I need to finish this up. It’s starting to hold up some other things I’d like to lay out here. Saturday was the main event day of Camp S.O.A.R. Oh, and by the way, S.O.A.R. stands for Some Organ Assembly Required. I just wanted to let you know that so I could quite typing it out with the periods and all. I’d told CiCi that I’d make this one short and not go into great detail, she seemed surprised since Saturday was the bulk of experience, both in physical exertion and bonding with the kids. I’ve been wrestling with the decision to wrap it up in a truncated fashion or to let it all spill out and bore all of you with the details. Unfortunately, so much time has passed that I’m starting to forget, so I’m going to forge ahead and just see how the thing takes shape.
The day would start quickly and, really, never let up until about midnight. Breakfast was a hearty affair with biscuits and gravy, scrambled eggs and an offering of cereals, OJ, and fresh fruit. Unfortunately we arrived a bit late and had to sate ourselves without the fruits. I desired coffee, but it seemed that there was none to be found until my boy Heath procured some from the depth’s of the kitchen. Everything is better after a cup of hot black java.
The theme for the day’s activities was “Wacky Olympics” and all of the cabins were divided up into four teams. My team ended up with D-$, from my own cabin, Samantha (who would end up leaving early due to de-hydration), Alan (who was about as spastic as you can get), Dulce, Stephanie, and Jordan (aka Scooby). The counselors assigned to the team were me, Drayden, Denise, and Jamie. We were designated as Team #1 and our first event was archery, so as we made our way to the firing range we pressured Alan into coming up with our team name. Momentarily daunted by this assigned task, he quickly rallied to come up with The Pirates. There was brief discussion about adding either Ninja or Monkey as a prefix to Pirates, but these were all shot down in favor of a purer representation.
Archery went well, all the kids participated, even Daniel (D-Money) who would constantly moan and groan about his back. D$ even managed the top score, not bad for a bad back. Drayden was our main motivator and seemed to take on the onerous task of riding herd over Alan. I’m not sure what transplant Alan had received, but the boy obviously had additional, behavioral issues…underneath he was a great kid, but he was a challenge to handle. Drayden, being about seven foot, seemed up to it. Even though the counselors’ scores didn’t count in the competition, we still got to shoot. I managed some descent shots and we motivated Denise by telling her to pretend that the target was her ex-boyfriend and they she just caught him cheating on her with another woman. Samantha threw in the added motivation that the bitch is white. Denise, who is black, then got gangsta with her bow and arrow, cocking it sideways. I couldn’t help but think that’s how the homies down in the hood wield their bow and arrows.
After the first event we were all assembled to a couple of events. The first was called “Will it Break?” and the idea was to craft an apparatus from various materials that would prevent an egg from shattering when dropped about 30 feet. I’d like to say this was an interesting exercise, but I think they over provided the groups with materials, because in the end, all of the eggs survived. Sure, it was a moral booster for the kids, and I’m sure that’s what counts most, but it seems like it should have been more of a challenge. The second event was made up of several little events and this was labeled as “Wacky Olympics”. The “Olympics” were made up of wacky events, six to be precise, and thus did the Olympics become wacky. It involved things like a water balloon toss, which Alan and I would stay in until almost the end, and Cici would take a brutal drenching, literally head-to-toe…and I didn’t think there was that much water in the balloon. There was a 3-legged race, and a relay that involved things like carrying a ping pong ball on a spoon, running with a volley ball between your legs, skipping and hopping (I have pictures of Cici hopping). There was a “javelin” throw, but instead of spears we used pool noodles. You get the idea. Lunch was thrown in here somewhere, I forget the chronological order, but you should know that it involved “tacos”.
Our first activity after all that rigmarole was “Arts & Crafts”. We made a bird feeder. We pasted bits of paper on a Styrofoam saucer and then ran some twine through holes. We were also supposed to make a hanging dangly thing with beads, but most of us ran out of time. My hanging dangly thing with beads kit is still in its bag on my kitchen counter. The main attraction of this event was that we got to take a break and rest for about 40 minutes.
After that we got to the big event, the one I’d been most curious about and the one most ballyhooed by the Camp SOAR organizers at the counselor meeting. The “ropes” course. Imagine a large wooden construct, like a jungle gym, only 30 feet in the air. There were a couple of rock climbing walls, a vertical “hard” one, and an inclined “easy” one. There was a zip line for easy and quick descent. There were also poles set out about fifty feet away from the main structure. In between the poles there were various means of crossing the gaps, between poles 1 and 2 there was a sort of plank bridge. In between pole 2 and 3 there was a pole laid horizontally and between pole 3 and the tower there was a cable. Now the cable had ropes dangling about four or five feet apart, so that you could steady yourself as you crossed. Most of the counselors and kids chose to either do the inclined rock wall or to sit it out. Drayden and I decided to do the pole crossings.
Thankfully Drayden went first, so that when I climbed up the pole using the little metal hand holds, I could feel like I’d already seen how it was done. So there I was, on horizontal pole, thirty feet in the air. The pole was cylindrical in nature and gave you about a foot of space to walk. Both Drayden and I had asked if anyone ever crawled and the guide rope operator said that, yeah, some did, but most walked across…even the three and four year olds. So dignity mandated that we both walk across and we both did. The horizontal pole was easy peasy and I was feeling pretty sure of myself as I reached the cable portion between the pole 3 and the tower, what would be the next to last leg of my “ropes course” adventure. I boldly placed a foot onto the small cable bridge, felt my foot slide and then promptly retreated back to pole 3 and its comforting hand holds. I quickly tried to come up with a reasonable explanation as to why the guide rope operator had to let me down early, a reason that would allow me to save face. Alas none came. “Oh lord, what have I gotten myself into”, passed through my mind as I edged out onto the cable, grasping furiously to the dangling guide rope. The next few minutes I would repeat the process, edge myself slowly, gripping the rope furiously until I was close enough to grasp the next dangling rope. Did I mention that the wind was blowing pretty hard? Oh yes it was and it has a perverse sense of humor. Wind is sentient and it knew when I was just about to get that rope in my grasp because it would blow it away at the precise moment, just to watch me cry. To add to the fun, seven foot, 300+ pound Drayden went down the zip line as I was about 2/3’s of the way across. This means that everything shook. Violently.
As I collapsed on to the boards of the upper floor of the tower I suddenly realized that my hands hurt. A lot. The desperate gripping had made them very soar, but despite my trembling body and pain I felt like I had really accomplished something. My last stunt of the afternoon would include the zip line and this held no fear for me until I actually sat down on the edge of the tower and looked 30 feet down. They attach your harness to line and then you slip of the edge and zip down that line, where they then retrieve you with the aid of a platform ladder thing on wheels.
Our last activity before dinner was “Cooking”. We made pretzels and one of the professional camp personnel made us smoothies. Not much to say about this other than it was a very welcomed break from the previous physical rigors.
That was really the bulk of the experience, there would be a scavenger hunt after dinner and that was essentially an exercise in having us run from point to point taking pictures of various sorts and arrangement. There would be a party in the Recreation Barn (It’s a barn, for recreation!) and then a “camp fire” where we got to make schmores. The burnout and exhaustion were starting to hit us counselors pretty hard by this point and I know that I was on auto pilot for most of it. I know that as soon as we got back to cabin, my head hit that pillow and I was out.
Sunday was for wrapping things up and after a quick breakfast we had the presentation of awards for the winners of the previous days “Wacky Olympics” and we had a share time. Surprisingly, my team The Pirates won the competition, though by the time we accepted our “medals” and awards (blank CD’s festively decorated and a CD Case with CAMP SOAR glued on in beads) we had more counselors than kids. Two of our kids got sent home early, Sam for de-hydration (there was speculation that she was being a bit of a drama queen) and Alan for getting a little overly rambunctious at the Barn party the night before. He must have Recreated inappropriately in the Recreation Barn (It’s a barn, for recreation!) Jordan (aka Scooby) was present, but sacked out on the couch, so only Daniel (D-Money), Dulce (who had, the previous day) threatened physical violence if the scavenger hunt didn’t end quickly), and Stephanie (who spoke little English) got to accept their awards.
The share time was interesting in that I finally got the full impact of what these kids go through as far as living with their condition, their hopes and fears and day-to-day realities. It’s amazing, because they were for the most part a really great group of kids and I was sincerely impressed by them. Even Alan, who had been the “problem kid”, and D-Money, who we had to prod and push along into everything we did. They all had such great hearts…and livers and kidneys.
The bus ride back, as I mentioned a lot earlier, was indicative of what we were told would happen way back when we went to that counselor’s meeting a few weeks before Camp. As opposed to the segregation of campers and counselors on the ride to camp, the ride back had us more diversely arranged and there was a lot more talk and chit-chat amongst the kids and adults. I hadn’t really believed that I’d be able to bond with complete strangers, especially teenagers, over a weekend, despite being told this. But it was true, the little blighters really get into your system and even now I kind of miss them and my fellow counselors. It’s easy to say that this was one of the most wonderful, fascinating and fulfilling events I’ve ever taken part of, even now. It really changed how I feel about a lot of things in my own life and while I’m hesitant to say I’ll do it again next year, all things being the same, I imagine I will. I know Cici was afraid that she’d drug me into the whole thing, but whatever the reasons I decided to do it…I’m so very glad that I did, especially since I got to experience it with her.