Reclaiming a Good Camp Experience

This week the big girls are spending their days at a girl scout day camp. This is the same camp Emma has been doing since 2nd grade and the others girls started when they were old enough. The camp has always been very well run and the girls look forward to it each year. The camp is in the county next to ours and it isn't advertised to our scout troops. Usually Em, Rae and Meg don't know anyone but recognize faces from previous years. This year was the same. They picked camp names: Em went with Narwhal again and Rachael stayed with Captian Obvious, Megs decided to go by Bless You. On the dress as your name day Megan tied a tissue box around her and pinned tissues to her shirt. Rae borrowed Bridget's Captain America shield and Emma constructed an impressive narwhal horn.


Emma is working in the kitchen this year as a program aid, and Rachael is in the oldest group of rising 6th graders and gets the privilege of doing a camp out one night. They were both excited and slid right into the fun of camp. Megan was also excited for her third year at camp, but came home unhappy the first day. She said the girls in her unit were mean and spent the 1st day bragging. Then her tie-dye got misplaced and she was left bringing home an unclaimed bandana. We hoped for a better second day but again Megs complained about the girls in her group. Wednesday this escalated and 2 girls in particular tormented Megan multiple times during the day. They took her stuff and handled it roughly, they spoke nastily to her and then at cooking they took her sit upon and wouldn't give it back. One of the aids stepped in but only after Megan got really frustrated. That evening I called camp and asked to have Megs moved. I got a call back first thing in the morning with concern and a commitment to address it with the scouts and to move Megan. I am happy to say that Megan was moved with care and was received with open arms by her new unit. I was also happy to hear that nasty girls were separated into different units and were spoken to. It was refreshing to have the situation fixed without any pushback.

Rachael thoroughly enjoyed her camp out and came home hoarse from all of the signing and cheering. She came home a rustic shade of brown gray, full of energetic stories and songs, and it took her a while to transition to her normal volume. Camp wears them out physically but also this year to wore Megs out emotionally. This year we added the challenge of having the girls pack for our vacation in the evenings while completely wiped out. We are going to be driving to Florida as soon as they get home from camp today. Maybe this once the big girls will nap in the car.