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Saturday morning was a busy morning, with packing, cleaning cabins, and squeezing in a quick breakfast before boarding a bus or saying hello to parents picking campers up. As busy as the morning was, the necessary activities were hardly the most important tasks on the minds of most campers. With so many old and new friends to say goodbye to, with so many memories to recount, addresses and emails to collect, final pictures to take, it was almost impossible to concentrate on the tasks that needed to be completed.
Somehow, every cabin got cleaned, every piece of luggage got packed and loaded, everyone got a bit of breakfast, and, with a little bit of prompting and encouragement, all of the campers were finally said goodbye.
The Detroit group was the first to go, packed in so tightly on their bus that not a single seat was empty. The Cleveland bus was pulling up as the Detroit bus drove away, and soon after, a second group of campers were gone. The Chicago kids, as well as the small groups from many other cities around the country, were all picked up slowly throughout the morning. Soon, there was only the Hye Camp staff left and by noon, 2003 Hye Camp had officially ended.
Looking back on the week, the staff, the security, the counselors, and the junior counselors can all attest to the amount of work necessary to foster the Hye Camp environment. However, in the eyes of the campers, the session was seven days of fun and activities and fellowship.
What made the camp most special was the interaction between the counselors and the campers. Every single counselor enjoyed being with the campers, enjoyed interacting with them, spending time with them, helping them, guiding them, leading them, and this joy was contagious. Campers knew they had an abundance of loving and caring figures they could turn to, adults they could talk to, take their problems to, play with, spend time with.
Dn. Aren stressed above everything else the necessity of sharing love for one another, and love is what made the camp as special as it was. Everyone involved can look back with satisfaction and look forward to 2004 with anticipation of another wonderful Hye Camp. See you then.
Posted by Jake at August 2, 2003 04:18 PM
