Girls Camp, 2021

A couple of months ago, I was asked to attend our ward's girls' camp.  Because of COVID and the individual sensitivities of members of the different wards, the stake let go of the reins and turned everything over to the wards for their own camps.  When I think about how poorly this would have worked in State College with our three young women, and knowing that the Ann Arbor stake has some wards with very few young women, I was grateful to hear that the Northville Ward boasts a healthy population of youth with about 30 young men and 30 young women.  I didn't even hesitate to say "yes", and I even offered Glo and Hannah as able-bodied leaders if they were needed.

I'm not sure why I said "yes".  Some of the reason certainly stems from the fact that I'm trying to get people in the ward to know me so that they will consider me for callings.  Another reason could be that I really miss my connections with the young women, and I was hoping to make new friendships in this new ward.  And probably one of the biggest reasons I said "yes" is because I rarely, if ever, say "no".  And to think about going with my own girls so that we could have the girls' camp experience we were never given in State College?  Yeah, of course I went.

I was hoping that my expertise from attending camp the last few years would be appreciated and used, but instead nobody ever took me up on any of my offers for help, so the girls and I sat back and just waited to be told what to do about seven days before camp began.  We went in having some pretty pessimistic (yet realistic) views of how camp was going to be, judging it all by the lack of planning we saw before camp even began.  We were told by the YW president that she wanted Glo to play the guitar while teaching the girls camp songs...but the camp director wasn't told this and wasn't sure she wanted it at all.  Hannah was given an assignment to teach some string art, and all of the materials were dropped off at our house, but there was no actual direction.  And I was told I was to be a "pod mom" and to stick with the girls through all activities and go everywhere with them, but I was the only mom who ended up doing this with their girls.

The camp site was nothing.  Like, literally nothing but a field and two outhouses.  Having gone to camp for the previous years with lodges and individual campsites and rivers and pavilions, I could hardly believe it.  In fact, I discovered it was so sparse as Glo and I looked at it on Google maps a couple of days before camp.  When I texted the director and asked her where the showers were, she replied, "Oh, there aren't any.  I was just going to put my hair under the pump spigot in the morning, and wash with baby wipes."  Uh yeah, does she know her audience??  Some of the girls would choose to walk 20 minutes away to an actual bathroom rather than use the outhouses.

And the food.  Nachos for dinner?  Seriously?  The first night, Hannah and I were so hungry that while we drove to the showers to...take a shower....we took a quick detour into town to get cheesesteaks.  Hadn't we had any dinner, you might ask.  No.  We were supposed to have Dutch Oven meals, made with chicken, onions, parsnips, potatoes and carrots, but what a nightmare even trying to prepare them.  She had brought one peeler (for three pots), one knife, and we had to bring water to fill the pot from the pump spigot in our water bottles.  We were supposed to eat at 6:00, but by 7:30, she had one half-cooked pot...and when asked if the girls wanted seconds, one of the girls asked, "Is it the same thing as before?" and when told "yes" said, "that's okay."  Yeah, none of us wanted that nasty water soup with crunchy potatoes.  Cookies and chips and Capri Suns were the main food fare which, don't get me wrong, I can eat as well as any 8-year-old, but they certainly don't sustain campers who have been going all day in the hot sun.

And speaking of "going", we never stopped.  She had activities lined up from the moment we were at line-up at 7:30 until it was lights out at 11:30.  The girls were exhausted.  But were they good, spiritual, rich, activities?  No.  They were busy work.

So what was the good in all of it?  

I loved being with my girls, and I loved seeing them be leaders.  Glo especially was all about reaching out to the girls, getting to know them and taking every opportunity to teach them.  Glo was amazing with her guitar as well and didn't give the girls an option about singing--she just started playing, and they couldn't help themselves.

Our "pod" wasn't too bad.  When we were trying to come up with a name, I asked them what things they associated with "pod"s.  They came up with dolphins and aliens.  So they called themselves "The Dolph-Alien Queens".  Yeah, okay.  Glo did a bang-up job though designing their flag--when one of them thought they could draw something, I actually told them that Glo could.  Probably the one moment I put my foot down ;-)

I loved the few activities I was in charge of.  I led the getting-to-know-you game of white elephant, and man, it was fun hearing the girls share a little bit about themselves.  And as much as I don't like "skit in a bag", the girls came through and produced some really great spiritual skits that weren't goofy at all.

Too, I've been working so hard on improving myself and my way of thinking over the past few months, and camping with people I don't know gave me all kinds of opportunities to stretch those new self-confidence muscles.  I walked away not feeling like a loser, but instead feeling like I'm gaining some control over my life and my feelings for the first time in my life.

I loved testimony meeting with the girls.  It was fulfilling to me to hear so many girls share their thoughts about Glo and the influence she had had on them in such a short time--it fulfills so many promises made in her patriarchal blessing. She taught them to build fires (having made them fire building kits, complete with Spark Lites from the Kendalls), and she sang with them, and she made bead bracelets with them, and she taught them things she loves from the scriptures. In fact, they gave her an award the next day, making her an honorary Northville young woman <3. 

No matter what pod was in charge of fire building, they asked Glo to help.  And she loved doing it.

Scripture doodling.  The ward seminary teacher actually called Glo afterwards to ask her about this great idea.  It was beautiful to hear Glo bear testimony about the specific scriptures while coloring.

Teaching the girls how to build fires.  You'll notice the dutch oven in the background with those measly charcoals on top. Yeah, I wonder why it wasn't ready for four hours....

Good old Nelson.  Camp wouldn't have been the same without him...and Glo's expertise.

I loved hearing the girls also express the fact that they hadn't had much time to be spiritual during camp because it had been so busy and that they had found their own time to study their scriptures and feel the spirit.  When I hear that, I know they'll be okay once they leave home.

I was happy to get to know some of the women better.  Granted, I stuck with my pod religiously so I was never with the women, gabbing about life and their children and such, but the YW president is from AA stake so she and I had plenty to talk about in those spare moments.

And I loved that it didn't rain.  And it wasn't beastly hot.

But one last thing.  I hated the t-shirt.  I hated the design from the beginning.  I mean, crossed eyes and pigeon toes? What kind of girls does she think these are? Yep, the camp director didn't take me up on my suggestion to let Glo design it, but instead designed it from some clip-art book which she got back in the 80s...which is basically where she got ALL of her ideas and songs for camp. No joke, I walked in the house and threw it in the garbage.