August 07, 2003
Summer 2003 Camp
Throughout this site you'll find photos and diary entries from both of the
Diocesan summer camps, St. Vartan Camp in Connecticut and Hye Camp in Illinois.
After you look around and learn about all the fun activities, heritage
lessons, and worship services, think about sending you own child to a camp next
year. You can learn more about our
camps by clicking
here.
August 02, 2003
Packing and moving out
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.
August 01, 2003
There's good news and bad news
Dn. Aren's Friday morning announcements caught the camp slightly off guard. The good news came first, and that was the fact that Friday marked the final full day of a very fun and successful Hye Camp 2003. Unfortunately, the bad news came in the same package, in that Friday was the final day of Hye Camp 2003 and the next morning everyone would have to say goodbye and go home.
Along with this two-edged sword came some other interesting twists Friday morning. The first came bright and early, when the camp, instead of meeting for breakfast, went straight to the chapel for badarak celebrated by Archbishop Khajag Barsamian. Everyone took Holy Communion and, following the service, the Primate presented each camper with a cross necklace as they came up to kiss the cross.
Breakfast followed Badarak, and during breakfast Srpazan was presented with a Hye Camp shirt that had been decorated and signed by the campers. Srpazan wore the shirt for the rest of the morning, till he left for New York. During breakfast Dn. Aren announced that the Olympic competition would last all day. Since breakfast had started later than usual, the couple of hours until lunch was spent cleaning cabins and beginning to pack up all the extra clothing and accessories laying around.
Before the finals, two softball semi-final games were played. It was in the first semi-final where Team Hye Fever was beaten in a closely played heated battle. Even after showing a chink in the armor, Team Hye Fever went on to play in the first final of the day, the basketball championship game. After winning that game against an injury riddled opponent, Team Hye Fever went on to clinch the ultimate Frisbee championship in a tough close match against the same Team 5 that had earlier beat them in the softball semi-final. Team Hye Fever wrapped up a successful Olympic campaign by placing first or second in all of the relay races.
The rest of the afternoon was spent making final preparations for the cabin skits. The winning skits from the guys and girls came from the oldest girls dressing up as The Village People with a sumo twist and dancing to YMCA, and the youngest boys singing a custom written ode to their counselor affectionately known as Uncle Harry. Other notable skits were the 13-year-old boys doing a spoof of the Jerry Springer show, called the Sako Show, and some exceptional dance skits from the 15-year-old boys and the 13-year-old girls.
Following the skits came Kangaroo Court, where a person or group could take another person or group to trial over behaviors felt to be "questionable", such as camp staffers being accused of too much shopping -- punished by having a shopping bag stuffing competition. Other notable cases included a couple of 13-year-old boys being accused of too much raiding of other cabins and Uncle Harry allegedly going crazy. As Kangaroo Court settled its last case, the Armenian band had already begun to setup at one end of the mess hall.
Then it was kef time at Hye Camp. Everyone laughed, danced and reflected on a wonderful week of education, worship, fun and fellowship until it was time to go to sleep for one final time.