The thing I love most about my job is I can do whatever I want during the summer! One of the highlights of my summer is getting to go to Girl's Camp. Part of my Stake YW Presidency responsibilities is being the Girl's Camp Liaison which means I get to help plan girls camp! This year I got to plan it with 3 women who I completely love and admire! They are amazing in every way, shape and form and each brings specific talents that really help Girl's Camp be the success it is each year.
So this post is going to be really long. But, if you are a camp director or ever will become one, there are a lot of good ideas here so I highly recommend reading all about our adventures. (Those of you in the Champaign stake, we are looking for a new stake camp director so pay attention!)The theme for Girl's Camp this year was "Partakers of the Gift". I thought it was such a wonderful theme that really helped bring everyone together.
We camp at Camp Drake, which is a boy scout camp, so we have a dining hall, a pool, archery and shooting and toilets. There are cabins there, but our girls sleep in tents and they do have to cook some of their meals in the campsites. But thank goodness they do not have to dig their own latrines!Monday: Arrived and quickly set up camp. Then off to a service project. The Young Women were clearing trails and cutting down trees and hauling wood. It was a wonderful sight to see them all working so hard. Then we had fire building with a little competition thrown in there. Each campsite had to build, start, and sustain a fire long enough to burn through some rope. One of the young women in my ward was so intense about getting her fire roaring she almost suffered burned hair and shoulders as she knelt down to blow air into the fire. After dinner, taco salad, we had this awesome activity called the Amazing Race where each campsite had to go to seven different stations and choose between a mental or a physical challenge. Then they had to work together as a group to get through that challenge. At the station I manned they had to choose between collecting enough kindling to build a 1 foot high pile or they could create a monthly budget. It was awesome to see the groups that chose the budget really start thinking about all the things they will have to spend their money on once they graduate high school. Then we had our traditional Monday night party. This year we decided on a birthday party theme to go along with gifts. We had a pinata and a pin-the-nose-on-the-clown. There was also music and dancing and a wonderful birthday cake for dessert. There was also a limbo contest. Good, clean fun!
Forging the trail! Me doing service
The fire building competition!
Our leader skit involved us searching for and finding our hidden talents. I found I was smart! ("S-M-R-T")
Pinata at our party!Tuesday: The goal was to cook all day in the campsites. After I gave a devotional about the gift of repentance everyone went back to their campsites and made omelets in a bag and bacon for breakfast, but a mighty rain storm came in and made it pretty impossible for them to cook lunch in their sites. So all the young women came to the dining hall and we had a great scripture study and then we had first aid certification. After lunch, sub sandwiches, they had their stake craft, which is my anti-gift, so I did not do. But they made cute gift boxes reminding them of things they have received as gifts in their lives. After the craft we saw sun and everyone had free time. I had an awesome nap! The girls were able to cook in their sites for dinner and made foil dinners. The food at camp is so good! After dinner we joined together at the arena for our opening ceremonies. For certification this year we had an Olympic theme with some competitions. Each campsite had to come up with a flag and cheer/jingle. So we had the parade of flags and presentation of the campsites. Then for the Opening Ceremonies entertainment we had an awesome girl band called "Out of Sync" comprised of the stake camp directors and myself. We lip-synced and danced to three songs. The best: "Dancing Queen"; our prop: shovels. We completely lived up to our name and the girls had a fantastic time. Then off to the dining hall for bedtime snacks and secret sisters. I got an awesome bag full of goodies such as glow sticks, a relaxing CD and lip gloss. The bag was an awesome green and my secret sister somehow knew that I love lip stuff! Even though we don't really know who our secret sisters are until we get to camp, it was amazing just how much this sister had me pegged.
OUT OF SYNC!(Living up to our name)
Wednesday: Woke up to a beautiful morning and ready for a hike. We split up into years. I joined my friend Aubrey and Bro. Springer and we led a small group of young women on a hike around Camp Drake. Bro. Springer showed the girls edible and poisonous plants. For the first time in my life I feel confident in pointing out poison ivy! It was so awesome though because a lot of the girls would excitedly ask Bro. Springer about everything. We constantly heard, "Bro. Springer, what is this?", "Bro. Springer, look at this!", and "Bro. Springer, what about this?" It was so cool! At one point in the hike the trail was about 8-inches wide and right on a drop off to the creek about 10 feet below. At another point the trail looked like it just stopped with a huge tree with lots of fat branches blocking the way and completely overgrown past it. But that was the trail so we had these girls climbing in and out of the tree and trudging through knee-high brush. And another point the girls approached a spider building its web right across the trail and were very respectful of the spider and made it a rule that everyone had to duck under it and let it be. Even Bro. Springer played along and bless his heart ducked down pretty low to make it under. My fat back pack barely made it, but we let that spider be. I think the hike was my favorite part of camp this year! Afterward we had another great scripture reading time about gifts of the restoration at the chapel they have there . Then they made pizzas at their campsites, so good! And then we had the first-aid relay-not my favorite part of camp. By this time the girls were not in the mood to follow the rules and have to carry pretend hurt girls all over camp drake and there was only me left to carry one of them! I was not excited about that and was mad that the girls would not play along. I thought it was such a good idea but the girls were not that excited about it. Our team came in dead last, with me being very frustrated. But Brittney did a wonderful job in planning it and the leaders were very good at being picky with the girls and their abilities of bandaging and wrapping fake injuries. After that free time then dutch oven dinners in the campsites with potatoes and pork chops, so good! And the campsite I ate at didn't make their cobblers the day before so we had apple cobbler for dessert. After dinner was skit night. This year we randomly split up the groups and gave each group an 80's song title that was to be the theme of their skit. It wasn't supposed to be a music video. The girls came up with some really great skits and I think skits are a lot easier if given a theme, not necessarily a bunch of props. So I think we will do that again. My favorite was "Footloose". The girls had a hospital clinic. The first girl came in with her hand shaking all over and the doctors pronounced, "Hand Loose" as her ailment. Then a couple more and then one of the leaders came in saying all kinds of gibberish and the doctors pronounced, "a few screws loose!" And then another leader came out shaking her bottom all over the place and the doctors pronounced, "A Loose Caboose!" The final one came out with "Foot Loose." Pretty funny stuff. And then there was an encore presentation from Out of Sync. This time we turned all the lights out at the arena and put glow sticks all over our body and danced to "Larger than Life" by the Backstreet Boys. I love the Backstreet Boys. Anyway, that was a hit and then we did our much rehearsed Emmy award winning Shovel Dance to Dancing Queen. We were a hit! Then back to the dining hall for cookies and ice cream and secret sisters. This time I got a cute bright colors knitted looking bag with some foot scrub and body wash. How did she know I still have all my mission callouses?
On the overgrown trail
Scripture reading at the chapel
Thursday: Breakfast: french toast, my favorite. Then we had our scripture reading about the gift of the Atonement. Wonderful. Then we went canoeing. The girls got to play for a while and then we had a canoe race. Our team came in third. Crossing the bridge is always a little scary, but everyone makes it safe. Then we had cheeseburgers for lunch. Afterward we had a little certification left and then off to water games. Aubrey and I were in charge of water baseball with a huge slip 'n' slide. I kind of did a slip 'n' slide but really just scooted myself a long a little. The girls had great fun with that. They also had water relays. Everyone got wet. Then it was off to free time. Thursday is always Priesthood night so the ward Priesthood leaders came out and gave short messages to their girls. And then we had Hawaiian haystacks, love them, for our Priesthood feast. After dinner is testimony meeting. I was really impressed with one young woman's testimony about how she has been praying for the last few years for help in becoming less shy and while she knows she isn't perfect at that gift, she recognizes she is getting help in improving. I was so touched! It was awesome to hear several of the young women say their favorite part of camp was the scripture reading. That has been our camp director's goal and it sure was a payoff to hear that many comment on it! After the wonderful testimony meeting we headed to the dining hall for our night time snack and secret sisters. This time I received a brown and pink bag with some post-its, note cards, and pens in it. How did my secret sister know I use post-it notes and pens as a teacher?
Crossing the bridge to Poncho Pond. Quite a scary experience!The Canoe race at Poncho Pond
This spider was huge! You can compare it to the doorstop to get the idea. I didn't use that bathroom ever again after seeing this!
Friday: Camp clean-up. After cleaning up we gave out certification awards. We also found out who our secret sisters were. I found out that mine was a good friend of mine and she had been trying so hard all week not to tell me she was my secret sister! She said the best joy of the week was seeing my reaction to the gifts she gave me! And she also told me that while she was shopping for secret sister gifts she felt very inspired to buy certain things. She had never spent that much time looking for gifts and these were not gifts that she would normally buy. But she followed promptings she received and had a lot of fun seeing how following those promptings paid off. She was just about as excited to give me those gifts as I was to receive them!
My Secret Sister Susan (on left) and my good friend Patty! They make camp truly fun!
One thing that Denise, our fearless leader, started this year was a giving tree. We set up a Christmas tree and then laid out paper ornaments that the young women could write on telling the kind things or wonderful gifts they observed in other young women. By the end of the second day the tree was full and it was a wonderful sight to see.
What a wonderful week I got to spend with our stake young women. And my best lady friends of the stake! It was such a rewarding experience. I hope that I will continue to be able to return every year!If you made it to the end of this post you deserve a cookie. You should go find one right now! Oh and leave a comment letting me know you made it through!
