Monday, June 29, 2009

Girls' Camp

My last year as a girl at girls' camp was 1996. Here are a couple pictures from back in the day:


Dalene and I on our 3-day hike during our 4th year at camp



That's me behind the David Letterman mask. It was my last year at camp and I was one of the emcees for campfire (which was held in the dining hall because it was raining)


After I finished my time at camp as a girl, I always talked about going back to camp as a leader. Due to school/mission/work/scheduling conflicts, it never happened. Until this year. I finally made it back to girls' camp and I had a great time! I was the activities person and my job at camp consisted of teaching the girls to shoot BB guns, like so:




Being a staff member was much different than being a girl. I enjoyed eating first and not having to sing for my meal. I also enjoyed sleeping in a tent. It totally beats sleeping outside (as demonstrated by the fact that I only came home with two mosquito bites and neither were on my face). I didn't have to worry about any hikes or learn first aid. In fact, this time around, I helped teach first aid. And, as staff, I got to interact with lots of different girls of all different ages. Of course, there were some things that were similar to my experience as a girl. I got to meet new people from other wards and I made new friends. And, there was the Staff-YCL ABC challenge. Even though I was on the other end of it this time around, I learned that I still got it! And, whether you're staff or youth, the bathrooms are gonna suck. After 13 years, I had forgotten about many aspects of the girls' camp experience and my memories had started to fade. But, throughout my week at girls' camp, it all came back to me (cue Celine Dion) and I remembered what a great time I had at girls' camp and what a good experience it was for me. Of course, by the end of the week I was ready to come home and take a nice, hot shower in my nice, clean bathroom and get a good night's rest in my nice, soft bed. But, I had a great time and hopefully all of the girls did, too. Hooray for girls' camp!


The Lawrence Station Ward Young Women and Leaders at camp

4 comments:

Dalene said...

Fun, fun memories. Remember the ants the size of Shetland ponies? I despised them. But, a small price to pay, I suppose, for testimony-building days with my bffs. Love you.

LJ, DC and ML said...

Hahahaha! Hello Dave! How I wish we'd made it back up together, we've got many years to go I suppose. PS. I totally spy me, Kim and Christine in that pic. Man are we hot. hahahaha.
And I totally remember those ants. Who was it that got bit on her butt? Good times.

Sharon said...

Did you jump off any cliffs . . . naked?

melissa ( : said...

LOVE LOVE LOVE Girls Camp. That is where I gained my testimony. I bet you were a stellar leader... I loved David Camperman... You cracked me up that night, even though I had a lousy case of pneumonia that year. And all that rain... RAIN RAIN RAIN. That was one thing nice about being in the Nurses shack all week.