What does community mean to you?

Happy Friday, folks! Hummingbird here with your campy updates!! We’ve got a lot to go over so buckle up, buttercups, we’re goin’ for a ride!

First stop, ELECTIVES!! Last night we had some super awesome electives for our campers to choose from. Electives night is like “choose your own evening program,” where campers get to choose from all the many different activities the counselors lead. Last night we had some old classics like capture the flag, spa night, board games, swimming, cooking, painting, and tipi zip, in addition to some new and exciting activities like golf ball smash, pool noodle jousting, marshmallow hair dryer painting (seriously!!) and even horse grooming! It was a super silly night, be sure to check out the pictures below!

Next stop, I want to give you some service program updates! We’ve talked in the past about our two community service-based programs on camp, Outreach Outdoors and Community, and I bet you’ve been wondering what they’re up to… well wonder no more!! I’m here to tell you 🙂 This two week session of Outreach Outdoors has centered around the three R’s, Reduce, Reuse, Recycle. They visited the local recycling center to see where our waste goes once it’s recycled, and then the next day took a trip over to Knight’s Pond, a local spot that many people in the community use to cool off on hot afternoons in the summer. Our campers picked up garbage that was left behind and tried to apply what they knew about the three R’s to see if anything was salvageable. Campers in Outreach were interested in how they could apply those same concepts around camp, and settled on trying to reuse some of the materials that get recycled. They used discarded jelly jars from the dining hall to pickle vegetables together in Peter and Meg’s house! Our team of campers has also been engaging in conversations about what it means to build and take part in a meaningful community. Here are some of their thoughts on what community means to them…
“Community happens naturally when people live and work together”
“Being part of a community means supporting each other”
“Peter and Meg build the community but the kids make it a living, breathing thing”
“My parents say that I’m always more helpful around the house after I’ve been at camp”
“It feels like our actions make a difference here more than at home”
“Being in a community is different than just living in the same place… it takes a choice”
“At camp we can be part of the community but also be valued as individuals”
“Not having our phones here brings us together. There’s no way we can hide from each other”
“Being in nature makes us more peaceful”

Now on to Community… and who better to tell you what they’ve been up to than the Community campers themselves? Here’s a word from them!

Hi! We are Community, and we would like to share what we have been doing the past two weeks. We live in a house off the grid, a mile away from Main Camp. At the house, we rely on our generator to supply us with electricity and running water twice a day. We spend a substantial amount of time in the communal space playing chess, card games, making music, singing, reading, and often sleeping. We also spend a lot of time building fires and making s’mores at the fire pit. Each day while the generator is running, we wash dishes, fill our water tanks, shower, and generally prepare for the day.
Over the course of our time at camp so far we have engaged in a number of community service projects throughout Maine. These include clearing out habitats at an animal haven, mulching trails at an animal shelter, cleaning and organizing a homeless shelter, building hiking trails, and spending time at a nursing home. Our most impactful project thus far has been volunteering at a soup kitchen in Portland. We washed dishes, sorted supplies, prepared and served food, and interacted with the visitors. This experience opened our eyes to a variety of lifestyles that most of us had never before been exposed to.
Overall, Community has been a powerful experience, and we are grateful to be taking part in it together.

So there you have it! Our camp community is strong as ever now as we enter our fourth week of session one! We had a super fun time today with Gross Day and Glow Bowling, right now our campers are hangin’ in the rec hall watching the classic cinematic masterpiece Chicken Run!! And tonight after dinner we’ll enjoy a rolicking show by the Half Moon Jug Band!! Stay tuned for pictures from our amazing trip/ lazy day tomorrow!

I’m off to save some chickens from the pie making machine!! My brethren!!

Cluck cluck humm,
Hummingbird