The two-week August session came and left quicker than I could say “Chosatonga.” Two weeks is a long time, but in the grand scheme of a camp summer, it feels like I was just getting to know these great girls. While our director team meets in the office first thing every morning, campers often stroll by the windows on their way to breakfast, treating us like fish in an aquarium. I saw something big, red, and bright out of the corner of my eye, and of course, it was Mae Keever, dressed in a full-body Ketchup Bottle costume. “It’s the last day, you have to do something special!” she said with a big smile. If only more kids or even adults decided to wear a silly costume to mark a special occasion. The world would undoubtedly be a more joyful place.
Speaking of joy, our morning’s extended rise and shine was full of it! Five different dance classes wowed us through the decades with their performances. Drama performed a scene from Matilda the Musical and Mary Poppins. Glee club wowed us with their very own Annie mash-up.
The rest of the day’s schedule looked a little different. We do a morning choice period before lunch. Girls get the chance for one last Tarzan into the swim lake, or one more attempt to climb up the beanstalk. It’s a fun hour of activities happening all over where campers feel so settled, grounded in this place that has, for the past 12 days, become home. Yesterday, I saw a Pineview camper leave woodworking with her project so close to being done! I told her to find me so we could finish it, and today she found me during choice period, and we nailed in the handle to finish it off!
The August two-week session is a unique one. It combines the fullness of a three or four-week main camp session with the youth, energy, and curiosity of our one-week Junior. We often lose August campers when they age out and enter high school. It’s a shame because so many of our best counselors are the ones who made the big switch from a two-week to a more extended session that very moment. I’ve heard that many of our 8th graders, who have been our neighbors in PB and PVL, are interested in returning next summer for June or July. I hope they do!
Our kitchen staff and JCs put on a final banquet fit for a king! We adorned crowns, drank grape juice, and ate the whole meal without plates or silverware! The JCs surprised us with some live dinner entertainment. It took me back to the days of my youth, enjoying a trip to Medieval Times at Myrtle Beach. It was a ton of fun, and a final banquet wouldn’t be complete without a dance party at the end.
After dinner, we processed to the Woodland Chapel for final campfire. We heard from several campers who I have no doubt will be Illahee girls for a long time. Everette, Lawsyn, and Lanky represented their respective hills, wishing goodness on all of camp, reflecting on how camp has been a place lacking judgment, and encouraged them to be their most authentic selves. They spoke with wisdom beyond their years on the power of this place to form a type of community that they have yet to find elsewhere. The counselors who got up later reminded them that if you cannot find the type of community you want to be a part of, then you have to be the one to create it. It was a great campfire and a fitting end to an excellent session.
Camp is in the business of transformation and growth. I’m sure you’ll notice the difference when you pick up your daughter after a few weeks away. The transformation could look like a new hobby, a new friend, a more confident demeanor, a more courageous outlook, or even a few new scratches with good stories to accompany.
I don’t take enough time in these blogs to thank our team. Our directors, our trips staff, our barn staff, the dining hall crew, cleaning crew, maintenance team, and especially our tireless counselors. I looked around the dining hall tonight, at the laughter exploding from our Director Table, to the counselors singing Taylor Swift into spoons while dancing next to their campers, and even to the kitchen staff smiling in the window, admiring the amazing banquet they put on, and thought, dang… It’s rare you get to work alongside a group of people who all stand behind the mission of bringing joy and connection into the lives of others. It’s a gift to be in this job. It’s hard. It’s exhausting. It tests my patience, my skills, and my wisdom, but I love it.
After closing campfire, we line ourselves along the banks of the canoe lake to float wish boats. We sing the Pine Tree song one last time and say goodnight. Standing on the dam, reflecting on what has been another amazing session, a few campers came out of nowhere and ambush hugged the leadership team. They said, “Thank you for everything,” and headed off for final friendship circle with their cabin.
I chuckled to myself. Of the three campers raving about their experience at Illahee and thanking us for what we had done, two of them spent the first few days with tears in their eyes, begging to go home. These and so many others serve as living, four-foot-tall testaments to the transformational power of Illahee.
Tomorrow, I have a feeling they will have tears in their eyes again. This time again, however, because they are leaving a new home here at Illahee.
Fare thee well, Illahee girls. We cannot wait to see you again!
Lucas