The Bigger Impact of Summer Camp

This is such a fun time of year at the Y. As school winds down and

summer approaches, there's a building frenzy toward one of our busiest times of the year - Summer Camp. Staff is hired and trained, sites are cleaned and prepped, registrations are made and all the like. I get the question asked of me daily - "Are y'all getting ready for camp?" I always answer yes and chat about all the preparations being made, when in all actuality, it's not so much me as the Youth Department Staff.

I suppose we do get excited about camp around here. We get to see kids all year long, but it's different at camp. I'm not sure if it's because of the setting, or the activities or simply since its summer, but things are so different at camp.

It occurred to me this morning as I was thinking about it, that Summer Camp has a really unique place in the collective memories and culture of a large part of our country. You can see it everywhere, from movies to TV shows and even commercials. Summer camp has become something of a rite of passage in the typical American kid's life. It seems that nearly everyone I meet nowadays has at least one great memory of Summer Camp that has stayed with them their entire lives. I love hearing them. I'm amazed that adults still remember the names of camp counselors, directors and lifeguards at the camps they where they spent their childhoods. Hearing people recount their stories always, and i mean ALWAYS brings a smile to my face.

I used to think that these memories were nothing more than simple things that stick in our memories for random reasons. But now, after being around Y camp staff for a few years, I'm thinking something different. It occurs to me that even when it looks to me like these young staff members are simply playing with kids, or loading buses or cleaning a scraped knee, they're actually choosing to spend Summer living with intention and making efforts to affect kids with their smiles, attitudes and character. Here's a little insight: I never went to Summer camp. So for me, watching this on a daily basis is like being at camp. And I love it. I know for me, a summer off in college was a time to shut my brain down, so, not to sound cheesy, but seeing these kids do what they do is inspirational.

It also occurs to me that those memories - the ones we keep all the way through adulthood - the ones from camp - those memories don't just happen to stick with us because they're fun, or we were having a good time. No, we carry those memories because someone, a counselor, or a lifeguard, or a camp director, was also living intentionally, working to affect us, and whether or not they realized it, helping to create the story of who we would become. The memories that stuck with us are those that someone helped us create.

So we're only a couple of weeks from creating some new memories that someone will be talking about 20 years from now. I can't wait to have the chance to get a glimpse of those special moments happening. Who knows, maybe I'll get to be a part of a new memory.

What about you? Do you have a special memory from camp? Was there someone who meant so much that you still remember his or her name? Tell me about it, share it. I'd love to hear the story.