Part of camp is acknowledging milestones. Some are based on tenure. For example, we call 3-year campers “Silver Spurs” and 6-year campers “Golden Oldies”. We give the former silver charms of our Camp Champions spur, while the latter receive a special photo memory book full of pictures from each of their 6 years at camp.

Other milestones are related to the age of campers.

As campers grow, we give them more privileges and freedom. For the youngest kiddos (age 6-9), we give them a schedule that assigns most of their activities. We want them to try everything at least once. They will often find something that they like that they never would have expected. We give them some free choice a few times a week, but they mostly follow a set schedule. The middle campers (roughly 10-12) get to choose activities in roughly half their class periods. The oldest (roughly 13-14) get even more selection as well as a few special evening activities.

I mentioned the T-Bone Club – the campers who just finished 8thgrade – who get a special meal as well as a laser tag game.

Today, we introduced a new privilege to our oldest Senior Campers (just finished 11th grade) – am aqua jetboot experience. These Senior Campers have just 9 days left in their camp experience and have been part of the Senior Camper program for 7.5 weeks. During those weeks, they have led younger campers, taught some activities and learned about living intentional lives.

But today, they simply had fun.

Susie Ma’am and I spent some time watching them giddily try this experience. [Note: rising high school seniors are not often giddy, so this was a treat.] They chided me to try as well and I was even considering becoming a source of amusement for them, but we ran a little late and I wanted everyone to have a full 20-25 minutes session. I am delighted to report that everyone successfully got up and all had a blast.

Tomorrow, I will report on Ms Champini and Aquanight.

Steve Sir