10 Hours and Counting

Summer Camp is very close to winding down...atleast for 2009. Summer Camp is actually a year-round duty...creating registration packets, marketing, activity curricula, etc, etc all takes a long time...

Takeoff 4-Health, easily our most intensive specialty camp is akways a year-round product...recruiting top-tier medical personnel, creating new programs and meal plans, and praying for good weather will begin next week. The Eastern 4-H Center's partnership with East Carolina University/Brody School of Medicine/Pediatric Healthy Weight Clinic is very special. Here's why...

Everyone involved likes one another...that is a big deal. There is a huge deal of extremely smart people sharing lots of information to make a difference in the lives of children. The program addresses a major need... checkout this video which does a good job of meeting some of our terrific campers CLICK HERE (once you click here you may need to click on the little camcorder icon).

Also - tonight is our annual staff banquet...Generally these are fun - food, friendships, and fotographs sum up the night. I am forced to come up with corny/nostlgic/poignant words to describe the summer. I have found the measure to be especially difficult this year. While this year's staff has been greaat, the one thing that makes this a daunting task is determining the amount of relevant success - was this summer good compared to others.

This is what goes into the thought process:
Did I like the staff (Yes)
How experienced was the staff with the Eastern 4-H Center (very little)
Did children have fun (agreed last night that children probably had the most fun ever)
Was there any staff drama (There always is - this more than two previous years)
Did summer staff members leave happy (I don't know yet)

Another thing that makes this summer a little different - my grandmother passed away...it weighted on me a good deal.

Basically, the point is that I hired a virtually brand new staff to run the most diverse camp program in the country for a record setting 11.5 weeks. I set high expectations, too high in fact, but they were met (or nearly) in every week. They achieved this success by helping campers build relationships at an alarming rate, band-aided every camper, and let some of the most fun talent shows, dances, and international night programs ever seen by this short man.

Nevertheless, I realized (or beginning to realize) several things this summer:
(1) High expectations can be met, but average expectations can be surpassed.
(2) Our program is good...in fact, it is very good - and very safe and accountable.
(3) The Eastern 4-H Center is evolving...and while we constantly search for a tradition that other camps pride themselves on, maybe our tradition is delivering the most responsible camp program in America...a program that serves all sectors of society and employs staff from a wide variety of backgrounds.
(4) We are competition for the "big boys" of camp in our state.

This was my arrogant, end of the summer blog about how great this place has become...and while we are very great, I hope that there are other camps spread across America that can offer children the same experience that we do...like my dad always says " We may not be in a class by ourselves, but don't take long to call the roll."

Enjoy the day...