Camp Memories - April 12 2010

As our website shows us going and coming home from Camp, there are so many fun, exciting, and growth-filled stories that sandwich in-between our departure on Tuesday and our return on Friday – this will give you some ideas of how much growth and fun we had over the four days.

Day Three   dawned with a beautiful blue sky, and blustery winds.  As the children said:  “We prayed for sun and got it …we just forgot to mention NO WIND.”  The only reason that wind is a problem is that the water activities had to be limited on Thursday because of the winds, waves and currents.  As we said to the children, that’s Camp!  Students worked to get their arts and crafts projects completed, including God’s eyes, dream catchers, bracelets, button sewing and hemming and key chains … It is a delight to see how much they enjoyed their time together working on a task, helping out a friend who’s stuck, creating sometime that turns out well, and learning a new skill – like hemming and button sewing for Grades 6 and 7. 

Day Four is departure day … Parents,  imagine getting one hundred and eleven students, thirteen counsellors and eight staff packed up, moved out and at the breakfast table by 9:30 AM!   We did it with time to spare.  Breakfast was terrific – waffles, perogies, bacon galore, fresh fruit salad and veggie salad, along with cold cereal and as much toast as you could eat.  (The students were fascinated by the commercial “toasting” machine into which they fed their bread, only to see it spit out onto their plates in about 20 seconds.)  We celebrated all our thank you’s to the entire community, sang to Miss O’Hara on her “almost” birthday, and began exiting camp by ll:00 AM.  The day was sunny, warmer than we had had it and there was absolutely still waters throughout the Inlet.  The trip back to Deep Cove in the boats was beautiful ~ and always has a bit of sadness that Camp is almost over.  But then, we arrive at the Cove to very excited and expectant parents, and watch as families are re-united … and the stories flow abound!

The generosity of four groups makes Camp for our Intermediate students possible:  the parents of our children, the staff of the school who come, the high school counsellors and our Camp Doctor.  Parents support the program financially, they provide us with much needed transportation to and from Deep Cove, and they give us their children for the week.  Teachers do an immense amount of giving as well:  they leave their own homes and families, work from early morning till often early the next morning and ensure that each child is cared for, supported and included.  This year’s thirteen high school students, alumni of St. Augustine’s themselves worked with enthusiasm, perseverance, good-humour and dedication to care for each of the children in their respective cabins and activity groups. We have the blessings of an additional person in our “resident Camp Doctor”, Dr. Mojgan Namazi who cares for all of us ~ even for the staff at the Camp.

Here are a couple of stories to give life to our four days away from home ~

After all the children were loaded onto boats and the last small boat departed from Deep Cove, the “writing was on the windshield” as the rains started …. And by the end of Day One, we had come to know that this was going to rank as one of the rainiest Camps on record.  The children seemed to care less – as long as they could do the planned activity, they were game for just about anything that was put before them.  Day One had everyone in all the planned activities:  kayaking, beach study, outdoor living skills, fire building skills, arts and crafts, hiking, orienteering, and Island Explore in the voyageur canoe … everyone was wet, lots of fun and laughter was apparent and by dinner time, it was evident that “wet” was the word of the day.  Children gobbled up their first dinner of spaghetti, meat balls and garlic bread, had much fun in the after dinner choice activities and came to evening “indoor” campfire with great delight. 

By ll:30 PM, we think everyone was finally asleep …

Day Two dawned in low clouds, rain and a determination to pursue all that we could … so activities of high and low ropes and fishing were added to the activity experiences for our campers,  and we forged onward.  What is so delightful to see is how resilient the children were – how they would share what they had with others – and how excited the Grade 4’s were about everything, and how much fun they had at meal times together.  Throughout the day, there was a fun energy around each cabin groups planning for their evening skit that had to contain the words hamster, wizard and egg-beater to whatever they concocted for their evening skit performance at “campfire”.   Again, meals were great, lots of food for everyone to eat, and the evening’s ending with the skits was a lot of fun.  It’s always amazing to see how children who might be quiet burst out of their own shells and come alive on skit night.  We laughed until we cried … and then the students were off to evening class prayers, and shortly there-after, to sleep:  the end of Day Two was very stormy and all were sleeping (we think!) by about l0:30 PM. We are fairly certain that the whole camp was praying for SUN…

We go to Camp to bring our children into the beautiful outdoors where they grow, learn new skills and perfect others, and where friendships and community life abound.  Again this year, all of us recognized tremendous growth on the part of students, and we were so appreciative of their resilience, compassion for one another and their willingness to be good team players. 

We loved being at Camp ~ and especially being with all the great Intermediate students of St. Augustine’s School.  Thanks everyone for all you did to make Camp 2010 such a success.