51 weeks is a long time to wait for something to occur. That’s how long most campers wait and anticipate their next Barnabas experience. With the exception of my 2 day Barn-a-break experience in October, that is also how long I had been eagerly anticipating returning to camp on May 31. My sister, Stacie, who also had a great experience, joined me this year; this reflection however, is my personal view of camp.
I was once again assigned as a cabin mom for a cabin of 9 girls. It was evident upon looking at the camper cards for our girls on the first night that I was in for a different experience than I had last year. It was almost as if all other campers had been placed in cabins and the ladies who were left were then thrown together into our cabin. While our campers were all in their twenties and early thirties, their mental ages ranged from 3-12. The group did not interact with each other most of the time and we had a few more campers who were not always interested in participating in the activities. All of the campers did enjoy themselves however. The weather was warmer this year and pool time was definitely a daily highlight. Other activities that were much loved were horseback riding, pet set (getting to visit the menagerie of animals that are kept at the barn), anything involving the costume closet, and café where they got to make pretzels. The campers also enjoyed the nightly parties, which included a messy “creation” night (paint fight, water fight, and food fight), a dinos versus cavemen game night, a pilgrims and Indians party (campfire, face painting, and crafts), and a night “dancing in the stars”.
Our group of 9 kept our combined 7 CIAs (volunteers) and 2 staff members on their toes. We had 2 in wheelchairs and 2 who were prone to wandering off at any time as well as our one camper with a mental age of around 3 that required close supervision. So you can get the best mental picture of our group, here is a bit more about each of the campers. Crystal was fairly quiet most of the time but had definitely warmed up to me at the end of the week. She was willing to participate in most of the activities but at certain times just wanted to sit down to rest. Sarah had a more exuberant personality. She has an enormous crush on one of the wranglers and proclaimed, “I love you” to him while we were at the horse barn. My favorite Sarah memory is the way she would say, “oh snap” in a fairly unemotional manner to anything that she really liked. Melissa was the social butterfly of the cabin but not in a particularly good way. Her 2 favorite questions to ask were “what cabin are you in?” and “what cabin was you in last year?” She would ask the same people over and over again even to the people she knew were in her cabin. Melissa also loved to hug people and shake their hands while telling them they were her friend. After a couple of days of this, even the other campers were starting to back away when they saw her coming. Melissa loved the slides at the pool and drug whomever was assigned to her along for as many trip down the slide as she could get in during pool time. I could write all day long about her and still not be able to give you the experience that Melissa truly is. Rachel loved to tell her family “story” to anyone who would listen. She was always telling about her brothers and sisters referring to them as “the basement sister,” “the good brother,” “the one who gets lunch money out of daddy’s wallet,” etc. She always had a prayer request about one of her siblings or some other random person such as her hairdresser. Each time Rachel knew she was going to be in bed, she would say “hey cabin mom, I bet you can’t find me when you wake me up in the morning (or after FOB)”. I always then had to find her and then, Buster and Francine (her stuffed animals) would have to find her. Jennifer was our only first time camper in our cabin. She was very enthusiastic in participating in all of the activities and quite the dancer when given the chance. Carrie was our camper with the lowest mental age and also our only non-verbal camper. Evidently Carrie is not always compliant with what you want her to do, but this year she was great to work with. She and Libby, her counselor, developed their own games such as pretending to whisper to each other, which would make Carrie crack, up. Dana was the only camper in our cabin that I knew previously as she had been in my cabin at Barn-a-break last fall. Dana is able to walk with great difficulty but spends most of her time in a wheelchair. She loves to participate in all of the activities and, when everyone else was sitting on the floor for devotions, she would lie down right in the middle of the group since sitting unsupported made her back hurt. Traci was our other camper who was in a wheelchair for the week however she normally walks and was only in the wheelchair because she had been having severe back pain. Traci was very quiet and seemed to use the wheelchair to isolate herself even though a person in a chair could perform all activities. Our final camper was Julie. Julie had worked with her counselor, Bethany, before and they had a very close relationship. My favorite Julie memory is when one of us would sing the opening bars to Shania Twain’s “I feel like a woman,” Julie would chime in with “let’s go girls” in a complete dead-pan. Julie also had a tendency to call everyone “woman” which is a habit that I picked up and recently caught myself using with a patient (oops!!). Most of my pictures with Julie in them show her with a completely annoyed look on her face but I believe that to be a complete act since she actually had a really good time at camp. They were definitely an interesting assortment of personalities.
Some favorite memories at camp include learning how hard it is to wash globs of oatmeal out of clothes after the food fight (not sure this is a “favorite”, but was definitely memorable). Melissa shrieking in my ear after seeing a picture of her horseback riding on my camera is also a memorable moment; I’m still not sure I have full hearing back in that ear. Watching Billy, another camper, interact with others is also a highlight. Billy doesn’t really talk but he still tries hard to communicate. He loves the ladies at camp and likes to take their hands and place them in the hand of his counselor. I heard Dustin, his counselor, say on the 3rd day that he had met every female at camp at least once. Billy also gets a big kick out of “shooting” his counselor and Dustin always played along by pretending to die. One of the sweetest moments at camp occurred when Billy saw his mom in the dining hall at the closing ceremony; he cried out “mama” and went running to her.
A final favorite of camp leads me to what I learned at camp this year. As a cabin mom, I am not assigned to any one camper but help out with all of the campers in the cabin as needed. Since I float around, most of the campers do not make any great attempt to learn my name and I become “cabin mom.” I remember this happening some last year, but it seemed much more prevalent this year. At first, I was a little annoyed by what I perceived as the lack of attention to who I was as a person. As the week went by however, I began to remember the biblical teachings about dying to self. Camp Barnabas uses a rule that we put God first, others second, and ourselves third. This comes across in our serving of the campers at meals before we get food for ourselves or in the doing what the camper wants to do during free time even if you’d rather be doing something else. This putting God and others above ourselves is a way of dying to self. I wasn’t at camp to be “Julie,” I was there to be God’s hands to these campers as a cabin mom: someone who encouraged the campers, who helped them with fun activities, and someone who assisted them with their daily living activities such as dressing and eating. It can be so hard to remember that we are always called to be God’s hands and feet especially when your profession, as mine is, is one of serving others. Since returning form camp, I have struggled to remember that. When I am at work, everything that I do is about my patients and not about what I want or feel. I’m not saying this is an overwhelming struggle, but there are always patients who push the envelope and make it hard to put into practice. As the week went by at camp I realized that even though only a couple of the campers could tell you my name, they all saw me as a friend and someone who was there to help them, I relished the name of “cabin mom” especially on the last day when one of the campers who had never called me anything else wanted to hold my hand as we walked through camp. It is moments like these that make us realize that while we are called to put God and others before ourselves, God is there to support us and gives us these moments to let us see how we are touching those around us.
So that was my week at camp. It was a very different experience than last year but still one that I will treasure. It is having these great experiences that make me look forward to seeing the same group of campers each year and yet I also have a great desire to get to experience working with another group; namely the 2nd term of kids who are physically disabled. You can look for a possible reflection on two weeks of camp next year. Until then, let the 51 week countdown begin.
