they become dirty again. I caught on to this pretty quickly, too bad my campers didn't.
One of the exciting things you learn as a counselor is how to play tag. You would think this is known to everyone--but not at camp. By Thursday every counselor knew how to play tag approximately 15 different ways. Leave it to an activity director to be creative and they will! Tag with strings, tag with elbows, tag with sound effects, tag with flags, tag, tag, tag--you're IT! Truly it is so much fun to be able to run around and play with these kids! And when the running is over they sing out, they take turns praying, they ask questions and they read from their bibles. It is obvious to see where we get such great senior campers--they start early!
The highlight of my week was a camper telling me he wanted to be baptized. When asked why, he simply responded "I want to go to heaven." It doesn't get more simple than that--and it doesn't get more beautiful. This is what it is all about.
-Glenn Tunick