The Best Week of the Year: 4-H Summer Camp

     4-H Summer Camp.  I consider camp to be my number one favorite event that I volunteer for in the 4-H program.  It is the one place where one can feel accepted.  You could say that one may experience more love in one week of 4-H Summer Camp compared to normal life.  You build a strong bond with the campers and the staffers.  A bond similar to the bond of a family.  You watch these youth grow up into amazing adults, and you possibly had a positive influence on their life.  Camp gives you an escape from normal life dramas.  No connection to the world.  No cell service.  No internet.  It is just you and your camp family.  Yes there is drama, what family does not have drama?  It still makes camp the best week of the year.  I missed camp last year.  It was a very tough decision.  I choose to go to New York and Canada instead.  I did not realize how much I would be missed until my facebook profile exploded with messages of many campers and staffers missing me.  This year I returned to camp as an Adult Director.  It felt great to be back, and I desperately needed camp.  This year, camp was held June 22-28 at Camp Seely in Crestline (been there since 2006).  

     The camp week began early for me.  Two days early.  We have the staff arrive the day before camp to do any final preparations that needed to be done.  It was decided that we would allow higher leadership an opportunity to arrive the afternoon before that day to help relieve the stress of time crunching.  I was asked to go up with that group.  Leave the house a day early to be with my camp family?  Hellz yeah!  We also had two groups of people traveling in that needed to be taken care of.  We stayed at North Bay at Lake Arrowhead Resort, which are condos.  There were 6 of us for most of the first day.  Everyone arrived around 3 pm.  We got settled in and got to hang out.  We hit up the swimming pool.  Afterwards, worked on dinner plans.  Originally, we were going to make box mac n cheese.  We thought we were going to need another box or two, so to Stater Brothers at the village we go.  Shopping with the camp family is the best experience in the world.  We took roughly an hour at the store hanging out, goofing around, and changing our dinner plans several times.  One of the staffers sat in the grocery cart the entire time while we took turns pushing her around.  In the end, we tossed mac n cheese out the window, and decided to make tacos.  We headed back to the condo, made tacos, sat down at the dinner table like a family (it was awesome), and then played UNO and Taboo.  It wouldn't be until 11:30 pm that the two groups would show up at the condo, then we went to bed.  The next morning, we all went to eat at the Belgium Waffle Place at the village and met up with the rest of the staff at a 4-H families house in Lake Arrowhead.  While the staff were at the house, I drove back down the hill with my Youth Director on my team.  We picked up a staffer and I took them shopping for last minute supplies.  We got back up to the house an hour late, but since it was camp business it was accepted.  Most of the 49 staff were there.  We worked on our projects, then headed back to the condos for the night.  The boys from the first night had to move out to a all boys condo.  I was the lucky one, and got stuck with the rowdy ones.  They ended up not going to bed until 2:30 am.  That meant I went to bed at 2:30.  Even though it was late, it was a blast.

     

    It was time for camp.  We hauled everyone over to Camp Seely, and was able to be on the camp grounds at noon.  Once camp started, things moved very fast.  Before you knew it, we woke up and it was time for us to go home.  It was a good year to be an Adult Director.  The youth staff did their job amazingly, we did not have any sever discipline issues.  This year, just like two years ago, I taught the entire camp how to use a compass.  The difference from two years ago is that I used my own curriculum instead of the compass SET curriculum that was used last year.  Things went well.  The first half of the activity was taught by another 4-H volunteer, who is our naturalist at camp.  She is also a teacher.   Judy Lynn taught about the planet magnetic field, have the campers build their own compass out of materials given, and learn how to use a base map style compass.  Once that was complete, I took over.  We split the team into groups of 6, and gave each group a map of 6 points.  Their mission is to use the compass to navigate to those locations at camp.  Once at that location, they took their notebook, which I provided, and they were to make any nature observations and drawings.  The end of the activity, each group gave a presentation on their observations and challenges they had with using only a compass for navigation.  One group discovered a 5 foot Gopher Snake.  I was jealous.  The activity went well.  There were three other activities that the campers participated in.  Two of them were my idea.  Campers made a boat out of nothing but cardboard and duct tape.  They had to have one person in the boat and make it across the pool without sinking.  The other activity was that each team had to make their very own video from video equipment provided by the state tech team.  That was good.  Downside was the camp staff had to do the editing after the activity due to the limited amount of time to do filming.  

     We did have a few issues at camp this year.  You never have an event without issues.  While on a night hike, we had a homeless person walk onto camp and take a shower. The police was called and he was escorted out. Because of this, we had adults awake into the early morning to make sure he did not appear again.  We also had 4 guys walk onto camp a few days later wanting to just look around.  Before they got a chance, I walked over to them and asked them to leave.  They left with no problems.  We also had boys messing around in their cabin, and had a paddle to their cardboard boat that shattered their window.  Late at night, we would have skunks pass through the camp.  Not a big issue, but it did scare a few people.  You just leave them alone, and they go about their business.  Good news is that we had no major medical issues.  No one was sent to the hospital this year.  

     

     I had volunteered to go to the lake twice in the early morning to help campers fish.  I enjoy going fishing for a few reasons.  The first is I get to enjoy a beautiful morning on the side of the lake.  The second is that it is the only time during camp that I can have cell phone service.  I did not use it much, but it was nice to share a few things on social media of how camp is going.  The younger campers were those who went fishing.  I needed to spend more time with the younger campers.  I tend to go more with the middle school and high school kids, so it was good for me.  Those younger campers that I helped with fishing I got to know better and become more of a friend with.  Sadly, no fish were caught.  Fisherman helped our campers out the first morning, which was extremely nice of them.  The campers would have most likely caught something if we had more time.  In the middle of the week, I went on the afternoon hike to Heart Rock.  I always enjoy going to Heart Rock, more just to hang out and enjoy nature.  There was a disappointment in the hike.  The visual scares left behind from people who have been on the trail.  For the first time, I have seen graffiti throughout the trail, including near Heart Rock.  The amount of trash around the area was upsetting.  Food wrappers, soda cans and water bottles, cigarette butts (mostly in Seely Creek), and human waste left for everyone to step in.  It seems that Heart Rock, which was once a local secret, has become so popular that the environment is suffering from it.  It is sad that people can come into a beautiful and peaceful place, and just destroy it.  The sad thing is, they don't care.  They don't realize the type of damage that can be done to a ecosystem.  While at the swimming hole, we had a 8 year old boy get stabbed in the foot by a sewing needle that was in the water.  It hurts me.  It frustrates me.  People need to respect nature.  It shows that the trail is not enforced, and that the National Forest Service needs to do better.  Other than the extreme disappointment of people's disrespect to nature, the hike was amazing.  

     

     The rest of the camp is mainly the same as any other year.  I won't include a full detail of everything that went on.  I love 4-H Summer Camp.  It is amazing how much a person can change from just one week at camp.  With how crazy this world is becoming, and with how fast technology is becoming apart of our lives, camp is something that everyone should experience.  It hurt to say goodbye at the end.  It is that way every year.  Camp makes you feel at home.  I wish that our 4-H Summer Camp was an entire summer.  I would love to be in the camp world for a few months.  It would be the best part of the year.  At least I am able to get a week of camp.  Who says camp only helps the youth?  Camp can do just the same for the adults.  I miss camp.  I come home and life goes back to normal.  It sucks!  Lucky for me, I am only home for a week before I head up to Alaska for vacation.  Camp was amazing.  I definitely will return next year, and I will be applying as an Adult Director.  4-H Summer Camp is my most favorite 4-H event I am involved with.  If I was forced to give up everything but one thing in the 4-H program, I would give up everything but camp.