First week on the job and breaking loose in Baltimore

Hello again from sunny Camp Greentop!

A lot has happened since I last spoke to you so without further ado, here's what's been happening at camp over this past week or so.

Last saturday (14th June) signaled the start of our first session of the summer. As we waited for the campers to arrive I couldn't help feeling apprehensive. My prior experience with people with disabilities isn't too extensive so I didn't really know what to expect. However, once campers in the other cabins started to arrive and I saw how excited both them and my fellow staff members were to see each other, I couldn't wait to get started. Once the nerves were out of the way I think I really grew into my role as a program leader.

Our first session at camp was packed full of fun and games to keep us busy. Here's a rough timetable of a regular day at camp:

7:00AM- Wake up

7:30AM- Wake up, shower and brush the campers' teeth

8:15AM- Flag Pole. Everyone gathers around the flag pole outside the office and Camp Director Emily welcomes us to the day with a joke and weather news. Assistant Camp Director Mel then leads the camp chant which we sing while the flag is raised.

8:30AM- Breakfast. We are treated to a cooked breakfast which is then followed by morning announcements. As a program leader, every morning I have to preform a skit to demonstrate the activity we'll be running that day which is always great fun and I enjoy thinking of ideas for it.

9:45AM- Morning activities start. At the pool we will have two groups whereas other programs will receive three as preparing the campers to get in and out of the pool takes much longer. Things were a bit different for the first session as we didn't have access to a pool so we did land based activities instead such as Quidditch, Dances and Danish Longball.

12:30PM- Lunch time

After replenishing ourselves with what Mr Rick and his team of kitchen assistants have cooked up for us, there are yet further announcements including the results of the Silver bucket and Silver urinal-prizes given to the cleanest cabins in the Boy and Girl Units.

1:15PM- "Quality Time"-This is when we take the campers back to the cabin and they have a bit of a rest before the remainder of the afternoon. I use this time to either plan out pool sessions or do some exercise

3:00PM- Afternoon activities start- 2 groups of campers, same as the morning

5:15PM- Pool activities finish and then we clean up and evaluate how the day went

6:00PM- Dinner Time. Afterwards all of us program leaders give out awards to certain campers for their achievements in activities during the day. The results for the coveted "Bronze Belt Of Enthusiasm" are revealed and the winning cabin holds onto the belt for a day.

7:15PM- Evening Program. This will be some form of entertainment organised by Evening Program Leader Naki. Evening program tends to be events such as talent shows, dances or campfire. As a member of staff, if it is your night off (one per 7 day session) this is also the time that we will leave camp usually to go to the cinema or Westview shopping centre in the nearby town of Frederick, MD.

8:30PM- Bed time

9:00PM onwards- Free time/cabin duty. Each night we have to stay in the cabin for a 1 hour 30 minute period to look after the campers while they sleep but otherwise we are free to meet up, chat to our friends and access the internet (which is what I'm doing right now).

Overall I found the first session to be quite enjoyable. We had less campers to deal with due to US schools finishing later in the year because of poor winter weather meaning we had an easier group of campers and quickly got attached to them. In the Pool program our task was a little difficult as we didn't actually have a pool available to use (thank you very much US National Park Service) so instead we resulted to running land-based activities such as Quidditch, Danish Longball, Dance choreography and other games as mentioned above. The theme days for this session were Pirate Day and Monsters vs Aliens for the final banquet which were both fun to dress up in as well as the Welcome dance, Talent show, Camp Survivor, Rotary Day and Fashion show in Evening program. It was a great start to summer camp and I still have many fond memories of that week.

Full staff photo

Welcome dance

First day on the job: playing wet Quidditch!

Talent show- My cabin D2 dancing to 'Jump' by House Of Pain

Pirate games for Pirate Day

Running the dunk tank station for Rotary/Visit Day

Fashion show time!

Dancing to One Direction

Camp Survivor Day-Very messy!

The whole of D2 celebrating winning the Bronze Belt Of Enthusiasm

Monsters vs Aliens Banquet

Once we'd cleaned up and waved goodbye to all the campers it was swiftly onto making the most of our first two and a half day break. Destination: Baltimore. We left camp in mid-afternoon and arrived at our hotel a couple of hours later. It wasn't long until the partying started and what an enjoyable and crazy night it was. Unfortunately for me, it ended with a rather sour twist. I'd noticed a bit of pain in my leg when I woke up on Friday morning which I ignored throughout the day but by night time it became excrutiatingly painful and to cut a long story short-I ended up in hospital at 5:30AM on Saturday morning. It turned out I'd pulled a Quadricep muscle in my left leg and was told that I would be on crutches for a week. Understandably I was gutted by the news but at the same time I was relieved as if it were a tear then perhaps I would've left on a plane home by now.

My Saturday afternoon was rather non-eventful as I spent it sleeping in the hotel, recovering from my rather sleepless Friday night/Saturday morning meaning that I missed out on all the Baltimore sightseeing my friends were doing. In the evening however, I joined everybody for a meal at the Cheesecake Factory in Baltimore Harbour which was awesome. The food was amazing, especially the cheesecake, and the quality time with my friends was just what I needed after the events of the early morning. On Sunday we left Baltimore to return to camp, stopping at Towson shopping mall on the way back for a bit of retail therapy.

Baltimore

On my crutches outside the Cheesecake factory

I'm in heaven!

Leslie, me and Cody in Baltimore Harbour

Me with Chris and Rebecca

Chris ordered a 'Chris's Outrageous Cheesecake' for dessert, to be fair it was outrageously tasty 

One happy bunny

So that's where I'll leave you for now. I apologise if this post seems a little lacking in details as I really don't have the time at the moment to flesh out my writing but I hope I've been informative enough. I'll add photos to this at a later date as well so you won't be bored by my endless writing. In my next post expect to read all about 2nd session at camp anything that may happen on our upcoming break.

Stay classy, internet

FP

#FraserOnTour