The Most Important Job

If you regularly read my blog, you know that I volunteer at a camp for foster children every summer. If not, you can read about it at this post and this one.  This year, I had an interesting conversation with one of the men during his counselor break.  We were chatting about what each of us had done during the day and had left to do, and he said, "Wow, every job here has to be done, or this camp just can't happen."

He was right.  There are a lot of jobs at camp, and without any one of them, it wouldn't be the experience that it is.

Cooks - When we get to camp, our amazing cooks immediately get into the kitchen and start work (actually they come down even earlier to set up).  They pretty much don't leave the kitchen again until Friday.  They make three wonderful meals every day plus snacks for both the kids and the adults.  They don't just feed us; they make the experience of family dinner possible for kids who have not had that in their lives.

Administrative People - This year, I had the opportunity to observe the registration and check in process.  If you think this wouldn't take a lot of people, then you have never tried to do it.  The kids come in with their foster parent and encounter a wonderful lady named Chris with check in paperwork.  They have talked to her on the phone before because she works with social workers for months prior to camp in order to get out kids enrolled.  Without Chris, we wouldn't have camp because we wouldn't have kids.  Next, they encounter the nurses, who collect their medications for distribution during the week.  As you can imagine, the nurses may be the busiest people at our camp.  In addition to regular medications, they also deal with injuries, bee stings, heat related ailments, etc.  We couldn't have camp without them.  The next person they encounter takes their luggage and marks them clearly.  You know that horrible feeling when the airline loses your suitcase?  Well, that would be far worse if you were a child who had been moved from home to home (because of most of what you can call your own fits in your suitcase).  The lady who labels their luggage is important because we don't want our kids to panic when they get to camp by not having their stuff.  They go to the next person who gives them their camp t-shirt.  That shirt might not mean much to a lot of kids.  Since some of our wear this shirt all week long, it must mean a lot to them.  They get the correct size shirt because of our secretary, Pat, who assists the director all year long with all kinds of things from applications to name tags.  Without her, camp couldn't happen because the state would never let us have the kids if we were a disorganized mess.

Counselors - When the kids get off of the bus at camp, the first person they encounter is their counselor.  The counselor is the person they bond with, the person they eat with, the person they do activities with, and the person they lose their temper with.  The counselor remains enthusiastic about everything all week, which takes a lot of energy.   They get about two hours worth of break time each day, and it is an extremely important job.

Activity Staff - Three to four hours of each day are devoted to activities.  The kids can choose from horses, woodworking, making bracelets, fishing, bike riding, going on hikes, playing checkers, writing notes, spin art, playing dress up, etc.  You name it, we probably have it.  Each of those activities must be manned by a staff member.  This is one of the reasons we take more adults to camp than kids.  The staff also takes over for the counselors during their break times.  They serve the kids and counselors at meal times.  They don't have the same emotional strain as the kids, but they work very hard physically from breakfast until bedtime.

Program Staff - So, we aren't just a camp of activities.  We are a ministry, and we want to teach our kids about the love of Jesus.  We use a variety of methods in that teaching.  We sing a lot of fun and crazy and meaningful songs, so our song director is very important.  We use drama, so people who are willing to act are needed.  We have two ladies who handle puppets.  One person is in charge of object lessons.  One is in charge of Bible stories.  Without these people, our kids might not go home with the understanding of God's love that we so desperately wish for them to.

Lifeguard - At every meal, I ask the kids what their favorite thing was during that day.  Most of the kids say, "SWIMMING!"  They love it, and they get to do it for an hour every day.  This would not be possible, of course, without a lifeguard.  We are blessed to have a lifeguard who taught elementary PE and swimming for many years.  I have watched her teach kids to swim, and I wish I could take swimming lessons from her.  We often have kids who come in afraid of the water at the beginning of the week and leave as swimmers by the end.  Without our lifeguard, camp would not be camp.

Sheet Checker - Every day, some of our awesome staff people take on an unenviable task when the kids aren't in their rooms.  They go into the cabins and run their hands over the beds to check for wetness.  If a child wets their bed at night, the counselors keep very quiet about it.  They simply leave the wet pajamas in the middle of the bed.  The sheet checkers pull wet sheets off of the bed, redress it, launder the pajamas and return them at some time of day when the kids aren't there.  This is huge because it happens completely without the knowledge of the other campus; there is no embarrassment involved.  Camp might not be the positive experience it is without these lovely ladies.

Photographer and Videographer - Do you have pictures from your childhood?  Whether it is yearbook pictures or family portraits, you can probably look back on photos of your childhood and see yourself grow.  Some of our kids don't have that.  Since our camp is for kid from ages 6-12, a child can potentially attend our camp for six years in a row.  They leave camp with a book of photos.  In these photos they are smiling or making faces or swimming or riding a horse or doing something that will be a positive memory of a happy moment.  Some of them have siblings that they don't see at other times of the year, so the sibling picture they go home with is the closest thing they have to a family portrait.  One of them asked me at registration if they would get a photo with their brother again this year.  Our videographer puts together a video that is one of the highlights of the week.  It shows bits of everything they have done during the week.  The kids like looking for themselves in the video, but the most important function of this video is that we show it to the foster parents upon our return.  They get to see the love and fun their kids have experienced all week.  They get to know that it is a good idea for them to come back next year.  Without that video, I don't think we would have the  return rate that we do.

Prayers and Knitters - Each person who goes to camp has family members or friends that pray for them, of course; but they aren't the only ones.  The sending church has a group of people who specifically pray for each camper by name.  They also have a group of people who make blankets and pillowcases for our campers to keep.  I have watched more than one kid walk around with that blanket wrapped around herself to every event for five days.  This camp takes place in 90º plus weather, but the camper could not be dissuaded from having it at all times.   she said.  "Someone made it for me," she said.  "It means safety and security," said one boy when he received his.  The people who pray and knit might not be able to attend camp, but they are part of making camp special.

Directors - Our directors start working on next year's camp during this year's camp.  They plan everything, communicate everything, pray about everything, reach out to everyone for partnerships, and get very little sleep.  Without them, camp simply wouldn't exist.

If any one of these jobs was not done, camp would not be successful.  Every job at camp is the most important job.