As promised, we are squeaking in under the wire with a Wednesday Words post on the last Wednesday of October!
From now until next summer our monthly guest posts will feature former Day Campers. Some posts will be written by Tweens who have very recently been Campers, others will be reaching back to reminisce about being a Camper at the very first Day Camp in 1979!
We hope you will enjoy a peek into our world through the lens of these Camper Alumnae.
For our first guest post we are happy to introduce Samantha Stilwell, one of four sisters all of whom have been Campers and then moved on to serve as Local Helpers and Team Members.
Welcome Samantha!
When asked about being a parish helper at day camps there is one memory that comes to mind without fail.
The year was 2004. I was a member of the highly elite group known to many as the Pathfinders and our daily meeting in the basement of Christ Church Beaurepaire was coming to a close. Moments before dispersing, our beloved leader Randy interrupted our adolescent chatter with news of an impostor. Lamb, the very Lamb we had known and loved, was not; I repeat he was NOT real. We attempted to maintain composure, as we were young adults after all.
“Well, obviously”, one of my cohorts shouted.
“Whatever, I didn’t even like Lamb”, another chimed in.
I, on the other hand was well aware of what was happening, there was a mole in our organisation. Someone was divulging closely guarded Pathfinder secrets to the Scramblers and Randy had sought to find this mole by feeding us false information. It made so much sense, all those Bible Smugglers the Scramblers had intercepted were a product of collusion. It also explains how they maintained
an unlimited supply of fruit loops for their trademark necklaces. They had a spy. To this day, I’m uncertain who the mole was, but it was this event that made me realise I wanted to help fight these injustices and protect Day Camp secrets. So I enlisted in training camp.
an unlimited supply of fruit loops for their trademark necklaces. They had a spy. To this day, I’m uncertain who the mole was, but it was this event that made me realise I wanted to help fight these injustices and protect Day Camp secrets. So I enlisted in training camp.
In the following years as I volunteered as a parish helper and then as a member of the Travelling Team I never forgot this moment. Randy had understood our desire to be included in the team of ‘big kids.’ We wanted to decide who got to be a Roman, or pick a representative for the blue team during the Quiz. And rather than telling us we had to wait, he demonstrated that he trusted us enough to share some behind-the-scenes secrets with us. I’ve carried that with me and used it, judiciously, with every pathfinder group I’ve encountered. It has been a truly humbling experience to watch as the youth in our midst lead Scramblers in prayer, or team up with a climber during a wide game because they feel like they’re part of the team. In concluding my throwback, I hope one that two important messages have come through. The first is that the Scramblers are far more in-the-know than we give them credit for, approach with love and caution. The second is that the Day Camp Team is not merely the individuals who are volunteering for Crosstalk but every single small and tall child who shows up each day of Camp.