Striving to Serve
Yesterday morning, one of our Tsuga Line Heads, Jack Long, volunteered to lead Morning Watch. “Today I want to talk about Servant’s Heart. Can anyone tell me what that looks like?”, he asked the boys. Several hands shot up from the benches - “Putting other people before yourself.” “Following the golden rule.” “Trying to do your best,” they all suggested. Jack agreed with them all, and shared that he thought this was the most important part of the FCC Code for him.
“I went to a school where leadership was really important,” Jack continued (he recently graduated from the Citadel). “They taught us about the importance of servant leadership, and how there are two kinds of people - givers and takers - but givers are always the ones who make the largest impact.” Jack challenged each line of boys to give back to the camp community in their own unique ways.
For the oldest group of boys, Betula, Jack reminded them how important it is to set the standard and be the example for the younger cabins in camp. Tsuga campers are in the middle, so they are still looked up to as role models by the youngest boys. Finally, Jack reminded Sorrel, the youngest group, that while they may get the most help, it doesn’t mean they can’t be helpful themselves. Age isn’t always a measure of wisdom, and oftentimes an older camper can learn something from a younger camper.
To finish his thoughts on servant’s heart, Jack shared a quote from former president Woodrow Wilson, “You are not here merely to make a living. You are here in order to enable the world to live more amply, with greater vision, with a finer spirit of hope and achievement. You are here to enrich the world, and you impoverish yourself if you forget the errand.”
While we see examples of our campers modeling servant’s heart each day, there are no better examples of “servant leaders” than our counselors. We’re fortunate to have this team of staff on the mountain for 2021, and we know the campers are grateful for their mentorship, fun, and knowledge as well. They inspire us to be our best each day, and they’re the reason Falling Creek is more than just a place.
One way that Falling Creek is striving to better serve our camp community is by maintaining our American Camp Association (ACA) accreditation, and yesterday, June 15th was our visitation day! This is a voluntary accreditation which verifies our compliance with up to 263 standards for health, safety, and program quality. Though each state has a variety of licensing requirements for summer camps, an ACA accreditation goes beyond state regulations to give further assurance that camp has had a regular, independent safety review from our peers.
You might have noticed that we didn’t post a blog yesterday - we were busy finalizing our binders, ensuring that we had proof of compliance for all of our standards ahead of the visit! Accreditation visits occur once every five years, so Tuesday was a much anticipated day!
ACA Visitors are trained camp industry professionals who have completed an apprenticeship with the American Camp Association, and spend a full day with us to tour camp, observe, interview, and assess compliance. This is similar to a health inspection, except that it includes all living areas, program and activity quality, vehicles and maintenance areas, food preparation and dining areas, aquatic areas, and healthcare facilities. It’s a process we are proud to go through, and one more step towards a safe and fun summer each year!
While we haven’t been notified of our official re-accreditation decision yet, we’re happy to say that the visit went very well (we passed all our standards!), so we’re feeling confident about the results!
