Saturday, June 25, 2016

Day Five: Our Final Day-Camp 2016



Our last day of camp has come so quickly. It seems like moments ago that our little campers were exiting the bus and looking around for their counselor to begin our adventure. The morning was spent reviewing the songs for the Welcome Home dinner, wrapping up our Moses story, and making final preparations for our journey home. The team considered it a honor to be able to be a part of the camp and happy for the opportunity to work with the campers.

 

Each year the camp has a special drama aimed at helping campers understand new life lessons.






This year's drama was based on Olympic team members, who each have issues in terms of being self-centered, negative, and lacking teamwork. A coach comes on the scene that helps the team learn to work positively together. Ultimately the drama taught us that there is a coach, Jesus, who can lead us through life, teaching us how to love one another and work together for the greater good. 

The RFK Boise team has new team leaders, Bill and Wendy.  We appreciate their leadership and direction during this year's camp.





They did a great job.  Time to start getting ready for camp 2017.


Friday, June 24, 2016

Day Four: So, How is the Water?




Counselors and Staff Lining Up for the Polar Bear Swim

Cheering on the Polar Bear and Penguin Swimmers 



Day Four began with the traditional Polar Bear

Swim.  The objective of the event is that the participant swims from the far dock of the waterfront to the beach, shortly after the sun rises. This swim is not for the faint of heart, but if the swimmer succeeds, they are awarded the title of Polar Bear.   If the campers and counselors cannot bring themselves to dive into the icy water, they do have the option of wading into the water, knee deep. Those who accomplish this feat are given the title of Penguin. The final option is to offer strong encouragement from the sidelines.  We want to offer our congratulations to those who ventured into the water and earned the Polar Bear or Penguin titles. 




If swimming in ice cold water is not in the cards for our campers, they have other options to earn distinction. The archery course has been a popular activity at camp for several years.  Campers are carefully instructed on safety and protocol and then offered the chance to hit the bull's eye on the target. With practice many campers have gone from being unclear as to how to pick up and handle a bow and arrow to consistently hitting the mark.  Those camper who do get the bull's eye get a picture with the target and arrow to place in their memory books.




Spiderman Rides the Zipline 
Another popular activity that requires some courage is the zip line. You can see a variety of superheroes, princesses, and military personnel flying down the line, with a few aerial stunts thrown in for good measure.











Graduation ceremonies also takes place on Day Four. The camp is designed to serve campers who are under the age of twelve. Graduates are those who will reach their twelfth birthday before the next camp starts.  Our 2016 ceremony was held tonight.  Saying goodbye to the graduates can be an emotional time for both the campers and their counselors. Our hope and prayer is that our time with these campers brought them a bit of joy and some fun while they were with us.  





Thursday, June 23, 2016

Day Three: RFK Definitely Has Talent

     Woodworking Paint Tent                 
It's amazing how much fun you can pack into one day. Camp offers a lot of activities that are sure to strike a chord with our campers. While in the Activity Center, they can choose to build toys from wood and give the a good coat of paint to give them a polished look, The paint isn't limited to just the wood products.  Ceramics and faces are fair game for a coat of paint as well.  Bead Centers, where things like gecko key rings are made, can

provide another artistic outlet and if none of those activities fit the bill fishing is available.
This looks like a good point to give an update on the Fishing Derby. What was an informal derby has become a formal derby now. The camp staff is working on creating fishing medals to be awarded for the biggest fish and most fish caught.  The campers fish tally as of today is 100 plus.  We're not sure how many the Osprey have caught since their last run at the fishing pond, but we're pretty sure it's more than the four we saw caught earlier in the week.





Our Crossing Guards Have Flair

Sometimes we need the  help of our Crossing Guards to reach some of our events. We think it's a nice touch that this Crossing Guard has included one of the world's largest flowers as a part of the overall traffic management scheme.  


When not at the Activity Center, campers can spend time at the waterfront. Today was a perfect day to go sailing and some of our campers did just that, There's definitely something peaceful about gliding along the water with just the wind to power the boat over the waves. 
Sailing at Camp


At RFK, we like to celebrate our campers' Birthdays with them regardless of when their Birthday really  is. With that in mind, an afternoon is set aside to have a Birthday Party. Several Gifts are selected for each camper, placed in  a single large box and wrapped in brightly colored paper.  The campers' birth dates are called out for each camper as they collect their gift box and then the camp sings the "Happy Birthday" song to them to kick off the gift opening frenzy. This is one of the highlights of the camp for our campers.







Birthday Party - Presents Waiting to be Opened


Another highlight for the campers is our RFK's Got Talent show.  This show gives the campers the opportunity to share their talents in a non-judgmental atmosphere.  Some of the talents are pretty mainstream, such as singing, dancing, and puppet shows, while other can be more unconventional such as a tad pole touching demonstration.  This year's participants had fun and had the experience of getting up in front of an audience and performing, which is good skill to have.

Ping Pong Ball Juggling



Mind Meld Ear Wiggling


Puppet Show





So ended our Day Three for this year's camp.  Looking forward to another fun filled day tomorrow.





Wednesday, June 22, 2016

Day Two: Let the Games Begin


The unofficial Fishing Derby continued today and the fish were still biting in the camp fishing hole. Several of the campers spent time trying to reel in the big one that would put them on top in terms of the biggest fish caught. There hasn't been a fish count or measurement taken  yet, but campers have high hopes that theirs will be counted among the top in terms of size and number of fish. We're trying to determine if the four fish the Osprey caught are or are not  a part of our total fish caught count.


Fishing at the Pond

 






The Olympic Torch Post Lighting
Ceremony 


Today marks the opening of our RFK Olympic games. The festivities started with the lighting of the torch. Graduating campers where given the honor of running the grounds and passing the torch from camper to camper until the  the final "stadium" torch was lit. To be clear, no fire was used in the ceremony and everything was simulated, but you must admit the stadium torch (pictured left) looks pretty close to the real thing.

Campers headed to the events and matched their athletic abilities to the challenges of the games. The air was filled with excitement and Olympic anthems as the athletes gave it their all.    Scores we're given to each team and team member to determine the winners of the  bronze, silver and gold medals.




 

The games were capped off with a medals ceremony where campers received their bronze, silver or gold medals.  Each camper approached the three tiered podium with a big smile on their face, pleased to be recognized for their accomplishments.

Noggin' Nudger's Course

Tic Tac Toe





All in all, it was another great day at camp.

Monday, June 20, 2016

Day One: Sand, Sun, and Kayak Fun







Every camp starts with a warm welcome for the campers when they arrive.  Signs with the campers' names are prepared in advance and waved in air to help campers and counselors connect quickly as the campers exit the bus. This is our first step in letting the campers know how happy we are that they are able to attend our camp.

Camp Staff Members Welcoming the Campers





Our campers are equally excited to attend camp. One of our returning campers said:
"[he was] so excited, I was twitching and my brother was so excited he couldn't stop jumping up and down - we had to hug each other to stand still."
This is what it's all about.

Camper Making Sandcastles 

Once the campers are settled in and have lunch, they head off to the activity center and the waterfront. There was a bit of excitement at the Activity Center today. One of the campers caught the first fish of our camp season and it was a big one, setting the mark high for those who want to participate in an informal fishing derby. The waterfront provided campers with the opportunity to swim, kayak with their counselor, or just hang out on the beach soaking up the sun while playing in the sand. Based on some of the sandcastles we saw today, I think there might be a future architects in our midst.



Counselor and Camper Heading Out in the Kayak 


Handing Out Quilts to the New Campers



Each new camper gets a hand made quilt to take home.  We repeatedly hear how much these quilts mean to our campers and are treasured possessions long after they've completed their camping experience with us. These quilts are made available to the camp through the generosity of the local chapter of the Linus Project. To learn more about this wonderful organization, click here

So ends the first day. Tomorrow brings more adventure and accomplishments. 

The Day Before


This year’s camp theme is based on the Olympics. We have created special events for our campers to demonstrated their athletic abilities.  Some of our events might not be as recognizable as those you may see on the television. While you might be familiar with the Olympic events such as the triathlon, high jump and volleyball, our events are a little more unknown such as Bucket Buster, Noggin’ Nudge and the Sack Relay Race, which in some instances doesn’t involve a sack at all but are more dependent on the athlete’s ability to do a G.I. Joe crawl… it’s complex.

Since these events are new for our camp, we decided we needed to do some trials runs to make sure everything will go as planned when our campers are ready to take them on.  It was determined that our counselors and staff were just the athletes to make the maiden voyage through the courses.  

The pictures below are just a sampling of the talents our staff and counselors have kept hidden up and to this point.


Bucket Busters 
















Tic Tac Toe Super-Sized

Just a few more hours until our campers arrive. There's excitement in the air and an anticipation of a great 2016 camp.
Sack Relay Race



Football Throw