Adventures At Youth Summer Camp

[SandSquid]

Enjoying 3 days respite... What the Diretor calls "Black-Out weekend"

EVERYBODY leaves Saturday after teh last camper departs and we are not allowed back until Tuesday Morning.

Supposedly prepares us for the last push (4 weeks) till Sumer Camp ends.

[SandSquid]

Yippie, "Primary" Camp = 200(+/-) Pre-Elementray age campers shooting arrows, scary!

Edited July 4, 2012 by SandSquid

[Sylvia]

LOL Put a pot on your head and wear trash can lids on your torso front and back. If nothing else they won't mess with you too much.

[SandSquid]

For the "big" classes I've been combining Archery and leather-working, so the group can break down into two smaller groups and switch off between the two, and for the most part it has worked out well....

BUT last night was by far the WORST class yet.

Those obnoxious little sh!ts were totally out of control, pounding stamps into the picnic table or even into the concrete slabs (sans leather)....Grabbing at all the things I told them NOT to touch like the swivel knives, head knife, stitching awls, etc...

Next door, on the archery range they were shooting arrows directly into the concrete floor "just to see the sparks they made". Despite our best efforts neither I, nor counselors that were there, were able to get them back under control so I pulled the plug on the entire session and sent them back to their cabin. It's a good thing this is a "Church Camp" or I would have gone straight into "Drill Instructor Mode", but I'm not allowed to yell, use profanity or physical exercise (my favorites are "front leaning rest" position or the "dying cockroach" ) to counsel the kids.

But today is a new day, lets hope.

[WinterBear]

Argh, I hate it when a class degenerates into an exhibition of yard apes. You did what you had to. Sometimes the best way to get the point across is to end the class. And even if the point isn't gotten across, sometimes it has to end before someone gets hurt or the tools or facilities are destroyed.

Were your stamps and tools badly damaged from the abuse? I'm not going to even ask about the arrows--I'm sure a lot were shattered.

[Sylvia]

Ick. Clearly they could have used some "drill instructor time" I still wonder about the "permissiveness" the last 2 generations have been raised under. I still think it's going to come back and bite us hard.

Glad you got through it though.

[SandSquid]

Well this is the last week of summer camp, and I can say it has been a great experience. While teaching archery full time to > 2,000 campers kept me quite busy, I was able to squeeze in some very basic leather-working for (as guess) 400 campers. I really have no idea, except I went through more than 500 leather bracelets. It was quite popular but my primary responsibility here is as the Archery Coach, I just could not offer it to everybody, and the "Craft Person" was crazy busy with ceramic, braiding, painting, etc...

With the prices of the leather bracelet and mystery braid blanks, this never would have been possible if it weren't for the kind donations of material we received, and I am deeply grateful for your generosity and every little bit and scrap got put to use, the kids saw to that!

[Sylvia]

As a recipient of some donated goods, I believe in paying it forward when ever I can... I was glad to send you the things I had. Let us know when the next round occurs.