My Experience
Week 1: June 4th - June 9th
The beginning week of camp is known as staff week. All junior staff arrived throughout the day on June 4th. The next day we began working and setting up for camp. We stained wood, raked leaves, scraped roofs, and built an entire stage. The junior staff did team building activities with one another to strengthen our relationship. We mainly prepped for the coming week of camp. The staff and junior staff worked long hours every day so that the camp ground would be ready.
Week 2: June 11th - June 16th
This was the first week of camp. This age group ranged from 7th - 9th graders. I was a counselor with 2 other co-counselors in my cabin D3. During this week we had 11 campers. This was a stressful week for me. At the beginning of the week I became very sick. The camp nurse put me in one of the sick rooms for a few hours so I could try to rest and get better. This helped for a couple hours, but eventually I had to be put in a cabin separate from my campers/co-counselors for the night. The rest of the week my voice was very hoarse and weak. I was extremely frustrated with this week because I felt like I couldn't connect and interact with my campers like I wanted to. This week taught me to have authority. I had campers who had conflict with each other that I had to learn how to respond to. My cabin had many large spiders that freaked me out. The major thing I learned this week was to not get easily upset with others; however, it is a quality about myself that I still struggle to deal with.
Week 3: June 18th - June 24th
During this week I was a camper. I had no junior staff responsibilities. There were 2 counselor and 14 campers in my cabin. I stayed in the basement of a building called Crowder because we had too many girls in our group to stay in one of the regular cabins. Senior high week gave me the opportunity to connect with the younger girls at my church. My cabin and I played games together such as 9 Square in the Air, Gaga Ball, kickball, etc. This week gave me the opportunity to build stronger bonds with my best friends who live in Convoy, Ohio and North Royalton, Ohio. For 7th - 9th grade week, Senior High week, and 6th - 8th week, everyday went was very similar. We started the mornings by waking up, getting ready, and cleaning the cabin. The cabin with the cleanest inside would win a prize at the end of the day. We then went to breakfast around 8:30 am each day. We had morning sessions each day. We went through a session called family groups, where we interacted with girls from different cabins. We had a new lesson each day that tied in with our camp verse: Acts 2:42. We then had a low ropes. Low ropes was a team building session with our specific cabin. Low ropes is one of my personal favorite activities because it really test your strengths and challenges you as an individual person. Then after low ropes, we had co-ed group games. The game changed everyday, but we were divided into blue and green teams. We would then go to lunch and do mail call. Afterwards, we would head to a 1 hour crash time. During this time, I typically slept for 30 minutes. The last 30 minutes we got our phones, and I would make a phone call to a friend everyday. Then after crash, we went to free time. There were different activities everyday that we could do. Around 5:30 pm, we headed to the dining hall for dinner. At the end of dinner we had dessert and announced area clean up. The cabin who was cleanest did not have to clean an area as their prize. Then based off of points, every other cabin was given an area to clean. Later, we would head to chapel every night. Chapel would consist of singing, a lesson, and singing/alter call. After that, we did a night time activity (Monday - luau, Tuesday - game night, Wednesday -prayer walk, Thursday - camp fire or free time, Friday (senior high) - camp fire & senior hangout). This year I got to participate in the senior hangout. Any incoming or outgoing seniors were allowed to participate. We enjoyed ice cream and played games until about 2:30 am in the morning. After nighttime activities we'd go back to the cabin, get ready for bed, do devotions, and go to sleep. The last day of camp we had breakfast, packed our bags, and cleaned our cabins.
Week 4: June 25th - June 30th
This week was known as 6th - 8th grade week. This week I was a counselor once again, with 2 co-counselors and 12 campers in cabin C2. This week was an easier counseling week for me. My campers enjoyed participating in devotions. They all seemed very interested and had a lot to say about the topics we chose to talk about. My campers were all really good friends and seemed to get along with one another. This week, I had girls who were boy crazy. So I had the fun job of kindly telling them that they were at camp for Jesus and not for boys. Many girls joked that Jesus was a boy so we always had interesting talks about no boys. One of my campers was my mentor's, Alan Smith, cousin. She was really sweet and I enjoyed her and her friends. As counselors we got a session off each day. During those sessions off, we liked to take showers and jam to Disney music.
Week 5: July 2nd - July 8th
During this week, I was on staff. This week was 4th - 6th grade and Adventure Camp week. This was my favorite week of camp. There were very few campers in attendance this week (around less than 50). Every junior staff member was required to take one staff week. Staff basically took care of the campers and led all the meals and activities the campers did. 4th - 6th grade and 3rd - 5th grade week was set up slightly different from the older weeks. In the mornings, instead of low ropes they went on a group hike and either swam or climbed the climbing wall. They also had an earlier bed time. As staff, we were required to clean all bathrooms every night. Once cleaning was finished, we went into crowder and had a staff meeting. Once the staff meeting was over, we typically would hangout. One night, we decided to watch the movie Good Burger and it was extremely comical and brought a lot of ease to the staff. One afternoon, the staff invited me to be apart of the staff team that was competing in a challenge course against the Adventure camp. The challenge course was extremely fun and the staff team ended up winning. We also set off fire works on July 3rd in the ball field. Those were extremely cool to watch. Staff week gave me the opportunity to meet with my staff prayer partners and talk about our lives. We ended up having another camp called family camp that weekend. I ended up only working Friday's part. The power went out that day and a lot of the food ended up getting ruined. We made the most of that day and ended up playing Mafia as a staff.
Week 6: July 9th - July 14th
This was the final week of camp. This week had the youngest campers, 3rd - 5th grade week. This by far was the most frustrating week of camp for me. I had 2 co-counselors and 13 campers in cabin C2. At this age, many of the campers became homesick and did not want to stay. It is our job as counselors to try to see if they will stay. Many children's parents won't let them go home and want them to continue the full week. Those campers get extremely frustrated with the counselors. I had multiple girls who wanted to go home, but were not allowed to go home. This age also bring a lot of disobedience. Many campers like to not listen to counselors. This week was most fun for the group of counselors I got to interact with. One of my campers also peed her pants one day. This was extremely frustrating because she wouldn't listen to my instructions and ended up having an accident. This week also had a lot of thunderstorms and flooding so many activities got moved or changed. Overall this week was toughest week of camp that I have ever experienced.