Starter camp is great, and such a clever concept!
It's basically a one week camp for the little girls who want to go to Ton-A-Wandah but ether they or their parents want them to try it out first. The oldest girls at starter camp are around 11, with the youngest being only 4!
It is a very small camp and I believe that we only had 45 kids there! This meant that there were only 4 cabins and 8 counselors. I was placed in Spruce cabin with my new awesome Co-Co Jourdan, she and I operated on another level. We were so on the same page with every little thing including our dry humor. Those poor kids.
We had the oldest girls and only had 5 campers. We were the Spruce Spookies and our door decorations were these demented looking creatures that should not have been allowed! One of our campers chose her creature out of the lot as, and I quote: "I'll take this one, it looks like it has the least amount of issues."
The kids all get a predetermined schedule and, because of the "understaffed" nature of the camp, all the counselors have to teach all the activities! We all swopped in and out of horseback riding, karate, dance, arts and crafts, archery, swimming, rock climbing, activity sampler and tennis.
Caroline and I managed to match our schedules and taught everything but arts and crafts and activity sampler. It was such fun to be able to teach all sorts of great things and to do them with Caroline was amazing! To not have fun was impossible, and the kids all fed off of that energy.
A huge perk of working starter camp is the camp wide trip to Sliding Rock! It's sort of self explanatory but it's a huge natural rock that the stream runs over. It is so smooth that you can slide down it and into a freezing plunge pool at the bottom. It was so great and all the kids loved it! Bonus: we then went for ice cream on the way back to camp.
The camp is only 5 days so it passes in the blink of an eye but I absolutely loved it! After a triple session on Hilltop, having the little girls was so refreshing and such a different type of fun! We said goodbye as soon as we had said hello and sent them on their way, with the promise of seeing them all next summer at the main camp!
We then had to say goodbye to even more of our staff members and then went off on our 2 night session break before the Henderson County Young Leadership Program Camp came in. Caroline and I decided to do our own thing and booked into a hotel rather than hang around at camp.
We spent our time relaxing and eating ice cream and doughnuts, watching tv and joking around. I wouldn't have changed a thing.
Sunday 31 August 2014
Third Session, What a Session
Third session was great! Again a new Co, again a new cabin, again new campers, again I was not disappointed!
I was placed in Birch Cabin with my Co-Co Palmer. We were named The Birch Burger Kings and we had the awesome age group of 12-14 year olds. The campers were great and because they had come to camp for so long, the knew how it all worked, making our job super easy! They all seemed to keep in touch with each other throughout the year, and even had a cabin instagram account!
The vibe this session was amazing! All the kids were such happy campers and the camper attitude makes a huge difference! At this point, all the counselors are tired and going into their 9th week of consecutive work, and it's the kids that give them the energy to continue.
Our cabin was particularly energetic and we had some interesting evens transpire... Let's just say that we laughed so hard that there were 3 instances wherein someone wet themselves...
Camp continued as normal with all the same amazing activities, however, I landed myself a killer trip: The Biltmore Estate Trip!
Every session there are a series of trips that go out of camp and most often, the trips are all awesome. A counselor or two go on the trips to assist with all the kids and I somehow managed to get placed on the most prestigious of trips. If there is a trip that the counselors want, it's that one!
As a lifeguard and kayak instructor, I often went on the water based trips, which I loved, but this was going to be my first on-land one, and I was exceptionally excited!
The Estate is the largest house in the USA, even larger than the White House. It was owned by the Vanderbilt family, and is the most magnificent place I have ever had the privilege of going to. It looked like something out of a movie.
After the tour of the house's five levels, we went for a delicious lunch, and then went shopping in the gift store! I was lucky enough to go on the trip with my cabin, and my campers bought me sweets which is always great. We then headed to the petting zoo and after that, went on a wine tour, which was lost on the kids, but so interesting to me and some of the other counselors. The guide had such a dry humor that went straight over their heads! Last but certainly not least, we all went for ice cream! The day was amazing and I would go back in a heartbeat!
It was a rainy and miserable day back at camp and so when we returned, we all went to join in on the Harry Potter movie marathon that was taking place in the gym! The program staff decided that the day deserved something special, canceled all activities and created the movie day! Ah I love them!
All my friends were "mad" at me when I sat down as I had gone to Biltmore without them! They did not let me forget that I had left them at camp that day.
Something else that changed third session was the shuffling of off nights, leaving new groups of people off on each set of nights. Caroline and I ended up together, which was amazing but I found myself missing my other friends as I didn't get to see them often, and when I did, it was almost never in a casual or social environment. What made this worse was that it was our last session all together and whatever time we had left together was precious.
Because of this, the Candlelight ceremony was particularly sad, not only were we saying goodbye to a great group of kids, but also to a solid 90% of the staff! It was heartbreaking knowing that there was a very real chance that I would never see some of these people again.
Closing day followed and we sent off our last group of Ton-A-Wandah girls. We then had to do a major clean of the entire camp, finally having to clean all those places we had ignored over the summer. We then had one last meal together and were free to leave whenever we were ready. The staff at camp becomes your family and saying goodbye was so tough. Tears! Tears everywhere!
Saying goodbye to Kelly, Sophie, Maggie and Anna was horrible. Somehow I have a feeling that I will see them again though.
The remaining staff had a session break before the kids arrived for Starter Camp and so Caroline and I tagged along with Bizzy to her mountain house (the same house we had spent most of the summer in as Bizzy and Anna are sisters. Bizzy was part of the program staff, however, and was more of a boss to us over the summer so couldn't hang out with us on off nights). We spent the time watching movies and doing all sorts of little DIY tasks around the house. It was such fun and the next morning we arrived back at camp feeling relaxed and refreshed.
I was placed in Birch Cabin with my Co-Co Palmer. We were named The Birch Burger Kings and we had the awesome age group of 12-14 year olds. The campers were great and because they had come to camp for so long, the knew how it all worked, making our job super easy! They all seemed to keep in touch with each other throughout the year, and even had a cabin instagram account!
The vibe this session was amazing! All the kids were such happy campers and the camper attitude makes a huge difference! At this point, all the counselors are tired and going into their 9th week of consecutive work, and it's the kids that give them the energy to continue.
Our cabin was particularly energetic and we had some interesting evens transpire... Let's just say that we laughed so hard that there were 3 instances wherein someone wet themselves...
Camp continued as normal with all the same amazing activities, however, I landed myself a killer trip: The Biltmore Estate Trip!
Every session there are a series of trips that go out of camp and most often, the trips are all awesome. A counselor or two go on the trips to assist with all the kids and I somehow managed to get placed on the most prestigious of trips. If there is a trip that the counselors want, it's that one!
As a lifeguard and kayak instructor, I often went on the water based trips, which I loved, but this was going to be my first on-land one, and I was exceptionally excited!
The Estate is the largest house in the USA, even larger than the White House. It was owned by the Vanderbilt family, and is the most magnificent place I have ever had the privilege of going to. It looked like something out of a movie.
After the tour of the house's five levels, we went for a delicious lunch, and then went shopping in the gift store! I was lucky enough to go on the trip with my cabin, and my campers bought me sweets which is always great. We then headed to the petting zoo and after that, went on a wine tour, which was lost on the kids, but so interesting to me and some of the other counselors. The guide had such a dry humor that went straight over their heads! Last but certainly not least, we all went for ice cream! The day was amazing and I would go back in a heartbeat!
It was a rainy and miserable day back at camp and so when we returned, we all went to join in on the Harry Potter movie marathon that was taking place in the gym! The program staff decided that the day deserved something special, canceled all activities and created the movie day! Ah I love them!
All my friends were "mad" at me when I sat down as I had gone to Biltmore without them! They did not let me forget that I had left them at camp that day.
Something else that changed third session was the shuffling of off nights, leaving new groups of people off on each set of nights. Caroline and I ended up together, which was amazing but I found myself missing my other friends as I didn't get to see them often, and when I did, it was almost never in a casual or social environment. What made this worse was that it was our last session all together and whatever time we had left together was precious.
Because of this, the Candlelight ceremony was particularly sad, not only were we saying goodbye to a great group of kids, but also to a solid 90% of the staff! It was heartbreaking knowing that there was a very real chance that I would never see some of these people again.
Closing day followed and we sent off our last group of Ton-A-Wandah girls. We then had to do a major clean of the entire camp, finally having to clean all those places we had ignored over the summer. We then had one last meal together and were free to leave whenever we were ready. The staff at camp becomes your family and saying goodbye was so tough. Tears! Tears everywhere!
Saying goodbye to Kelly, Sophie, Maggie and Anna was horrible. Somehow I have a feeling that I will see them again though.
The remaining staff had a session break before the kids arrived for Starter Camp and so Caroline and I tagged along with Bizzy to her mountain house (the same house we had spent most of the summer in as Bizzy and Anna are sisters. Bizzy was part of the program staff, however, and was more of a boss to us over the summer so couldn't hang out with us on off nights). We spent the time watching movies and doing all sorts of little DIY tasks around the house. It was such fun and the next morning we arrived back at camp feeling relaxed and refreshed.
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