This story starts before camp. A small group of our volunteers has had the special opportunity to go monthly to a group home where several of our campers live. A few months back, this home had a new girl, I will call her Nora. She was always standoffish with our group. We would eat, play games, and make art. She would usually participate in creating art. Nora seemed to like that, but she never really let us know in any other way, as she kept her headphones on the entire time and minimally interacted with us. You could tell she was skeptical and unsure about who we were and why we were there.
As camp season started to get closer, we asked Nora to please come to camp. She didn’t give us an easy yes. I am unsure if she ever actually said yes to camp. Finally, Nora was the very last application we received, but I was thrilled that we were going to share all the goodness that happens at TRAC. The days before camp, we were told she would drop out and not come. It was going to be a hard thing to make happen, as this camper had been put on an ankle monitor for some mistakes that she had made. Sadly, we took Nora off the list and prepared to head to camp. The night before leaving, our camp nurse received information that the group home was still planning to send her to camp. This girl would not be a safety concern, that we wanted her there, but she would have to wear the ankle monitor the entire time as part of the consequences of her mistakes.
This was something we had never walked through with a camper. We were given all the necessary information to ensure she didn’t violate any rules while at camp and under juvenile probation monitoring. We received a whole list of rules to follow, including not getting her ankle monitor wet. At camp, we swim, tube, boat, fish, go on the waterslide, and participate in all the other water activities, so I was unsure how it would all work. Nora was coming to camp and we planned to give her the BEST camp experience. On her first day off the bus, she was guarded and unsure about all of this, as well as about any of us.
She arrived at camp, and I remember going over to her and putting both hands on her shoulders, saying, 'I have looked forward to you being at camp the most.' She gave me a flat stare and mumbled, “I don’t want to be here.”
This camper was placed in the ORANGE cabin with a great team of women who, over the course of camp, helped to chip away at Nora’s hard exterior. Every time I passed by her, I saw a smile. Maybe even the first smiles that I have seen from her.
Lake time was tough as she sat on the side watching the entire camp enjoy the many fun water activities. Our team wasn’t going to let this be a problem. On the first day, they decided to get a big pink flamingo float and let her be in the water with other campers, but not let her touch the water to keep her monitor safe. As far as I knew, that was all the water fun she had.
Then, as I was going through camp photos to share, I came across the photo above. Our team figured out how to give an incredible ride on the tube, complete with an ankle monitor. They arranged for the boat to take it a little slower to ensure that she would not flip over. The huge smile on her face tells its own story of what these days at camp meant to her. They meant freedom, joy, and felt safety in a place where she could just be herself. She was supported, loved, and cheered on.
At the end of TRAC all the campers write themed letters: "Dear God" and "What I Like About Camp." This is what Nora wrote in her letters:
”Dear God, Thank you for letting me meet all of these kind and respectful people. God I have never been with so many kind people in my life and I want thank you so much for it.
What I like about camp, I like how the staff tried to include me in all the activities. I honestly wish we could stay at camp longer.”
It is incredible to watch these girls open up at camp. They come in tough, hurting, and hard to get to. They leave completely different. I remember saying to someone this summer that if I knew of a place that I could go to every year and KNOW that I was going to see God at work right in front of me every year, how could I not show up? This is what happens at camp. God uses these days at camp to change them and us every time.
