Our School Goes to Camp!

Shortly after getting back from winter break our school's fourth and fifth graders packed their gear and set off to camp. I had the pleasure of joining them and boy did we have a good time. As a new teacher, I'm not exactly sure why both grades went, but it ended up being quite a few students. I don't have the exact numbers but, I think it was around a hundred young people. We had plenty of parent volunteers and about half a dozen school staff all quite excited for this January camping experience in a gorgeous part of Washington State.

We went to Camp Seymour, a YMCA cam located just outside of Gig Harbor. Camp was about an hour and twenty minute ride from our school in south Seattle, but the ride was full of excitement and didn't seem to take long at all. We had all packed our things into two large school buses and a couple of extra vehicles packed with luggage. Having left school at about 10:30 am, we arrived at camp around noon.

Once we arrived at camp, we were greeted by friendly Seymour staffers who were waiting for us to arrive. A torrential downpour had started on the way down to camp and the staff and campers hardly complained at all. We were broken up into cabin groups and taken to our cabins. I was lucky, and as a volunteer I was bunking in the main lodge under the main dining hall in what reminded me of college dorm room style accommodations complete with bunk beds. I considered myself lucky because my day with the students was not 24hrs long, but only from 7:50 am until about 9:00 pm. A few school staff and most of the parents enjoyed the company of the students for 24 hours a day.

After dropping our things off we met at the "Triangle", the gathering place in the middle of camp to break up into learning groups and head off to one of the learning stations the camp offered. I had the pleasure of working with one of the other male teachers (three total at our school) as a co-captain of our learning group. Mr. Wilson is a gentleman, a scholar and an all around great guy to spend time with. The rain hadn't let up, and Mr. Wilson and I headed off into the woods with our learning group to learn about forest life and ecosystems. Once we were done we headed back to the triangle to get assigned to a different Seymour staffer who then took us up to a greenhouse the camp calls the living machine. It was a fascinating bios stem they had set up to treat and recycle the waste camp was using. The water made its way through a series of water gardens and before being UV filtered and then finally used to irrigate their playing field. They also composted the food waste from the dining hall and had a rich collection of compost full of worms! Good stuff.

The rain never let up and continued through the evening. I'm not sure anyone was dry by the time dinner came around, but we were all sure hungry. The camp has a great policy where campers are encouraged to eat as much as they want, but at the same time encouraged not to take more than they could eat. They would measure (weigh) the food waste (ort) left over after each meal as well as the compost, and then announce the totals at the following meal. It was great being able to eat until we weren't' hungry and still practice conservation. Many of our students struggled with only taking as much as they could eat at first, but as time went by they got better and better.

After the students and parents went to the cabins, the few staff members who weren't in cabins with students were able to relax over a game of Apples to Apples and have a few laughs. The trip really ended up being a terrific way to build community among staff, students and families. The next day the rain finally died down and by noon, we actually ended up having some sun breaks. Our learning group had an opportunity to dissect squids, go canoeing, learn about salmon, and handle reptiles. I think we may have been the most fortunate group because we actually enjoyed some sunshine as we canoed in Puget Sound in the middle of January, what a treat. I had the opportunity to go canoeing with a co-worker who had never been in a canoe before and despite her initial trepidation, she ended up being one heck of a crew member.

The evenings were a treat as the staff worked with the students doing charades, performing skits of their own, and playing jeopardy style camp knowledge games with the students. It was hard saying goodbye to the staff on the third day and as the buses pulled out of the camp, the staff ran to the corner along side the buses to wave us a final farewell. All in all, it was three days well spent.