Ch 28

A camp story

It was my first night on by myself as an official resident counselor. My Warrior girls were crazy, they had more energy than any group of kids I'd ever met, and I loved them all already. AJ hadn't stopped singing since the minute she had walked into Mingo cabin two days ago. The endless refrains of, "We're going to the pool, it's gonna be fun, we're going to the pool, come on everyone!" were stuck in my head. We had just finished a night swim at the pool but these girls were not ready to wind down for the night yet. "Girls, I think we should go serenading. What do you think?" I asked. All ten of them started screaming and shouting song suggestions. We needed to get organized.

Serenading is a nightly tradition in Lake Village where all the older campers live. Boy cabins go sing to the girls, usually with guitar accompaniment. Girl cabins sing to the boys with some group choreography.

My friend Sarah Scott was on tonight too so I took my girls across the village to Omaha cabin so we could all sing together. Sarah's girls were equally thrilled about the chance to serenade. We stood outside their cabin making decisions about what songs to sing.

"We have to do 'You are my sunshine, my only sunshine'" Haley convinced us. Everyone knew the words so it made the list quickly.

"What about the new High School Musical song? I know the dance!" AJ told us before breaking out, "We're soaring! We're flying! There's not a star in heaven that we can't touch," complete with moves. This girl was made for show choir. More girls from both our cabins jumped in, they had been studying their Disney Channel, "If we're trying, so we're breaking free."

"Great," Sarah told them, "but we need a slow one to finish." I remembered a song that we had done in Teton cabin serenades last summer. "I know, we should sing the Savage Garden song we changed the lyrics to, remember Sarah?" Together we sang it for the girls until they learned the words to our camp version of the song, "I want to stand with you on the Lookout, I want to swim with you in the lake, I want to play 4-square forever, until we go home on Saturday." It was the perfect combination of cheesy and romantic for this group of girls.

We ran through the three musical numbers and figured out our formation before heading to the Warrior boy cabins. Sarah and I knocked on the cabin doors of Erie and Lakota. The boys came out to the porch for the serenade, the girls were lined up in the grass in front of the cabin. We gave a nod to signal the girls to start singing. They sang loud and confidently, feeding off of each other's energy. Every girl was smiling  and doing all of the motions. When they finished we erupted in applause. Sarah and I were so proud of them. We ran next door to Crow and Cayuga cabins, eager to sing again. They were louder this time and as Sarah and I watched from the side we kept saying to each other, "They are SO good."

There were only four Warrior cabins but we wanted to keep going. "Let's go sing to the Pathfinder boys," Jackie suggested and she took off for Buffalo Lodge. We all followed her, running across the village to where the oldest boys lived. Sarah and I went up and down the porch knocking on Arapaho, Cheyenne, Sioux, and Comanche's cabin doors. Forty fifteen-year-old boys came out on the porch to watch our girls. They weren't intimidated. "This is so fun," they said when we finished.

"You guys," I paused until I was sure I had their attention, "Let's serenade everyone in camp. It'll be the biggest serenade ever." The girls all yelled their support, "Yeah... Let's do it... This is epic." Next stop, River Village. Sarah and I led our choir of twelve-year-olds through the forest until we emerged in Main Field.

A group of Brave Boys was playing soccer. We asked them to pause their game so we could sing for them. Right behind the soccer field is the Nightingale Health Center where we performed for two of the nurses. Next we hiked back to Oneida and the Doghouse, the farthest out cabins, and found the boys playing tether ball, jumping off of picnic tables, and running around screaming--all normal activities for twelve-year-old boys. Their counselors gathered them together and the Omaha-Mingo singers performed again. We had gotten the easiest groups in camp- who could we sing to next?

We walked along the main loop looking for more people. "The Kiva!" yelled Sarah Scott and we followed her up to the building where the girls that run the Trading Post live. We knocked on their door and they were so excited to have serenading visitors. Just down the road we found the CILTs hanging out on their porch. They gave us a huge round of applause after the last song.

"You know girls, if we really want to get everyone we'll have to sing to the Day Camp counselors too, they're staying up at the TLC for their staff training. It's far on the other end of camp--do you want to do it?" Sarah and I asked. We could have predicted the girls' response-- a unanimous "YES!" It was getting dark now but back up the lake hill, down the road through the woods, and across Lake Village we hiked. We stopped in Scheumann Lodge for a drink of water. Kyle, one of the summer directors, was in the fellowship room doing check-in for counselors coming back from their nights off. It was another audience and the girls eagerly took the chance to sing again.

We took the tiny trail past the Suspension Bridge and approached the big Leadership Center building. Our campers had never even been to this part of camp before. It wasn't hard to find the Day Camp staff. A group of counselors was sitting outside the front of the building talking. They were surprised to see us show up and our girls explained how we had been everywhere all over camp tonight. The counselors said they would love to hear the serenade. We were all tired the girls put on their show choir smiles and sang again. At this point, I think they could have done it in their sleep. The counselors applauded before we left. Our mission accomplished, we headed back to our cabins, finally ready for bed.

I love when we funnel campers' crazy energy into an adventure like we had that night. We could have stopped after serenading two cabins but instead our spontaneity resulted in a journey that sticks out from all the rest. And just so you know, AJ and Haley ended up joining an award-winning show choir later in life.