“…Camp friends are the best friends.”
When Gardner and I traveled to New York last week to host a few camper gatherings, we were pleasantly surprised by the dozen Alumni who chose to show up to the upper east side and watch the new camp video with another dozen excited current, future, and prospective campers. When asked what they, as Illahee staff alum have loved about camp one quickly responded. “It’s the friends that got me back year after year. Camp friends are the best friends.”
This past summer I asked a group of counselors what they had done on their time off the day before. Maybe it was a fancy restaurant, an afternoon lounging at somebody’s lake house, or just a good nap? I was surprised when they said instead that they had a wholesome night and went to the movie theater to see “Toy Story 5.” One of our longtime staff members told me, “It was amazing, I cried.”
I forgot about this interaction until last week when Jasper awoke early and we had our typical pre-sunrise movie time on the couch. His thumb in his mouth; my hand firmly grasping the first of many cups of coffee. We picked Toy Story 5. I’d never seen it, I was sick of Frozen and the Lion King, and don’t even get me started on the atrocity that is the live action remake of Moana…
Anyway, I loved it. Within the classic toy ecosystem of Woody, Buzz, Jessie and the crew that we have come to know, Bonnie (the kid owner of all the toys), gets a new toy: A tablet named “Lilypad.” Not to recap the whole movie, the plot takes a more nuanced approach the issue of technology and kids. It’s not that tech is always bad. Rather, that it is a tool that can be used to love and bring people together, or isolate and cause pain.
In this case, it was the latter and Bonnie was bullied in a group message on her tablet and was made fun of for playing with toys. The anthropomorphized tablet, Lilypad, felt so bad after realizing that Bonnie had been hurt while using her messaging that she ran away. It took Jessie and other toys to convince Lilypad to use her messaging to help Bonnie find a new friend, one that saw her as she is, loved her, and played with her. In the end, Bonnie makes a great friend named “Blaze” and like a good Disney movie, everyone lives happily ever after.
All that to say, so much of life is about finding your people. Over and over again, in new settings, schools, towns, corporations, churches, and more, we get the chance to surround ourselves with people who can hurt or heal, challenge or diminish. It took Bonnie a new piece of technology, a friend group, and a betrayal with mean words and bully behavior to realize that her people were hard to find. It took one friend, “Blaze” to see her, care for her, and make Bonnie feel seen.
Campers and staffers keep coming back to Illahee because they’ve found the right people. They’ve found a community filled with love, silliness, and hope. The best part is that they haven’t just found it, they help create it, year after year, session after session.
As we’re hiring staff members and enrolling campers, it’s a good reminder that camp friends are indeed, the best friends.
Cheers to the many campers and counselors who will help make it so in 2027!
Lucas