Change Day #3 – the beginning of 3rd Session…

This is the first time that I have managed to make it back to camp for a camp meal on change day this summer…  There are no airport drop-offs or pickups this time round.  This means I have a nice relaxing day after the early start – a good way to start the second-busiest session of the summer.  With a full camp of 145 campers and the ACA accreditation visit in three days, there is still a lot to do and needlessly stress over.  It’s going to be another couple of weeks of running around camp dealing with various dramas and getting everything squared away before I can relax too much.  Bring it on!

 With 3^rd session comes another special program.  Once again, this is new this year (it seems we struggle to come up with a program which we are able to offer year after year like Orange and Grey).  This year it is ‘Byceps’.  I’m not quite sure what that means, but it is zombie themed and seems to be a huge success, although we are only halfway through it.  Unfortunately as I had to go on a clinic run I missed the opening, but everything else seems to be great!  We have 4 teams, and once again they are competing against each other, this time for puzzle pieces to put together a treasure map to find a buried treasure at the end of an omnibus (similar to last year’s program).  David, our program Director is doing a fantastic job with the program this summer, and considering it is his first year in the role I am very impressed.  I can only imagine what is in store for the rest of the summer…

BUNAC Camp Visiting

My day’s off during second session are dedicated to visiting other camps as a part of the BUNAC Camp Visiting program.  Each summer we visit camps with BUNAC staff to check in on them and make sure their summer is going well, and that things are working out for both the staff and the camp.  This is also an opportunity for me to gain further knowledge of the camping industry and make connections with other camps for inter-camp trips.  This summer I visited Camp Marist, Camp Bernadette, William Lawrence Camp, YMCA Camp Coniston, Kenwood/Evergreen Camps, Pierce Birchmont Camp, and the Wanakee United Methodist Centre.  I also took a vanload of campers to Camp Cody for an inter-camp competition in Archery and Riflery this session. 

There is a range of camps, some with NZ staff, and some without.  Some are private camps and some are associated with churches or other agencies.  Some are Co-Ed, some boys or girls camps, and some brother/sister camps.  Camp Marist is a favourite of mine, and a camp which I visited last summer as well.  They also have three great Kiwi staff this summer.  For those who are interested, I would invite you to check out their websites via the links above.

First Session

1^st session brings the 4th of July

So the 4^th of July brings us our first special program, which is really just an excuse to relax and have some general fun on the beaches…  Regular activities are put on hold for lazy day sleep-ins, and beach afternoons in the sun.  Not only that, but it brings with it the first social of the summer!  The boys all shower and dig out their nicely ironed polo shirts and clean shorts which have been packed away in snap-lock bags to keep them pristine and douse themselves in Axe (which in NZ is called Lynx).  Then we go over how they should behave and how to get the girls cabin numbers so that they can write to each other – all in appropriate ways of course – before the girls arrive.  Once they are here we set in to serve up burgers and hot dogs to everyone and amid the chaos manage to eat a little food ourselves.  Then it is time to be social… The music starts and things kick off.  Of course all the preparations are wasted as they boys congregate on one side and the girls on the other…  As I am staying at our camp we have the Juniors and the other campers are at Nokomis, the girls’ camp.  This means that instead of a standard awkward social, we get everyone out on the junior ball field for some games and music before heading back to the dining hall for some ice cream…

Overnight camping at the Outpost…

So this summer, a part of my role is “Outcamping” which means I am responsible for organising trips and experiences outside of the usual camp program for campers.  A favourite of mine is the overnight campout at our “Outpost”, a swimming hole at the end of the island with two lean-tos.  This session, I took two groups to spend the night camping under the stars – one group of Middler campers (aged 12/13) and a second group of Seniors (aged 14/15).  The Juniors had names drawn out of a hat, to select who was going, and as the senior unit was small this session, I took the entire unit.  We headed down to the Outpost at the beginning of PM general (4.30pm) and started making our fire to cook our dinner before the campers went for a swim while I sorted dinner out.  Then we ate a fantastic meal cooked over the fire, including banana splits cooked in the embers of the fire (a specialty of mine).  We continued the evening with the campfire and s’mores, and even a surprise soda.  The seniors had a visit from Matt, the Asst Dir. To tell the ‘Outpost story’ (a traditional scary story about the outpost) before it was time for bed at the unusually late time of 11pm or so…  As a special treat the Seniors were also ‘pranked’ by a few staff at about 2am, making for quite the experience…  In the morning, we cooked our breakfast on the fire again as well as having a morning swim before cleaning up and heading back to camp in time for the first activity period.

Camping at the Outpost

The end – our 1^st Change-day

It’s the 3^rd week of boy’s camp, and first session is now over.  We said goodbye to 90 campers and greeted 150 new ones all in the span of 4 hours.  Those leaving didn’t meet those arriving, and there was no chaos.  Don’t ask how we do it – sometimes even we wonder…  I was up at 4am on Saturday to have a shower before heading over to the mainland and down to Andover, MA to deliver the departing bus campers luggage and collect the new bus campers and their luggage.  Our usual driver, Bruce, is unable to make this trip so I am now a designated driver for the luggage truck, and due to a mix-up at the rental company, we now have two smaller trucks instead of our usual larger one, which means Camp Nokomis has had to come up with another driver for the second truck.  We head down in comfort and the change over goes well except for one poor kid who has shown up with all the correct paperwork to go to camp for second session, but isn’t on our lists.  It turns out he was originally down to come third session, but was bumped up the list and a late paperwork shuffle meant this wasn’t reflected in our printouts.  After an awkward 10 minutes we were able to put him on a bus and get him to camp for our biggest session of the summer.  Once we had dealt with this and had the trucks loaded we turned around and hit the road for the 2 hour drive back to the Y Landing before lunch.  Now, this is where things get interesting…  I had about 10 minutes to get lunch once I got back on the island before I had to get in a boat again and head off to drive to Boston’s Logan International Airport (yet again…) to drop off a couple of our French campers for their flight.  As I was the recorded guardian with Air France they would only release them to me at the start of the summer and only I was permitted to drop them off as I had to pass through security and escort them to the boarding gate.  I was also not allowed to leave until their plane had taken off…  Just as we were driving into Boston we hit not only traffic, but one of the mightiest storms I have ever driven in – It was so intense I had to slow down to an almost crawl along the motorway and could barely see the taillights of the car in front.  It was certainly a relief to arrive at Logan airport and be able to relax a little bit…  Needless to say, I was a little tired after they had left and had another staff member with me who was given the privilege of driving me back to camp.  For the second change day in a row, I arrived back at camp after dark…

Sunset at the Outpost

I will have an update for you on the second session and Orange and Grey (the biggest event at camp) coming to you soon.  I just need to source a few good photos…