Royal Family Kids' Camp 2015 - Moments Matter

“Sometimes you will never know the value of a moment until it becomes a memory.” –Dr. Seuss

I'm sure I have written about it before on this blog, but I volunteer with a camp called Royal Family Kids' Camp every year. It’s a weeklong camp that is for abused and neglected kids, and kids that have social services involved in their lives. Basically the goal of the camp is to just have fun and make moments with the kids.

This year, the whole “moments” thing really hit me hard because I was just reminded how little things matter even if it doesn’t seem like it at the time. So one night I was having difficulty sleeping so I pulled out my phone and started writing down camp moments from throughout the week.

Here is a list of moments I’ve compiled from camp this year.

Camp is the place where…

§  Movies are watched outside at night.

§  You walk across stones in stocking feet because your camper’s shoes accidentally got moved and we have to walk the whole way across camp to the pool.

§  You initial every item that comes into the cabin with a sharpie so you know whose it is at packing up time (and to avoid fighting)

§  You shower at the pool showers because you don’t want to give up sleep or get wet twice, plus you don’t have to worry about your kids barging in on you.

§  Behavior management and finding humor in the theatrics can turn possible explosions into 5 minute pouts

§  You multitask constantly

§  You constantly count kids to make sure all of your cabin is accounted for.

§  You rip worms in half, bait hooks, take fish off hooks, and release them

§  You “highly encourage” little boys to get off the playground for chapel by saying “First one to touch my hand wins” and then running into the chapel where they follow you, tag your hand, and sit down.

§  You bandage scrapes

§  You sing silly songs and do all the motions.

§  You keep track of water bottles.

§  You rub heads and give side hugs.

§  You go down water slides and have water fights in the pool.

§  You see out of the corner of your eye that the most difficult children are watching what you are doing when they think you aren’t looking.

§  You have hilarious conversations with the other staff when on break as you tell stories about your day.

§  You braid hair.

§  You pick your battles, not even caring if your camper doesn’t shower every day. My philosophy is “They are in the pool every day, they are fine missing a shower or two.”

§  You dress up in old prom dresses for tea parties.

§  You row canoes and have the skill to settle meltdowns in the boat while out on the middle of the lake. “If you tip the boat, it’s you who are afraid of water, not me.”

§  You accept the smile, the slip of a little hand into yours as thanks that you will never get.

§  You take full advantage of rest time to sleep.

§  You hammer nails and build things out of scraps of wood.

§  You check for and pick lice.

§  You clean up throw up after your kid eats too much and tries to get out of chapel by puking. (It didn’t work.)

§  You play gaga ball and get sweaty first thing in the morning because it makes the little guys smile.

§  You give high fives and smiles constantly

§  You lead camp songs at the top of your lungs to occupy hayrides.

§  You break up fights – sometimes physical fights, sometimes verbal.

§  You keep track of name tags.

§  You get in the ice cold dunk tank so your cabin can dunk you. (Officially 54 degrees.)

§  You right notes for their photo albums Thursday night during break, because even though you meant to get them done earlier in the week, it just hasn’t gotten done.

§  You pretend to kiss fish.

§  You act in the drama and make kids laugh, but you also make kids mad when you are Queen Esther and they have a crush on the counselor who plays the King.

§  You dance with the little boy with the huge grin and the crooked teeth, the one who can never remember your name but always wants you to sit with him.

§  You laugh and you cry and you take breaks when you feel like you can’t possibly take anymore.

§  You deal with the difficult Thursday where the kids know they are going home the next day and the tears flow and the behavior worsens.

§  You grit your teeth and paste on a smile when you know that a kid’s going home to a bad situation, but there is no proof to report it.

§  You silently hug the girl beside you when she doesn’t want to greet her parents but just wants to stay with you.

§  You push out of your mind all the bad things that have happened to the kids in the past, and all the difficulties they are going home to, and you just build trust and teach them how to be a kid again.

§  You decorate the cabin with prom gowns and princess decorations to remind the girls they are royal.

§  You get creative in your ways of handling situations as all logic and reasoning goes out the door.

§  You chase a kid the whole way through camp and stop them from going out on the road as they scream “Just let me die”, as you hold them and repeat over and over how much you love them.

§  You listen to their stories as your heart slowly tears into pieces as they share just parts of what they have endured in their few years.

§  You whisper their name quietly as you wake them up in the morning so they don’t startle and yell like when you tapped their shoulder

§  You sit up in the middle of the night to make sure they don’t need comforted after yelling out in a nightmare.

Overall you realize that it truly is the moments that count. And most importantly, that it isn’t about you, but about the kids.

There are hundreds of more memories and moments other staff could share with you. But this is a sample.

Although camp is the most challenging week out of my year usually, it’s my favorite. And oh so worth it!