Wednesday

I tried to think of a good title or theme for the update… and then it hit me, I will not be a cheerleader of all the great stuff I see going on around camp (the list is long and it begins to feel gratuitous). We encourage the girls to be genuine with each other, so I am going to always be real with you.

So I have a few observations with this in mind (observations followed by my perspective):

Adjusting to camp is hard… this fact is clear to me because I was a camper too (8 years at Falling Creek). I was homesick in my first days at camp EVERY YEAR. Oh yeah, I was also homesick the first weeks of College and when I was at boot camp in Quantico Virginia (Marine Corps “camp” one summer). This yucky feeling is not unusual, it doesn’t feel good, and I get it. My advice… don’t worry about any homesick letters you may get. We call you ANYTIME anything is going on with your camper that you should know about (Health issues, homesickness that is impacting her camp experience, etc.). We have been doing this for a long time. We can tell if someone is homesick in a destructive way and we bring you into the process very quickly.

Sometimes someone hurts our feelings… true everywhere, true here. The good news is that here we are ALL ABOUT forgiveness and do not tolerate a bully. There is a genuinely sweet feeling around camp that grows the longer we are with each other! We end up trusting each other and this transparency builds our community in a genuine way that is truly wonderful.

Camp is different this year… always true, and always an adjustment. The fact is, we don’t want to duplicate a previous summer. It would be an exercise in futility, for the magic of each summer is formed from the personalities and circumstances of a time that has now passed. The fact is, we fully expect THIS to be THE BEST SUMMER EVER!

So Many Photographs are frustrating… for many reasons (all valid) the photos can be frustrating for busy people. We take so many photographs every day, how can you find your particular camper without wasting hours? One day, technology will solve this “problem” with facial recognitions software that is dependable with children; but it doesn’t yet work (this is what the Camp In Touch software folks tell me and I believe them). The solution is to block off 20 to 30 minutes to scan the folders once a day. Scan 48 per page and click the favorite button on any that look promising… in this way you can knock out 2000 photos in less than 30 minutes. Know that riding only will apply to girls who ride on that day, the same for skiing. Finally… by posting over 1,000 photos the chances of getting every photo per day of every camper is likely. Ask your girls to get in front of the photographers, we take photos of EVERYONE who asks!

Why the charge for high res photo downloads?… This is not up to us, but is a function of using the Camp In Touch service (which is very good and it provides multiple years worth of your camp archive photographs in a convenient place). We asked for free photo downloads, they said “NO”. We live in a capitalist country and these guys are trying to make a living providing a service. We can choose how much to charge for emails, so we choose to make them free. That high res photos are not free is just the way it is. We do look into other options every year, but none so far have been preferable.

Too Many Campers!… We do have a record number of campers this year, by virtue of not starting the Wait List early enough (so we started the Wait List in May this year). We try to be generous with people on the Wait list (let everyone below the 10th grade in after a year). Normally this works out well and it “feels right”… this year we did not have normal levels of cancellations, especially at Main Camp. We pray that God bring us the Counselors AND CAMPERS for each summer. This is part of His Plan and I am thankful. A very full cabin is God’s provision for that particular cabin group and it will prove to be a WONDERFUL thing. We have no intention to make 516 the new norm for Main Camp. Our target number is around 490 campers (but we are happy with 480).

It sometimes rains… we have the same forecast today as yesterday (40% chance of rain, 83 degree temperatures). A HUGE rainstorm hit us just before lunch yesterday during 5th period… almost two inches of rain fell in a 1 hour timeframe and we were all drenched! OK, so this is not a real negative comment, but it is all I could come up with.

I am running out of “problems”. Really, I can’t think of anything else.

This is an amazing place and Main Camp is the BEST of all the sessions. I feel this way to my core, and the girls do as well. New campers are grateful to be here, old campers are grateful to be here, and the counselors are grateful as well. We have hard days, yucky moments, and the rain does fall from time to time: but none of it matters! The good is always around us and THAT is what we feel most of the time.

Thank you for making it possible. Camp is HUGELY expensive for some of you, I am grateful that you care enough to make the investment. This is a good place for a young woman to connect with good friends; to see the benefits of good choices; to decompress from the intensity of adolescence in this crazy, materialistic, hedonistic, gadget driven world.

A good place indeed.

Thanks for reading,

Jimboy

PS Breakfast Scrambled eggs, hash browns, bacon. Lunch Meatloaf (my favorite kitchen “regular” meal) with buttermilk mashed potatoes. Dinner is Chicken Broccoli and Rice casserole.

The Joke Today: This young man was extremely shy because of the fact he had a wooden eye. When he was 6 he lost his eye in an accident. When he met people he was sure that they were sickened by the sight of his eye. But he desperately wanted to fit in. Finally in junior high, he forced himself to go to a school dance and as usual he sat alone on the side of the floor knowing that everyone there avoided him because of his wooden eye. Then he saw this girl sitting alone. She had a very large nose and he was sure that she felt the same way he did and he was right. She was very self conscience of her nose. It took a lot of courage for her to even go to the dance. Finally he thought “why not” and he got up and went over to her. He haltingly asked her if she wanted to dance. She jumped to her feet and yelled “Would I, Would I” to which he screamed back “Big Nose, Big Nose”