Our First Night Home Away From Home

It is that time of year again. The time when youth get excited to leave mom and dad, and let's face it mom and dad get a little camp sick. That's right today is the first day of our 4-H week long overnight camping adventure at Betsy Jeff Penn (BJP) 4-H Educational Center in Reidsville, NC.

The day started early for our families and volunteers. 8:30 am we opened the doors for registration and the they came flooding in. We got everyone registered, paperwork finished, medicines collected and then sat down for camp talk. While parents waited they viewed a PowerPoint presentation that we made to introduce families to the camp experience. Then we introduced the staff that helped check them in and the wonderful volunteers and Leaders in Training (L.I.T.s) that were going with us. After a few brief questions and letting all our youth know there were no T.V.s or video games for the next week (which did cause some commotion), we boarded the buses and headed west.

Our first stop was the Richmond County Cooperative Extension office to pick up a few more campers. Next stop was lunch in Asheboro at Golden Corral. Everyone had a chance to eat what they wanted and we even got several compliments on how well behaved they were. After filling our stomachs we climbed aboard the buses and headed the last hour to camp.

When we arrived we unloaded our things. We checked in with the summer camp staff and got our cabin assignments. The girls are in cabins 1-4 based on age. The boys are in cabins 5-8, also determined by age. The younger youth are in the Head, Heart, Hands and Health groups and as they get older move into the Sun and Earth groups with our oldest campers moving into the Adventurer and Trekker groups. This will be important during the week as we talk about what each group is doing.

After playing some team working games with our new found cabin mates it was time for dinner. Fortunately a storm was moving through which dropped a little rain but dropped the temperature even more drastically. However it did ruin our cookout, so the staff turned it into a cook in. Campers could have hot dogs with all the trimmings, baked beans, potato chips, watermelon and some very fine cookies (their choice of chocolate chip or sugar). Instead of eating outside on the ball field we ate in the recreation hall. No one seemed to mind as they were all still with their new found friends.

After dinner it was time for introductions. The camp staff introduced themselves and gave us insight into their personalities by telling us what animal would be their spiritual guide and why and an interesting fact about themselves. This also included our L.I.T.s, Chris, Cory, and Santiago. After that it was time for a little heritage dance, sort of like a square dance which our youth had a ball doing. Of course the first night of camp has to conclude with a campfire.

We did have a special celebration tonight. James Hunt who is in the Earth group celebrated a birthday today. As is tradition at BJP we had a special treat for him to share with his cabin mates and counselors. A small cup of ice cream can go a long way on a hot night and our youth seemed to enjoy this cool break. After all that fun, excitement, and shear exhaustion all of the campers made it back to their cabins, showered and laid their heads on their pillows ready to dream about what was coming tomorrow.