Every three to five years, our “mission statement” the Best Summer Ever really does come true. Camp is almost 100 years old, so odds are that every year we add, it gets harder for it to be the BEST summer ever. I don’t mean for that to sound like it catches us off guard, because camp people really are the most optimistic folks I know…and why not? We’re surrounded by girls and young women who have the “world by the tail.” The world is their “oyster,” and they have every opportunity to make it a better place. So, we do enter each opening day expecting the coming season to be the BEST ever.
About mid-May, we turn off the T.V., and we certainly don’t have time for internet news. We are in the “bubble.” Our heavenly world becomes the “happiest place on earth.” Sorry Disney. But, this summer more than most, we have heard from families and campers that this really was their BEST summer…ever!
The difference this summer’s end is that our counselors are saying the same thing. These are young women who have been here six, eight and ten years or more. I’m not discounting our most recent arrivals, but BEST summer out of ten years is a big deal! Camp counseling is the hardest and most rewarding job these girls will ever have. Imagine a day parenting as a professional (stay at home) mom or dad. It’s rewarding and hard. It’s not exactly the same thing, but imagine you have eight kids. 20 questions times eight…getting dressed times eight..brushing teeth times eight..tucking in and prayers times eight. Some of our BEST have been with us all summer. And they are SO sad to leave. To me, that’s the BEST summer ever.
Camp is a gift, plain and simple. Whether your camper is a camper for ten or more years and becomes that counselor who never wants to leave, or whether your camper decides to pursue other summer opportunities, I can guarantee that she has grown. She has learned something about herself…about who she wants to be (probably like her counselor), and about giving a little to accommodate the other girls in her cabin. And then there’s independence. As much as we’d like to hold on to them, they do grow up. And our job is to equip them. I discovered a long time ago…that camp is one of the very best ways to do that.
So thanks for being a part of the BEST SUMMER EVER. We have a lot of work ahead of us to top this one…but you can rest assured that we will give it our very BEST.