Session 7 and a fond end of summer fairwell to Camp Greentop

It's true what they say you know. All good things must come to and end which is certainly the case with my summer at Camp Greentop. Here's everything you need to know about the 7th and final session of the summer.

I already kind of knew in advance that this session was going to be an emotional one. Running my final activities as Pool Program Leader, doing my final camp fire, performing my final skits knowing full well that it would all be over soon. However, my morale received a huge boost prior to the start of session 7 when I found out exactly which campers we would be having in D2. Conrad from session 6 was back, as was Jamie, Jeremy and Andreas (the latter two being two of my favourite campers) from session 1. We even had Jack, one of the WEAs, staying in our cabin. This was comforting to me and the rest of us in D2 as we'd all dealt with these campers before during the summer and for me personally due to the fact we had half of our Session 1 cabin present, I couldn't help reminiscing about how fresh, exciting and perfect that session was-even without a functioning pool!

Me and Andreas at the Welcome Dance

Me and Thomas from C2

Final Cabin Photo of the summer (from left to right as always)- Andreas, Me, Conrad, Marnix, Michael, Pedro, Jeremy and Snoopz

Much of the session went by swimmingly but my real personal highlight was Rock Star Day. This was our final mid-session theme day and all of us Program leaders wanted it to be epic. Instead of running our regular activities, we created a whole morning of activities related to the world of Rock and Roll in which I ran a crowd participation event with Evening Program leader Naki that involved lots of jumping up and down, dancing, head-banging and moshpitting to lots of great tunes. There was also instrument making, Rock Star make up, face painting and dress up and Band practice. Seeing as we were all organising this one big event, it only made sense that we all did one big skit in the morning to introduce it. There was lots of brainstorming before we came up with the idea to do a choreographed dance/lip sync/sing-a-long to Queen's classic 'Bohemian Rhapsody'. We performed it after breakfast (as usual) all dressed in our Rock star attire. We all dressed up like rockstars, for instance, Matt (Arts & Crafts) was Slash from Guns N' Roses, Louis (Performing Arts) was Elton John, Kate (Nature) was Kiki Dee, Naki (Evening program) was Freddy Mercury from Queen and us Pool guys were Nirvana (me as Kurt Cobain, naturally, Sam as Dave Grohl and Ben as Krist Novoselic). The Bohemian Rhapsody skit proved to be a real winner with campers and staff alike and is not just one of my favourite skits from the summer but one of the most enjoyable things I did all summer too. It's now on Youtube so if you want to see how incredible this skit actually was then follow the link here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pB2hCPXCaMA&list=UUvl7smKUqRI6I6F-0_RmPng

Naki and I running the Arena Antics activity for Rock Star Day

Best costume and guitar, fact

NIRVANA

After returning to regular activities in the afternoon, the Evening Program activity (which had yet another full Program Leader skit lip syncing to 'Sweet Child O' Mine' by Guns N' Roses) was a massive Karaoke Rock Concert on the Greentop which was a brilliant way to cap off the day. All the cabins had picked out outfits and the songs they were going to sing which meant I ended up joining with D2's rendition of 'We Will Rock You' by Queen. Overall it was an awesome day and I'm really proud of myself and the rest of the Program Leaders for organising it all. We did goooooood.

Karaoke Rock Concert, D2 doing 'We Will Rock You'

As far as skits went, the fun continued for us Program Leaders. The day after Rock Star Day we decided to switch them around so we were all doing different ones so I ended up doing Matt's Arts & Crafts skit dressed as him trying to excite people about the Sun Catchers they were going to be making that day. On the final day, we got our cabin leaders involved and Sam, Ben and I wanted to finish on a high so we came up with the idea of doing a spoof dance to 'Time of my life' from Dirty Dancing with our cabin leaders dressed as women! It was absolutely hilarious (if I do say so myself) and I managed to lift Snoopz perfectly in time to the song's chorus just like in the movie!

Me with the Silver Urinal, how on earth did I win an award for cleaning!?!? 

Disney Disaster evening program activity, dancing to some Disney tunes

Fun in the pool

To sum things up, it was a very enjoyable final session despite me missing the banquet (it was my night-off) and that D2 didn't managed to win another Bronze belt (although we did win the silver bucket twice in two days that session, me being responsible for one of them). The out-take day although not as emotional as I thought it would be, was still special as we said good bye to our campers for the final time. In particular, the four of us spent a long time chatting to Andreas' parents including some photos with arguably our favourite camper of the whole summer.

Circus Banquet- even though I had to leave after dinner, I still got Ben dressed up. In case you don't know, he's a Harlequin

me and Jack

photoshoot time with Andreas

Final out-take day. Me and Gabe, another WEA

me and Caleb

me, Anna, and Franklin

me and Jacob

me and Ryan

me and Jiho

me and Nate

me and Raymond

D2 picture with Andreas

me and Pedro with Jeremy

That was it, no more campers. The next two days were spent cleaning up the site, storing everything away and packing up our things but despite these rather boring tasks, the freedom of Orientation had returned and we were all enjoying our final hours together as a staff unit. We even found time at the end of the first day for a big game of football and staff swim-which rapidly turned into a big game of Water Polo (the counselors' favourite activity in the pool from the summer).

Once everything was cleaned up on the second day, it was time for everyone to put on their swankiest gear for the end of summer staff banquet. There was LOADS of food on offer of which most of it was crabs (a Maryland specialty) which lined the long tables. I did give them a try but with all the hammering and dissecting I decided it was a bit too much hassle to go to get little bits of meat. Once we were all too full to eat anymore, we all piled into the Rec Hall for a special slideshow of photos from throughout the summer compiled by Media Assistant Natalie before receiving some humorous awards and certificates from Camp Director Emily. My award was 'Most likely to be up all night on the laptops'- damn, guess this blogging business takes a while! After that, there were a few photo opportunities before a final camp fire for a reflections session. It was completely pitch black by this time, like no regular camp fire at camp, the flames of the fire providing the only light around. This proved to provide the perfect atmosphere whilst one-by-one each person stood up and gave out praise and thanks to various people who'd helped them out through the summer. It was a beautiful moment to see how much of an impression we'd made on each others lives in such a short period of time. What made things even nicer was that many of us stayed after reflections around the camp fire to talk and give personal thank yous. I'd been on the verge of tears for most of the reflections but once I started talking to people individually that's when the floodgates opened and I couldn't stop myself from crying. It was truly a special night and it really dawned on me what an incredible summer I've had and how much I would miss certain people once we all departed our separate ways in the morning.

D2 Picture in front of our cabin before the Staff Banquet

crabs, crabs everywhere...

got ourselves a ripper!

I drank A LOT of Mountain Dew

me and Garrett

me and Louis, tie and shirt look is always strong

me and Megan

caught in a Sarah sandwich!

me and Jolene

me and Joe

me and Nate

me and Matt

me and Raúl

me and Carla

me and Dmitro

me and Amy

me and Gabor

me and Kirsty

me and Alex

The Pool Boys

me and (Nature) Kate

Sam and Josh switched shirts!

me and Jess

me and Claudia

The next morning it was finally time to leave. Just like the previous night, there was a lot of pictures, emotions and tears however this time I managed to keep it together. With all the picture taking, people signing journals and t-shirts and the hugging, it very much felt like the last day of school. Once it got to 10AM we got in our vans/cars in the direction of the airports and other transport connection we needed for After Camp Travel which in my case saw me going to BWI Airport. But I'll tell you about all of that in my next post.

Final day goodbyes: me and Tarrah

Danny

Carlos

Paco and I getting the guns out!

Sean

Ali!

D-Unit

Mr Rick

Maxim

Pedro and I at BWI Airport just before my flight

So that was it. My summer at Camp Greentop: over. When it comes to describing a summer camp experience, the cliché of 'best summer ever' or 'time of my life' get bandied around a lot but honestly, I can't think of any other way to describe it. This summer I came to America for the first time ever, I learnt some new skills, I made close friendships and relationships with some of the best people I've ever met, I tried all kinds of new things, I made bold decisions, I learnt some harsh lessons, I made an absolute fool of myself at times. In short, I had an incredible time but I think what really made the experience as enjoyable and rewarding as it was was the fact I was working with people with disabilities really for the first time in my life. Providing them with the care, entertainment and friendship that I did gave me such an great altruistic feeling, knowing that I'd helped them have just as good a summer if not, a better one than the one I had and I really did learn so much from them as I went along. Yes, if certain things hadn't gone wrong the way they did in my professional, social, physical or private life over these past 3 months (some of which I haven't told you about for confidentiality/privacy reasons) I would've easily been able to tell you I had the perfect summer but such is life and overall, I really do think I've learned a lot and have most certainly changed and developed more over this summer than I have throughout the whole of my Gap Year.

Would I want to come back to Camp? Definitely. I would love to come back at least once more but due to the nature of what I study, that could prove to be tricky. Only time will tell.

Ok, I think I'm pretty much at the end of this post. As always, apologies for the essay (for a subject matter such as this, I did genuinely think it had to be this long to justify its significance) and if you have made this far you are a truly special and dedicated follower of my blog. Well done. I'm going to finish with a few thank yous if that's alright?

I'd like to say a HUGE thank you to:

Camp Director Emily- for hiring me in the first place and giving me this amazing opportunity to work at Camp Greentop. Please reconsider me for the future too!

My original Cabin Leader/Roommate -Braxton for being a strong leader, super crazy at times, someone who I could confide in and of course for showing me the ropes in the unfortunately cut short time you were with us.

The man who took Braxton's place in the middle of the summer- Snoopz. For stepping up into the cabin leader role and continuing on where Braxton left off. Our cabin dynamic changed very little with you in charge and like Braxton, you were a great roommate in the middle room of the cabin.

My D2 brother Marnix. For being a great counselor and for making life in D2 so funny and enjoyable

My D2 hermano Pedro. For being so excellent with the campers (Byron, Devin and Arvin to name a few). A genuine all round great guy who I can't say a bad word about

My Unit Coordinators James and Jono (for the final two sessions). For being super helpful all summer long. Whenever I had a problem, I could always count on these guys to offer assistance and guidance to resolve it. Incredibly professional.

Didn't managed to get an individual picture with James but he's the guy on my left here

The human fiesta-Julio. For being one of the first people I met at camp who also went on to be one of my closest friends throughout the summer, providing most of the fun on our breaks together. I'll tell you now guys, there's never a dull moment when Julio is around!

Media girl Natalie. For taking so many awesome pictures of me and the campers at the Pool and putting them on the camp blog so my friends & family knew I was still alive! Also, like Julio, for your great company especially on breaks and nights off.

The King of Brummieland- Chris (A.K.A Demps). For being absolutely hilarious! What comes out of this guy's mouth doesn't always make sense but he always managed to make me laugh, which is always an important quality, I'm glad to call to him a friend.

The camp socialite-Tom. For being so welcoming and fun especially during the sessions when I had to sleep out in B1

My boss Mel. For keeping me on my toes and for not firing me!

Mel's assistant and my friend Phoebe. For checking up on us at the pool and also for singing 'Lucky' with me in the Staff Talent Show all the way back in Orientation.

The medical team (Nancy, Bridget and Tara). For stitching me up on many an occasion. I went through the wars far too many times for my liking this summer but whenever I did, I was given excellent treatment and was back on my feet in no time.

All the other Program Leaders (Matt, Lisa, Kate, Louis, Zoe, Joyce, Rebecca, Naki, Rory, Tom, Bronwyn). For being super fun and making camp as good as it was all summer long. It was an excellent group to be part of and as mentioned above, Rock Star Day in particular was one the best moments I had at Camp.

The rest of the Camp Greentop staff. I'd be here all night long if I had to mention every single one of you, what you've done for me and the amazing times we shared together. Honestly though, it has been excellent bunch of people to be part of. Thanks to the Laundry girls (Carla, Fernanda and Zaira) for providing me with clean clothes and thanks to the kitchen staff (Mr Rick, Alex, Tanya, Paco, Omar, Dmitro) for feeding me all summer but I am especially greatful to those who came to the Pool everyday and were super enthusiastic even if they were having a terrible day. It made my job and life that bit easier and much more enjoyable.

and finally... my fellow Pool Program Leaders... Ben and Sam. It's difficult putting into words just how much these guys mean to me. They've been there every step of the way with me this summer and have been my closest companions. Sharing all the good times, and the bad ones. I trust them with everyone of my deepest secrets and thoughts, I can tell them anything, and they will support me. Even when things weren't going my way at camp, they would still find a way to put a smile on my face and make sure we had an awesome time running our activities at the Pool and that is something I really value. I think I've made some genuine lifelong friends in these two and I can't wait until I see them again.

The above mentioned people probably won't read this but it's the thought that counts I guess.

Peace out, god bless.

FP

#FraserOnTour