I would like to say some “thank you’s” and to share a special moment.

My thank you’s are for so many people.

I want to thank you for your confidence in us and your belief in your children. Many parents are too nervous to send a kiddo to camp. But you believed in yours and they are the beneficiaries.

I want to thank the campers for their laughter, their kindness, their willingness to try new things and their enthusiasm. I also want to thank them for being so able to connect with each other. It helps assuage my concerns about the disconnectedness of our age.

I want to thank the counselors who have decided to commit themselves to serving something bigger than themselves. Sure, they enjoy the atmosphere here and they make friends. But they are primarily here to make positive impacts on the campers. It is hard not to find this inspiring.

I want to thank the leadership team and our full-time camp team. They showed positivity consistently – even when Delta made us adjust our protocols or when we needed them to help in random ways. They made a choice to find solutions and not problems.

I want to thank the kitchen and maintenance teams. Marble Falls has a very tight labor market, but they managed to execute at a high level with a smaller team. While smaller, they were more united and effective as any group I have seen. The challenges might have deterred a lesser group, but the challenges instead united these folks.

Finally, I want to thank Susie Ma’am. I cannot imagine doing this crazy job without having a partner that understands what it is like. Further, she is able to be a support and borderline therapist to so many of us.

With those gratitudes said, I want to share my special moment.

This week will be the last week that all 6 Baskins (Susie Ma’am, me and our adult children) will be working at Camp Champions. Three of our kiddos graduated college last May. They have job plans for the fall and none were initially planning on working, but they all came at the end of the summer to assure that we finished strong. Our youngest – a Sophomore – has been leading Little League.

I cannot imagine a scenario when we might be all together at the same time again during a camp session. [Note from Susie Ma’am – I CAN imagine such a scenario, but it involves having 3 unemployed adults at the same time. As much as I love having them here, I am A-OK letting this be the last week.]

As one adoring parent to others, I hope you have some unexpected moments of reunion in your future. Having adult children is pretty awesome – especially so when they seem to like you!

Again – thank you for being part of our camp family. We hope to see you again next summer!

Steve Sir