“At first I was scared to go to camp,” 9 year old Rodney admitted.  “I thought it would be like boot camp and people would scream at me and make me run laps!”  Rodney quickly found out that the only running he did was to escape water balloons at the aquatics station, which he performed with great finesse.

“My favorite part was science, but aquatics was fun too.  And art…I found out that I’m a really good artist!” he laughed.  For many of our children, the summer camp provided here was their first taste of what fun it could be.  As always, we had older children who wanted to be included and secretly hoped they’d get a chance later to experience what the younger children had been talking about.

As camp came to a final close, the children took great joy (amid serious competition between camp groups) in wrapping their youth counselors as mummies.  They reveled in the end of camp picnic before sharing emotional farewells with the counselors who they’d grown attached to over the course of the month.  These awesome counselors were all local high school students earning Bright Futures hours, and we even had a few college students who returned just for old time’s sake.  Some days, it was hard to tell who had more fun – the children or the counselors!

We couldn’t talk about camp without thanking our sponsors and the many groups who gave of their time to provide fun for the children.  TECO, Tijuana Flats, Salon Roxy, Chick-fil-A, DAS Health, The Apple Store, Gordon Food Service, AssessURhealth, and Panera Bread all stepped in and joined the fun.  Many of these groups provided lunch for the children as well, which was a treat for children and adults alike. With thanks to the many, many people who had a part in presenting this amazing program, we look back on a month filled with great memories, new friendships, and experiences to last a lifetime.