A Day in the Life of a Double H Counselor!

Transcription

1 A Day in the Life of a Double H Counselor! This is all what a normal day at camp feels like. The joy of camp is that every day is different and will challenge you in ways you didn t know! Arrive at the Cabin around 7:45am When I arrive at the cabin, I m greeted by half sleeping campers. I m assigned to wake up Eric, he is 11 and has Muscular Dystrophy so me and my co-counselor start to wake up Eric, take him to the bathroom, help him brush his teeth and then start to get him dressed. Eric needs help with all parts of getting ready and can t do anything independently. While getting Eric going, the rest of his room is waking up and we are reminding them to get dressed, brush teeth. The cabin is starting to come alive with voices! Morning Assembly (8:30am) We start to leave the cabin and realize that we are cabin of the day so that means at Morning Assembly we will have to do a cheer in front of all of camp. Me and my co-counselor start to bring the boys together and work together to decide on a cheer to do! The boys are exciting but still a little sleepy, I m realizing that all the counselors will really have to turn up the energy level! After announcements and morning aerobics it s time for my cabin (The Wolf Pack) to do our cheer. I m tired after getting Eric ready but I make sure that I m screaming and yelling just as loud as my team! The boys get into it at the end! Then the whole camp starts to head to the Dining Hall and sings the morning song! Breakfast (8:45am) What a busy time. I m not serving breakfast today but I watch as my co-counselors Megan and Ryan start serving breakfast. I m sitting next to a camper who needs his food cut up so I start cutting it up for him before I even take any food for myself. After cutting up food for camper Josh, I realize that that while I love pancakes, I can t handle another day of pancakes so I check in with my table and see what people need and then run to the toaster to toast some bagels for myself and two of the campers. I return back to the table just

2 as we are doing the We ve got spirit cheer. I drop my bagel on my plate and get right into the cheer. The only way to get these kids excited is if I m excited. The meal is starting to end, I haven t taken a bite of my bagel yet, and we have the kids start helping us clean their plates and put away their dishes. I quickly scarf down my bagel and grab a banana and am ready to start the morning! Oh but before that I have a quick water drinking contest with camper Joshhe wins! Morning Rotations (9:45 to 11:00 and 11:15-12:30) We are schedule to go to the Barn for our first rotation and then Discovery for the second one. I made sure to grab my sneakers for the Barn before leaving the cabin this morning. On our way to the barn, we start a Wolf Pack Cheer! Once we get to the Barn, all the kids head to the gazebo to listen to the rules. I make sure I m listening intently to the rules even though I have heard them several times. In order to get kids to listen, I have to role model that for them! Once rules have been completed, we divide the campers up and some get geared up for horseback riding and others hang out and start petting small animals. One of my campers, Joe, doesn t want to go horseback riding or pet small animals but wants to go swimming. I start walking around the barn yard with him and explain that we can swim in the afternoon but not now and what else would he want to do down at the barn. He decided that he wants to help take care of the animals and not just pet them. I ask the barn staff member, Emily, if my camper can help take care of the animals. She thinks it s an awesome idea and gets some supplies ready for Joe to brush the animals and help clean out their cages. Joe loves it and soon forgets about swimming! Pretty soon the barn rotation is over so we have to get all the kids to wash their hands before heading to discovery- we make it a challenge of who can get their hands the soapiest and it becomes much more fun. On the way to Discovery, camper Eric, states that he needs to be changed. Myself and another counselor stop at the cabin with Eric and change his diaper and since Eric is feeling warm, we change him out of his pants and put shorts on. Eric is getting upset that he is missing part of Discovery so I explain that we have an hour and fifteen minutes at Discovery and that he won t miss anything but the rules! I decide to go over the Discovery rules with him so he doesn t get more upset. Soon enough, we are on the road again. We meet up with the rest of the cabin at Discovery and we find out that today we are doing the egg drop! Kids get divided up into groups and I go to work with one of the groups of kids. I m really feeling tired and a little hungry and I really want to just take a seat and let the kids do their project but I know that it will get chaotic if I do this. I jump into the activity and help the kids design their egg drop vessel, redirect any difficult behavior and make sure all the campers have a say in the project. Time flew during discovery and before we know it we are in front of the

3 Dining Hall watching the egg drops happen (3 out of 5 eggs survived)! We need to make sure the kids all wash their hands before lunch so we get that soapiest competition going again! Lunch (12:30-1:30) I m in charge of serving at lunch so I go to the kitchen get all the food we need and start serving staff and campers. It s grilled cheese and tomato soup and I m pumped, it s one of my favorite camp meals. We run out of grilled cheese pretty quickly so I hop in line at the kitchen to get food. I m starting to lose patience as the line is really long and it s taking a while but I realize that it s a popular meal and we will get food. I might bring up to my UL that we didn t have enough grilled cheese so that he can let Kate know at his next UL meeting. I finally get to enjoy some grilled cheese and one of the campers asks if he can go the salad bar. I remember Emo telling us that campers shouldn t go up to the salad bar by themselves and it looks really busy so I ask the camper what they want on their salad and go up and get it for them! Soon enough lunch is over and we head back to the cabin. One thing that we have decided to not do is get the kids all hyped up at lunch or after lunch because they need to be calm when going back to the cabin for rest time. Rest Time (1:30-3:15) I m not on duty for rest time because I was on yesterday so that means I get to go back to my room and relax or I might head to Walmart to pick up a new camp watch. Yesterday while on rest duty, me and my co-counselor Tony made sure that kids had quiet time for the first 45 minutes but we made sure to keep all the doors open and check on each room throughout the 45 minutes. We allowed our campers to read or play games quietly in their room but they weren t allowed to go into other rooms. Some of the boys even fell asleep! After about 45 minutes, we let the campers go into other rooms (as long as the boys weren t sleeping) and play games. Then for the last half hour of rest we went outside and played a great game of 4 square. Tony and I had a good game plan for Rest Time because prior to that we were having some problems with campers getting into arguments during quiet time.

4 Free Choice (3:30-5:30) I m assigned to campers Joe, Steve and Brian for Free Choice and we are all going to the waterfront. I also get to spend some time with our volunteer Ashley, this is great because I haven t really interacted with Ashley and it would be nice to see how her week is going! On the way down to the waterfront I realize that I forgot the sunscreen. I ask if Ashely is comfortable with heading to the waterfront and I ll just run and grab the sunscreen. She is totally fine with it and I know that she will be in eye sight of other staff so it won t be breaking any rules. I run back to the cabin, grab the sunscreen and head back to the waterfront. By the time I get there the boys are all fishing. We take a sunscreen break and continue trying to catch Big Will! While fishing, I chat with Ashley and ask her if she is having fun and if she has any questions about camp. She seems really happy with being in the Wolf Cabin but did have a question of if she should bring a backpack on the Great Escape trip. I forget sometimes that volunteers don t remember those little things and I m glad I could help! Dinner (5:30-6:30) After Dinner After fishing with our campers, it s dinner time. Dinner is pretty similar to lunch except we are having tacos. Taco night is a lot of prep and time spent getting kids tacos ready but it s such a delicious meal, I ll deal with the preparation. We did a ton of cheers during dinner and camper Joe almost cried when his lemonade spilled during We ve Got Spirit and ruined his taco. We quickly solved the problem by giving him mine (untouched still) and I made another one! We get back to the cabin and have about a half hour before our evening program of the Campwide Game. Our UL reminds me that I m on the Campwide Game committee and I run to go meet everyone at the Newman Rock. Once getting to the Newman Rock, Becca tells me that it would be great to go to the kitchen and fill up six water jugs with another counselor, Mike from the Beaver cabin. I m not a driver, but Mike is, so we hop into the golf cart and start filling up the water jugs. While it s a bummer to be away from my cabin, it s kind of nice to help get the evening activity started and spend some time with other counselors. We bring the water out to the rec field just in time for me to join back with Wolves as they make their way to the rec field. After the campwide game, I stay back with the rest of the committee and help clean up.

5 Bedtime (9:00) I get back to the cabin at the tail end of Cabin Chat. All the boys are in one room, pjs on, teeth brushed and sharing their favorite moment from the day. It s always nice to hear what the kids think of their time at camp. After Cabin Chat, all the boys head to their rooms. I m on night duty so I make sure the boys get into bed and help lift Eric into his bed (with another counselor). The rest of the counselors head into the UL room for a quick end of the day meeting. I make sure that the boys are starting to fall asleep and have to read a few stories to camper Joe who is missing home a little. After the rest of the counselors finish up their meeting, my UL updates me on what they talked about in the meeting. Myself and counselor Ryan are on duty and we sit in the hallway after all the boys have gone to bed with the doors open to make sure all is quiet. About 11:00pm, camper Joe comes out of his room and says his stomach hurts. I call down to the body shop using the phone in the UL room and tell the night nurse how Joe is feeling. She comes up to the cabin to check him out and gives him some TUMs. Joe falls asleep quickly after that. Pretty soon it s midnight and all the counselor who live in the cabin return and I update them about Joe and head back to my room to get sleep before the fun begins again!