You're Magical

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The five seven- and eight-year olds giggled racing up the path to the archery field. I tried without success to keep up. Out of breath when I arrived, I took a seat beside the archery counselor, the five newest archers arrayed in front of us. 

I had reminded all five girls before heading up to the archery field that they needed to tie their hair back and that they must wear close-toed shoes. They could not participate wearing crocs. 

Yet as the counselor explained the rules she scanned the campers' feet, stopping as she saw Jenna's footwear. 

"You're wearing crocs."

"I don't have sneakers, " Jenna responded, "I guess I'll just have to watch then."

"Are you sure you don't have sneakers?"

A shrug of the shoulders, "I didn't see any."

Jenna's eyes welled up with tears as she sat quietly, her hopes of trying archery for the first time, dashed. 

Hmm, I thought to myself, any parent who sends a daughter to a one-week sleepaway camp with a trunk that a moose could hide in must have sent sneakers. 

"I'll be right back," I told the counselor. 

Arriving in Jenna's cabin, I heaved open her trunk and peered in at myriad zip-loc bags each neatly labeled, "pjs", "shorts", "T-shirts."  Below the clothing bags were an assortment of craft projects and below that extra bottles of sunscreen and bug repellant. Carefully working my way through the layers, I found at the bottom, a pair of brand new, never-been-worn, pink sneakers. I grabbed them and headed back to the archery field where four of the campers were receiving bows and arrows. 

Jenna saw me and a smile lit up her face. 

"You're magical!" she broadcast. 

I smiled in return; that was the best compliment I could receive from a camper. 

Counselors Pack for Summer Camp

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The sound of kids laughing as they run into the lake.  The wind through the pine trees as you drift off to sleep on your bunk.  Swapping riddles among a group of friends as you paddle a kayak. Whether you are headed to work at a summer camp for your 1^st or 40^th summer, take a moment to consider what is calling you to camp.

Summer camps can be as inspiring and engaging for the counselors as for the campers.  What do you want to get out of your camping experience?  To ensure you offer the campers your best as well as feel personally fulfilled, take a few minutes and jot down your answers to the following questions before you pack your trunk.

1. What will you do to be the best counselor possible?


Do you want to make time every night to ask each camper about his or her great moment for the day?  Or is your strength in recognizing and helping homesick campers having been there yourself?  Or perhaps you’re the high-energy counselor who can introduce five new games this summer. Pack your counselor goals in your trunk along with your shorts and you’ll be more likely to keep those aims top of mind.


2. What do you need to keep your balance this summer?


We all need balance when living with, supervising and instructing campers all summer.  Their young exuberance can be fabulous and refreshing or just downright fresh.  Decide how you are going to find space to keep a calm frame of mind. 
Perhaps you need to find time to take a run every other day, or finally work for your swimming honor or lead an overnight trip.  Think about your goals and keep yourself fulfilled so you can be that best counselor possible for your campers.


3. What can you bring to help you achieve both 1 and 2?

Finally, do you need to bring anything to fulfill your counselor and your personal ambitions?   Would a new pair of running shoes inspire you to stick to your running goal?  Is there a great book you want to pack to read to your campers this summer (Wee Free Men is a humorous read aloud for young teens—your campers may think you’re Scottish even if you’re from California). Do you have the best waders for going frogging?  Make room in your trunk.

When, oh so long from now, the last bugle echo recedes in August, stop again and think about the camp skills you have gained that are relevant for your college or employment career; more thoughts on that here: Counselors Benefit From Camp Too!

What are you packing for you and your campers this summer?

Pack These in Your Trunk

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As a camp counselor there are a few items I consistently notice are missing from camper’s trunks when they arrive at camp.  Whether your child is going away for a week or seven weeks, the following essentials will likely be as valuable to you as to your child’s camping experience.

Laundry Bag: Your young child, whether daughter or son, is unlikely to care whether she or he wears the same underwear, socks and shorts every day.  And without a laundry bag, one of two events will likely occur. Either she is neat and every night she will return her clothes to her trunk and pull them out again the next day resulting in returning home with a trunk full of clean, unworn clothes which makes laundry a breeze, but may not be the outcome you desired.  

Alternatively, she is the not too meticulous with her belongings and her clothing will be scattered across the cabin floor and under her cot where she may pick it up to put it back on in the morning or the errant sock or shirt will drift into the cabin trash or another trunk as it gets pushed beneath her neighbors bunk.  Again, you won’t have much laundry to do upon her return home, but then again you won’t have many of her clothes either. 

A laundry bag is indispensible in helping to avoid both of these outcomes.  Hang it up near her cot, and hopefully most of her dirty clothing will find its way into the bag rather than back into her trunk or under her neighbor’s cot.  A laundry bag is certainly no guarantee that she will find clean socks each morning or return with most of her clothing, but it will certainly raise the odds.

No laundry bag on hand?  Threading a shoelace through the hem of an old pillowcase can make a simple one.

Pre-addressed and stamped envelopes: This is a second item that may be more valuable for you than for your child.  Even a child with clear handwriting can run out of time addressing the neatly penned letter he just wrote during rest hour.  Once the bugle blows your camper is more likely to run down to the lake for a dip than to stop and address and stamp a letter.  And even if he does try to quickly address the envelope, it’s pretty easy to leave off the zip code when in a hurry, or forget that postage to Grandma in Alberta is more than Uncle Herb in Arkansas. 

Closed-Toed Water Shoes: Many camps disallow flip-flops as they lead to lots of stub toes and lost toenails when running around camp.  Yet having footwear to quickly throw on when your camper is heading to the pool is essential to maximize her time in the water.  So along with a sturdy pair of sneakers, find some closed-toed water shoes that also have some type of heel strap.  

While you don’t have to spend a great deal to purchase footwear, remember that ill-fitting water shoes—especially plastic shoes—can quickly lead to blisters and cuts as they are worn without socks.  Find a pair that is comfortable and quick to slip on.

Water Bottle: Whether he is heading out on a hike or just likes to have water by his bunk at night, a water bottle is exceedingly convenient.  Most reusable water bottles aren’t the easiest to keep clean, so you might want to take a few minutes showing him how to rinse it out between uses and remind him to pour out old water before refilling it fresh.

Overlooked Items to Pack for Camp

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T shirts, check. Jeans, check. Sweatshirt, check. Books to read, check. Remembering the top of mind items to pack in the trunk is fairly straightforward. It’s the camp necessities that we rarely, if ever, use at home that are easier to forget.

Here is a short list of essentials for all overnight campers, whether you are heading off for one week or seven. While most of the items, if not all, are on the packing list your camp sends out, these are the items I most often see forgotten.

• Laundry bag—even if laundry won’t be done while your camper is at camp, it’s helpful to have a separate place to throw dirty clothes other than under the cot. 
• Sneakers, or to some Tennis Shoes—if your camper will be on a tennis court at all then ensure she has appropriate footwear. At home she may wear sandals everywhere, but at camp she will need sneakers around camp and sometimes court shoes for the tennis courts. 
• Water bottle—often you can purchase one with the camp logo, but having a water bottle is handy whether your son is planning on joining in on hikes or just wants to have water next to his bed at night. 
• Pre-addressed envelopes—not only does having address labels increase the chances that your child will write you (or his cousin, grandfather, little sister), but it GREATLY increases the odds that the address will be sufficiently legible to make it through the postal system. 
• Headlamp—juggling toothbrush, toothpaste and a flashlight isn’t easy. Get a headlamp in addition to or in place of a flashlight. 
• Sunscreen and bug spray that your child can apply. If you have a young child then it’s easier to apply stick-based sunscreen on her face, rather than lotion.

A Trunk Organized Now is Hours Saved Next Summer!

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Update your trunk list now!

Now is the time to update your trunk list for next summer. Forget to put in sunscreen? Did every other camper have address labels but yours? Were none of those green socks worn? Update your camper’s trunk list now and you will give yourself a break next summer when you get ready to pack again.

First, hopefully you have the list on your computer. If not, now is a good time to start one. As your camper unpacks her trunk, listen to what she wishes she had and look at what was never used. Sure some items like a raincoat may not have been used this summer, but clearly should be included next summer regardless. But if the 100 roll of postage stamps you sent returned home nearly intact, just all gummed up, maybe you only need to send a couple dozen next summer—or just put them on the envelopes in advance.

Update the packing list AND add a note so you’ll remember that you have already updated the list. Wash and neatly fold any camp uniforms and return them to the trunk for storage if they aren’t worn during the winter. But take out of the trunk any lotions including sunscreen, shampoo, soap or anything that could leak or scent the entire contents of the trunk. If you leave the flashlight in the trunk remove the batteries. If you leave envelopes in the trunk be sure not to leave the trunk where it’s humid.

Next June when you open the trunk to pack for summer camp again, you’ll be glad that you left it cleaned out and organized.

Leaving Camp Trunks Shut. Big Mistake. Big. Huge.

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Like two porch dogs, the camp trunks lay quietly, side by side, waiting until their owners would return. I certainly wasn’t in any particular rush to open them and be greeted by an onslaught of laundry. Surely no need to immediately wash 8 pair of navy Soffee shorts, 8 striped Ts, 6 solid Ts, 2 navy blue sweatshirts, 2 beach towels, hmm, beach towels. Should I reconsider? No surely with the sun this summer they couldn’t possibly be damp.

Last summer when my girls camp home from their seven weeks away at camp, I required them to immediately open their trunks and pull everything out. After the rainiest summer I could remember, I knew the contents would be a wonderful breeding ground for mildew. The summer before that, the campers were sent home with “Welcome Your Child Home” letters that included a warning that there had been a substantial outbreak of lice during the final week of camp—charming—their suggestion was to immediately wash and/or freeze the contents of the trunks. So we dutifully emptied the trunk of its contents more or less pouring everything directly into the washing machine.

Then came the summer of 2010—endless days of sunshine, only a minor outbreak of lice, no food stored away in trunks. I thought we could just put the trunks aside for a few days, chill, not stress over unpacking. And we did. Remember Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman when she returns to the original store that wouldn’t serve her? Big Mistake. Big. Huge? Well, that was my reaction when I opened the trunks 4 days later. That nagging notion that the towels could indeed be damp? I had neglected to take into account that in such a beautiful summer of sun, of course a dip on the final day of camp would be in order. Where better to put a dripping wet suit and the accompanying towel but in the top of a trunk before shutting the lid? Big Mistake. Big. Huge!