Best camp experience!

[CAMPFRIEND]

What is the best camp experience that you have ever had?

I am sure that we all have a lot but try to name one!
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[Dave]

Tough one. Hmm...

I'd have to say the first day of camp this past summer. First of all it was great to be back. On the bus, I was the only counselor from the previous year still on the bus so all the kids knew me and said hi to me. That was nice. Throughout the day I met up with old friends from the summer before.

But most importantly was the fact that the bunk I had the previous summer still remembered me. I think I've told this story before. My bunk from two summers ago stayed together (which is unusual at our camp), except for three kids. Well, the bunk that had the majority of those kids in it sat at the very first table in the cafeteria. I still remember walking into the lunch room that day and the whole bunk started chanting my name. That made me feel good (and a bit embarrassed). For them to do something like that, I must've made a huge impact on their summer the year before. Throughout the day (and the entire summer), whenever they'd see me they'd get so excited. They'd all run over to me or chant my name again. It was great to know that they liked me as a counselor that much.

[camplover86]

I think one of my best experiences at camp was one afternoon i had a lunch cookout, this had been a very stressful session, and i was with the youngest group of girls. So when it was time for the lunch i had all my girls doing different things to get ready for the meal. Some collecting firewood, some helping me get the food ready to cook, some making center pieces for the tables. Everything was going great! When lunch was done cooking we all sat down at one table and ate all together. It was awesome. While we were eating one of the girls said "gumbo, this is good, you are the best counselor ever" When we were done, i went to put out the fire, by the time it was done, the girls we almost done washing their dishes, the tables had been wiped off, and the food was all thrown away. It was awesome. and the girls were all telling me thankyou. That day was awesome!

I also am still having great camp experiences outside of camp. Getting letters from campers and writting them back. Or seeing them in the mall, at the skating rink, in a store, or leading a workshop with them there. They are everywhere! but it is realy good to see them!

[rockinsmiles]

I just dont think I can answer this post. I just cant choose what to share. There are so many awesome camp experiences...with campers and staff. During camp and on time off. I wouldnt know where to start. At camp you really become thankful for the little things. Like pictures campers draw for you or them laughing at you because you messed up. Or when they tell you your the best or that you made a difference to them. There is no way to put those things into words. But then there also funny times or times when I was down and people actually cared how I was feeling. I remember telling one counselor that she made me cry because I wasnt use to people really wanting to help me when I was upset. I dont know what camp does to people to make them so great but I appreciate it more than anything!

[Dave]

Great post rockinsmiles! Karma for you. I agree with everything you said. It's the little things that count. I still have drawings from my campers in my "camp drawer" in my room that they made for me. And it's the best feeling when they tell you you're their favorite. I love that. :D

[camper]

well, i definitely agree with rockinsmilies, but i can pick out a few of my best camp experiences to share. my most memorable one as a counselor was the time my first summer as a counselor when my bunk was SO SO SO messy. my grouphead came up to me during breakfast and said, "it's ridiculous. i love you you're great but you gotta do something about the mess." the truth was the kids were all doing their jobs every day, but right after inspection they would just make it messy again!!! so i knew i had to do something. when we got back to the bunk, i went over to my cd player and told all of the girls to get around my bed. then i said, "ok girls, i'm going to put on ocean avenue and by the time the song's over, the bunk is going to be spotless and lines will be done." i wasn't sure if it was going to work, but the second i put on the song the girls got soooo into it. and in 2 minutes, the bunk was spotless. they were so excited that they did it that we all jumped on our beds, played the song again, and danced to it. they were happy, i was happy, the grouphead was happy!

my best experience as a camper was being camper chief in color war. the PC girls (the oldest age group) are all up for the positions. it's based on being a "good camper"...kindness, spirit, sportsmanship, love for camp. there is 1 chief on each team and 2 assistant chiefs on each team. it's a huge build up- everyone talks about who will be PC chiefs and assistants all summer. the PC's all get really nervous about it the day or two before color war breaks! so of course, i was really nervous. when the war broke, my hands were shaking when i was running to find a paper. well before i got one, one of the CA's (a year older than the PC's, like CIT's) came over to me and yelled, "YOU'RE CHIEF!!!" and tackled me to the ground. i was soooo happy. those 3 days were the best 3days of my life. PC color war is great no matter what, this was just an added bonus. when you're PC chief or assistant, you get to sit at the table at meals with the counselor chief, assistant chief, and keymen of your team. you make speeches at meals to pump up your team, stand up and lead the cheers at activities, and get to lead a song in color war sing. for those 3 days, all eyes are on you and it's such a huge honor. it made me feel great...just confirmed my love for camp. i'll never forget it and each year seeing the PC chiefs brings tears to my eyes b/c i know how great they must feel. i don't know what i'm going to do when a couple of my own campers are chief!

[CAMPFRIEND]

You all have great stories, and I am sure over the next few years you can share all of these with you campers when they become staff. It?s so amazing to see what 1 or more years at camp and the great memories that you will have with you forever.

For this reason I think we all know why we are camp staff!
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[Skater Bubbles]

Wow, picking one, I don't think it's possible, but that's part of camp, you know? You have some of your worst and best times of your life at camp!!

[Indigo]

It's so hard to pick just one... I've got loads. I'm in charge of one of the staff-training programs at my camp, and seeing my campers take up leadership on their own, whether they get hired or not, is such a great feeling... I like taking care of them, but I love seeing them take care of others even more.

My first year as a counselor, I was having a bad session about halfway through the summer... One tent of girls was making my session miserable. I did my best, but I lost my temper sometimes, and I cried all the way back to camp on my night off, just because I had to go back and face that. Well on the last night of the session, one of the shyer girls asked to talk to me privately while everyone was cleaning. I thought, oh no, somebody's picking on her or making her do their work... So we went over to the side... And she told me that she knew I was having a hard time, but she thought I was a great counselor, and gave me a hug. I almost cried; it was the nicest thing anyone had said to me all session, and it made me feel so much better. That camper didn't come back to camp after that, although I told her she should, and that she was really a great camper who would make an awesome WIT... I still keep hoping I'll see her again, but I hope she's doing well and having fun wherever she is!

[Dave]

That was an awesome story, Indigo. Thanks for sharing. :)

[CAMPFRIEND]

All your stories are great thank you all for sharing!
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[ocean]

This summer it was on my birthday. Some of the staff took me to the mall, treated me to a bear from build a bear, bought me some books, bought me a cake and at 9:30 at night took me out for Chinese food for dinner. Then I even had campers coming up to me giving me presents during that week.

[CAMPFRIEND]

Did they sing to you at camp? Nothing like a camp birthday song!
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[campCardinal]

Oh gosh. I have so many amazing moments. I'll take a minute to share a few of them...

The first was this past summer when I arrived at camp. I came late to precamp because of college orientation. I told everyone I'd arrive Wednesday at dinner time... but I ended up getting there much later! As I drove up the camp road I was getting butterflies in my stomach... the camp excitement was there. Also, it was the first time I drove to camp by myself, and I was so excited! When I pulled in I walked over to a group of staff and they were all yelling across the field, "Is that her?!?!" Anyways, they all ran up to me and tackled me because I was back! It was great knowing that they were so excited I was there.

I also feel so privledged to have my birthday during the summer. It's always the best day of the summer. I got all these cards from my old campers who were back that week and it made my day! I was just rereading them the other day, they say "you're the best!" and "I'm glad you work here!" So, that totally made my day.

I've also had some great conversation with my kids. Like, when talking to a girl about her summer she told me that being at camp was the greatest week of her life. That always makes you feel good about the job you're doing.

And of course, there are a thousand more memories about funny things, camp things, sappy things, random things and amazing things. Camp is pretty spectacular. I've loved all my time there. My worst day at camp is still pretty awesome compared to the hustle and bustle of the rest of my year.

[Fallen]

Wow everyone has some great camp experiances. I think I have had both good and bad experiances while at camp both during a session and while on my time off. Some of them really made me almost not continue to be a camp counselor, but reguardless the fact that I have had kids tell me how much fun I make camp for them and have them look up to me has made my continue. There is a lot of times that I can think of and others than I can not.

The one I remember the most is this past summer I worked at a day camp and we took a field trip to the Arizona Science Center and I had about 6 of my girls to walk with while there. I was freaking out about being in such a big place with 6 girls and about 3 of them were ones that needed extra attention and liked to get into trouble. While there I there was other park and rec groups there who were horrible. They were rude to everyone else and I had to actually talk to their leaders because he got in one of my girls faces and was screaming at her. She was 13 and he had to be at least 18. While it was a little scary telling someone twice my size to not do what he did to my girls and to have some manners, my girls were proud of the way I handled it and insisted on buying me things at the gift shop and kept calling me their hero. Kept bragging about it the rest of the day.

[CAMPFRIEND]

I went back to see my old camp at the end of 2005, and a bunch of the kids ran up to my car. Even better than that was seeing all of the young staff that at on time used to be my campers were now directors!!
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[martha27]

i keep coming back to this post, wanting to write something... but its really difficult to pick one. and i'm sure once i'm done i'll think of something else equally as good and wish i'd wrote that as well......
some are big, some are small and may have seemed insignificant to those people at the time. but all have meant the world to me
the reaction i always got from my kids eachtime i went back for them blew me away...it still blows me away today. when they led their first campfire. when they burnt the rope during apache relay. crowning the captains during olympics. my heart was in my mouth and ive never felt anything like that!
but like i say the small things too...a hug from a friend and the friendships formed. watching a storm with my kids from the deck of our bunk. having the welcome song sung for me this summer when i went back for a suprise visit and just listening as they say that i have affected them and helped them along the way :)
those are some fo the best moments

[ocean]

they sang happy Birthday to me and Build Me Up Buttercup

[CAMPFRIEND]

Camp make a birthday so much fun!
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[Dave]

I'm not sure what they do for counselor birthdays at our camp, but for camper birthdays at lunch everyone in their lunch period sings happy birthday to them.

[Indigo]

My birthday's always in the middle of 4th session, and that's great fun... 2 years ago we had a wrangler party at the barn that night, and last year my mom brought us treats, and a homemade book and piniata. It was lots of fun!

[Flukie]

Okay... I thought for such a long time about what to write here. Mine is a camp memory that didn't happen at camp and starts out rather depressing. My first summer at resident camp as staff was miserable - we had so many problems on all levels. I was so upset - after camp ended, I spoke with our CEO about who to speak with about the issues, particularly camper safety related ones. She said she wanted to meet with me - we met, talked and I left for college. Most of our meeting wasn't even about camp - and she assured me that I wasn't going behind anyone's back and she'd make sure that was understood.

The next summer, I wasn't rehired for "going behind their backs and talking to the CEO". It was a huge blow - I cried for a month about it. I was so upset and miserable. I finally sucked it up and applied to another camp in my new GS Council - where they were delighted to hire me. I've been working for them ever since.

But in the end, the part that made it all worth while was the letter one of my campers sent me - she didn't know WHY I wasn't coming back to camp, but was upset and disappointed that I wasn't. In her letter she wrote, "And when I said that you are the counselor that every camper wants but only a few get, I meant it. I meant it with all my heart. And I hope you never forget that. Thanks for all the fun times and memories at camp you gave me. With all the tears we went through, just everything. Thanks. I don't know how to repay you. But someday, someday I will."

I still have the letter. Somehow, those simple words made all the misery worth it. She managed to turn what was such a bad experience into such a meaninful one.

Plus, I got mine this fall at National Convention when I was speaking the CEO from home. I told her that though it was extremely disappointing to be 18 and have a great eval, but not be hired, it made me a better counselor in the long run. She paused, looked at me, shook her head and said that as CEO it was her job to trust her staff and give them room to make decisions without her - but that she had to be honest - she was unaware that I hadn't been hired. She thought I just CHOSE not to come back and she was sorry about that. Hah. :)

[who_stole_my_loofa]

Ok don't get me wrong I absolutely LOVE LOVE LOVE my campers... but the best experiences for me at camp were always my nights out with my girls. I've never had so much fun at a restaurant bar or driving around a tiny town or staying in Comfort Inns on our days off.

I think the funniest/favorite memory is the night before color war it is tradition to go out and consume eh hem lots and lots of alcohol. So we came back to camp and have to have a meeting and they like tell us our teams and then we have to go make signs for our teams and hang them up and it's just a big bad crazy staff tradition. So I really don't remember a lot except for running around the hill and someone stuffing keebler elf cookies in my mouth and running into the UL cabin to tell them I was checking in. Ok.. but the funny part is that the next morning I woke up SOAKED in water.. I mean SOAKED. My clothes, my pillow, my blanket, my hair, even my egg crate. So I woke up, 5AM, and I yell over to my co, "Jess, I'm all wet" and she's like "did you pee yourself?" Meanwhile my kids are laughing at me cause they think I peed in my bed and I smell it and obviously did not. So all day we're trying to figure out what happend and finally one of my kids comes up to me and is like "someone came in the cabin last night, he was tall and he poured water on you" and I was like "HE? what? huh? OMG!" We actually just found out like 2 weeks ago that it was my ex boyfriend cause he finally admitted it to someone else. After I got over the initial shock of waking up soaking wet it was the funniest thing ever.



I think my best memories as a camper and my best memories with my kids are definitely the ones that have to do with Song Fest. Writing our songs and performing them and now helping my kids write theirs and like pick their outfits and formations. It's so much fun and its so wondeful when my campers win(espec when I help with the songs). Last year they did Tempted by the fruit of another by Squeeze and the words were changed to "Memories from our very first summer" cause every girl in my cabin was new- it was so cute. And this year my first session girls did Rockin Robin and it was changed as a tribute to our camp founders and directors and it was sooooo good! And then 2nd session the did not win, but their song was incredible- we joked with them that they didn't win because they were too good. The song was Happy Frappy by Guster. I love Song Fest!!!!

Loofa

[camper]

haha loofa something like the water story you had happened in my dorm room w/my roommate a few weeks ago...my roommate's stuff in her plastic drawers was SOAKED in the morning and we couldn't figure it out. then we remembered that she was w/a guy in the room for a little bit the night before and he must have spilled something.

i have a lot of "night out" memories too and day off memories, here are the best couple.

on our last day off of the summer this year, my friend's car hadn't been working all summer so 3 of us decided to finally call triple A to come fix it so we could use it that day. so we call them, and we're waiting and waiting and waiting and it was like 11:30 am by this time. so we're joking about how long its taking them, and then FINALLY they pull up. they fixed it once and tried turning it on and off again, and it didn't work. so they fixed it one more time and told us to drive around a little. so we went down this middle of nowhere road and it worked so the guy told us NOT to turn the car off until it was running awhile. so we didn't, and we drove to the sandwich place down the street from camp where the guy knows all of us b/c we have all been going there for years, as counselors on days off and as campers with our families on visiting day. we turned the car off and went in, joking about how it would be really funny if the car didn't start when we got back in. well of course, it didn't. so the sandwich place guy fixed it which took like an hour and a half, by this time it's like 2 pm. he also told us that the triple A guy was crazy to tell us we didn't need a new battery. so we drove to the car mechanic place in walmart so they could replace the battery and walked around walmart for an hour while we waited. it's now 3:30. then we decided we were too tired to really do anything so we went to a movie and ended up sleeping through the whole thing and going back to camp to shower and get ready to go out. it was a GREAT last day off...actually really relaxing and funny, except for the whole car not working thing, lol.

the BEST night out of the summer is by far alumni night which is right after group sing on the 2nd saturday of camp. all of the alumni of all ages come, so when we go out to the bars at night its like the 17 year old JC's, all the other counselors, 35 year olds whose kids are now campers, all the way up through like 50 year olds whose kids went through camp already! it's awesome, and that's also one of the nights the bar usually has some sort of a band or karaoke, so it's like a club and sooo fun. it's basically counselors partying w/people who used to be our counselors!