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Mid-Point: Moments to be present during summer camp

College Weekend has come and gone. It was fantastic! And now, mid-summer weekend is a few days away! Sibling Overnight is this Thursday and so is the much- anticipated production of Shrek! And did I mention Visitor’s Day is this Friday?!! Summertime always go way too fast. It’s hard to believe campers depart this Saturday and our second session starts this Sunday. But first, let’s talk about this Friday, Visitor’s Day! It’s an opportunity to welcome our campers’ parents onto our magical world for the day. Visitor’s day allows our campers to reconnect with their families and for the families to meet the staff that have taken care of their children this summer. It also gives our guests time to enjoy our beautiful campus and to experience what their children have achieved thus far at camp. We will discuss mid-summer weekend further at our upcoming staff meeting. Mid-summer is a great opportunity to remind our staff to not take their time here for granted and to present in the moment. Here’s what else we shared with them.

Moments to Be Present During the Summer Camp Season

Remember that first night at dinner with your new cabin? The nervous excitement of your campers? The antics the campers did to figure out how they were going to fit in?

The campers … but what about you as the staff member in charge of these kids?!

Well, you made it! Nice work — you are still standing and in one

piece. Congratulations! Now it is time to ramp up for the last three weeks. You are tired, hungry, haven’t been on social media much, and you probably need to call home and maybe pay a few bills.  Your campers presented you with a wealth of challenges, headaches, moments of greatness, and some serious conversations that you never dreamed of having — especially with children.

Now what?

You have a few hours off and in addition to getting some serious (necessary) sleep, you can’t get the parting words from one of your campers out of your head. As they were leaving, they came up to you and shook your hand and with tears of exhaustion and a huge smile, they hopefully said “thank you, I had the best time of my life.”

You probably didn’t expect that, especially from that particular camper. But you had a tremendous impact on that camper and so many others. Your campers watch everything that you do and while their actions may not always show that, your kids cared about you and admired your greatness. You are their camp hero and you mean the world to them.

So, stop, breathe, listen, and look around. Pause to reflect on your work. All your hard work and sacrifices paid off. You have enriched a child’s life . . . forever. Best of all you get to do again for a whole new group starting camp this Sunday and keep making memories and keep it going with the our full season campers. So here’s to the final and best three weeks of the summer!!