Girls Camp

The next couple posts are going to be out of order chronologically because I'm doing the posts first that I have the pictures for already. So today I'm going to tell you about girls camp.

The first notice we received when we arrived at girls camp is to make sure to keep the bathroom doors shut because they found an alligator in the bathroom the day before when all the leaders arrived. Welcome to girls camp in Florida!

Then we all had to set up our tents next to the alligator invested swamp, I'm mean lake, in 100 degree weather with humidity like I've never felt before.

I don't think I would sweat that much in a two hour aerobic class! But I was proud of these girls for being such good sports. They were all so excited to be here and I was too. Even with the concern of entering alligator waters, it was so hot that alligator or not, I was getting in.

This girls camp was run the way I think it should be done. The 5th and 6th year girls were IN CHARGE. They did all the work when it came to the younger campers. All the certification, flag ceremony, meetings, activities, etc. The adults were kind of like the campground hosts that made sure no one got hurt or dehydrated, and that food was served when the time came. (And that was only some of the meals. The youth counselors were even in charge of preparing some meals at each individual camp site.) I even got in "trouble" once with the Stake camp director when she overheard me suggest something to the girls. "Let the girls do everything," I was pulled aside and told. So I turned into an overgrown 3rd year after that and had a great time while trying to ignore the sauna they call Florida Summers.


Each girl was given a whistle to blow only in case of emergency since we were out in the wilderness and it was a large camp. On the first night, sometime around midnight, a whistle went off. I heard the stake camp director come running and yelling. "Who blew the whistle? I need to know where you are?" She just had to follow the sound of the screaming girls to a tent in the middle of the camp. "Everyone stay in your tents!" I wasn't sure who yelled that but then I heard what was going on. The girls were sure an alligator was attacking them so they blew the whistle. It ended up being a raccoon who was probably a little displaced and put out by our camp and was trying to find his home. And, even after lecture upon lecture about not keeping food in your tent, these girls had treats with them. I had a girl in my camp circle who couldn't recover from this incident and by 1am called her mom on her illegally packed cell phone and had her mom drive the hour and a half to come get her by 2:30am. The raccoon came by my tent later that night, and I'll admit it is unsettling to hear a larger creature roaming around right outside your tent.

I was able to get to know these young women so much better and am excited to work with them even more over the next year.