How was camp? That’s
the question I get asked that I’m supposed to be able to answer in a few short
sentences. Impossible! Camp was…amazing, exhausting, frustrating,
funny, entertaining, heartbreaking, life-changing…should I keep going? There’s really no way to describe the week,
but I’ll try to share a few stories just to give you a glimpse. For those of you who need some catching up
(Camp? What camp?), Brian and I spent the week volunteering at a camp called
Royal Family Kids, which brings kids from the foster care system to camp for a
week. Some of the kids are currently
living with foster families; others are with parents or relatives, but are
under watch by the state. Many of the
kids have suffered emotional, physical, or sexual abuse. Many have multiple diagnoses: ADHD, OCD, FAS,
and a whole bunch of other things I’d never heard of before. It’s a tough bunch.
Because of the sensitive situation of many of the kids, we
have a lot of special rules at our camp.
The most important rule is the two deep rule: No adult is ever alone
with a kid. For 24 kids, we had 31
adults…and we still felt short staffed sometimes! One of our first challenges was with D, a
super sweet six year old with a laundry list of diagnoses and a wild
imagination. It didn’t take us long to
figure out that we would need a new plan for D—he couldn’t handle being with
the large group for many of the activities because it was just too much
stimulation. Those of us on the core
team spent about an hour that night (at 11pm!) planning out a schedule so that
we could have two people with him at all times during the week. D ended up having an amazing camp
experience. On the first day, Brian got
him playing in a huge pile of leaves and on the second day, Brian even got him
out in a canoe! Nearly every staff
member has a funny D story from the week.
Mine involves almost getting milked.
“You’re a mama cow and I’m a baby cow and I want to drink milk.” Ummm…how about a drink of water from this
water bottle instead?!
Another challenging kid was DB. He was one of our oldest campers and was a
pretty tough guy. He wanted nothing to
do with any of the singing or Bible stories.
He also liked to provoke some of the other kids. DB had actually been to a different Royal
Family Camp in a previous year and wasn’t allowed to come back. I’m so glad he came to our camp! On Wednesday night, we had a super hero party
for the boys (and a tea party for the girls).
I watched as DB’s eyes lit up when I pulled an Incredible Hulk costume
out of a box. He couldn’t get that thing
on fast enough! Our tough little bully
spent the next hour running around the gym in a costume like a little boy. At the birthday party the next night, he had
the costume on again…this time with a tutu over it!
The tea party was a special event for the girls. They dressed up in beautiful dresses that
were donated and had their hair and make up done. Then Grandpa Warren (our camp grandpa) escorted
each one individually into the tea party, while the fairy godmother introduced
them and slowly read off special things their counselors had written about each
girl. All twelve of the little girls
looked and felt like princesses!
In Royal Family Kids circles, people talk about your SOTO
(story of the one), the story that really sticks with you. My SOTO involved sweet, quiet J. J was the last addition to our camp; we
actually added her the day before camp because someone else had to drop
out. We knew next to nothing about J
before camp and after registration it was clear why: her mom couldn’t wait to
get rid of her for the week. Mom left
the church without even saying goodbye to J.
On the first night of camp, J told her counselor that she liked to waltz
and had taught herself by watching movies.
I knew it was a perfect match when I found out that her counselor had
been a ballroom dance instructor. J’s
home situation was rough. At nine, she
was in charge of changing the diapers of her four year old autistic
brother. Her family was about to be
evicted for hygiene reasons and J said that she had worked hard to try to keep
the house clean, but everyone else kept messing it up. On the first night of camp, J was very concerned
about our photographer and wanted to know if anyone would be taking pictures at
night. Her counselor explained that we
have only one official photographer taking pictures (most staff aren’t even
allowed to carry cell phones during the day so there’s no chance of phone
photos). She told her counselor that she
asked because sometimes someone comes in at night at home and takes pictures of
her. Ugh. Seriously, we just wanted to take this one home
with us! On the last day, I was taking
down some decorations and I asked her if she would like to take a string of
them home with her to decorate near her bed.
She thought about it and then said, “yes, but I’ll decorate the couch
because I don’t have a bed anymore.”
Before camp, neither of us was sure what kind of difference
a week could make. Now that I’ve been
through a week, I can tell you that I saw kids change. They let their guards down. They played.
They let go of some of the burdens they were carrying at the beginning
of the week. They built relationships
with safe adults who loved them and treated them with dignity and respect. They tried new things. They sang and they danced without a care in
the world. They heard about how much God
loves them.
I have no idea what the immediate future holds for these
kids or whether this week at camp will change their lives forever, but I do
know that it made an impact. All of the
kids we had this year will have the opportunity to come back again next
year. I hope that they do. God willing, Brian and I will be back again,
too. If you’d like to learn more about
Royal Family Kids Camp or want to support our camp financially, by
volunteering, or through another type of donation, please let me know and I
will get you more information.
