It’s time to go to camp! Today is Girls Camp. Five leaders and 20 young women will load up their gear and head for the mountains. I love camp. I think it’s the best part of the best calling in the church. It’s true I may be certifiable, but I am definitely camp certified.
This is my umpteenth year of Girls Camp. Yes, I have been to camp so many times I have lost count.
And I’m still not tired of it. I don’t think I’ll ever be tired of going to camp. I may get tired of packing and I may really get tired of unpacking, but I’ll never be tired of spending a few days in the great outdoors with an amazing and diverse group of women and young women, learning and growing and enjoying God’s creations together.
We started out camp planning process around the beginning of the year. This year we have ward camp, so we are responsible for the whole shebang–start to finish. We researched some campgrounds, narrowed it down to two and ultimately ended up choosing the right camp for our young women.
We actually know it’s the right camp this year. Unquestionably. How do we know? Besides feeling strongly led to choose this camp, our other camp choice (the one we didn’t choose) is in the middle of Colorado’s second-largest wildfire ever. Yep. We made the right choice.
I am all packed and ready to go. Packing is so much more complicated when you’re a leader. Last month, we passed out the packing list for our young women. It looks like this. It includes the usual things: sleeping bag, pillow, clothes, shoes, flashlight, sunscreen, bug repellent, secret sister stuff, scriptures, mess kit–all the important things to survive four days in the semi-wilderness.
But I’m a leader, so I have this extra list. It looks like this. All the extra stuff leaders need to bring. And then there’s the food list. They say an army travels on its stomach. So, apparently, does girls camp.
Don’t be fooled. Teenage girls eat just like teenage boys: everything in sight and lots of it.
We went shopping yesterday and bought all the food. Two flats at Sams Club and more than a cartful at Walmart. I had to take out the seats of my van to fit it all in.
This is our food list for four days. And the girls will still bring snacks because even with all this food, they’ll still be hungry.
When camp is over, I always come home exhausted, ready for a long shower and an even longer nap.
I’ve decided it’s not camp that makes me tired; it’s getting ready to go to camp.
If I could skip getting ready, I’d have boundless energy at camp. Well, maybe not quite boundless, but a lot more than I have by the time I’ve shopped and packed and gathered and reminded and sorted and organized and cleaned and loaded and driven 100 miles with a carload of enthusiastic and vocal young women.
But that’s ok. Because that’s part of camp, too, and I wouldn’t trade it for anything.
How about you?
Having never really gone to girls camp as a youth, 6 years ago I would have told you you were crazy. Then I got called into the YW Presidency a few months before our ward girls camp. Now I completely agree with you. I went the next 3 years (the last of which was in August in Houston, Texas and I was 7 months pregnant!) I loved it. It is an invaluable opportunity to make those connections with the girls. As a mom of 4 boys I know my chances of going to girls camp again are not high, but I think it’s a great experience and encourage anyone given the chance to go.
You never know, Jennifer. Serving with the young women is not dependent on whether you have daughters. I just got back from another wonderful girls’ camp and I’m already looking forward to next year.