Author: Julia Reid
Planning Unit: Madison County CES
Major Program: Camping
Plan of Work: Develop and Strengthen Leadership and Life Skills
Outcome: Intermediate Outcome
This year at Madison County 4-H Camp the camp theme was the old west, and man did we have a rootin' tootin' good time! My favorite part was building relationships within our office team. We were ecstatic to have our 4-H Staff Assistant, Melanie Garland, Family Consumer Science Agent, Jessica Hunley, and our Agriculture and Natural Resources agent, Brandon Sears, stay at 4-H Camp with us all week! Our Horticulture Agent, Amanda Sears, as well as many of our program assistants and support staff came to the fairgrounds to help us with camp registration until we loaded the buses. Together with Scott Darst, the other 4-H Youth Development Agent, we had a great team! That is not to say we did not have difficulties, as we did run into the general camp issues as homesickness, illnesses, and minor disciplinary issues. We also had a few problems that tipped the scale toward catastrophes such as an adult counselor that went into anaphylactic shock and a camper with thoughts of self harm. Throughout the week I was so glad to have the support of our team at camp. Even when Scott and I were pulled away to "put out the fires," as they say, we knew camp would go on and we were leaving the counselors with people who would make sensible decisions and solve problems! Our ANR agent also led the fishing class, as well as a polar fishing activity where he had more than 50 campers fishing at 6:30 AM! Aside from our internal team, we had close to 50 counselors, of those 34 were brand new counselors. I believe it truly speaks to our camping culture as well as our counselor training program what a great time our campers and counselors had! As a result of an informal survey, 90% of our counselors would come back next year! Several even provided feedback about how to improve the equipment or lesson plans for the classes they taught! 100% of our campers said they made a new friend, and 95% said they tried something new for the first time! Between our wonderful office staff and incredible counselors, we really could not go wrong this year! We are already planning a counselor appreciation cookout to help with counselor retention for next year!
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