Camp Overnights
Morning Watch
Resilience is defined as the “ability to successfully adapt, maintaining your well-being in the face of adversity.”
At Morning Watch, camp counselor, Grace Thompson shared a brilliant story that defined resilience. Grace got into skiing when she was 2 years old and started racing competitively when she was 9. For 5 years of her life, every weekend was dedicated to it.
However, Grace often found herself in the bottom 10 out of 100 whenever she did competitions. Although she wasn’t the best of the best, that did not discourage her from learning, picking herself back up and trying again.
Grace persevered and showed great resilience by continuing the sport and improved significantly over the 5 years.
Camp Overnights
This week’s theme is Resilience, and what better way to describe resilience than to talk about our much anticipated Cabin Overnights.
Cabin Overnights are designed to help the boys grow and learn outdoor skills. It also allows the boys an opportunity to get together and bond as a group. These Cabin Overnights are also a fun way to introduce boys to camping who may be less comfortable with the idea of sleeping outside. For some campers, this is their first time on an outdoor overnight trip, so they are able to expand their comfort zones along with the support of their cabin mates.
Our Cabin Overnights begin with packing during rest hour and then the boys meet up all together at the beginning of 2nd free period and work as a team to divvy out the food, cooking & shared group equipment, and then work together to pack up all this gear. After taking a group photo, they then hike out as a group to their shelter spot on camp property where they will be resting for the night.
Learning Valuable Skills
Overnights provide the boys with the opportunity to learn valuable skills about being outdoors, learning what to do as well as what not to do.
They all contribute to building the fire, the boys work together collecting sticks, branches and watch as their counselors teach them how to correctly structure the fire. Outdoor skills are an important aspect to growing up in nature.
Brotherhood
Overnights help the boys connect and form a brotherhood. They cook their food over the campfire, and share stories while enjoying yummy s’mores.
This provides them the opportunity to grow together as a group, as well as get over the fear of spending a night outside, if they have one. The boys definitely show resilience and bravery.
Evening Embers Story
I would like to highlight a story that was shared during Evening Embers over one of the Overnights. Counselor Christian, told a story about the Hobbits, from Lord of the Rings, since they were staying in the shelter called the Shire.
This story really resonated with the boys, one even pointing out that “we are small just like Hobbits, yet we can be brave too!”
