Friday - Last day of Day Camp

 

Day two of day camp was a blast! We started the day off with breakfast at the hotel before heading off to the Foundation’s for camp. We started the day off by handing the campers back their tie-dye shirts (which all turned out amazing!) and taking a group photo. Then my group worked on some crafts and played games. One camper, who finished her craft before everyone else, asked me to play Connect 4 with her. How she played, though, wasn’t by competing to put four of a kind together. Instead, she wanted to make patterns and designs on the board. I showed her how to take a piece out without emptying the whole board and helped her make her patterns, and she showed me a whole new way to play the game.

I also helped her wash the paint off of her hands afterwards, which made us a little bit late to catch up to our group and see the iguanas and petting zoo. The kids loved the playground by the petting zoo, especially the swings. They worked up an appetite for lunch running around the playground and walking back to the Foundation, but one kid needed some help focusing on his lunch. He said he was hungry, but he kept getting distracted from his food. With some encouragement and help focusing from the counselors, he was able to eat his pasta, and it was time to go the beach.

The kids loved the beach. Everyone got in the water, and kids were playing games, chatting, dancing, and getting piggyback rides from counselors. We were all too busy having fun to mind the sand, salt, and sargasm. The only sad camper was a girl who lost her 4-H bracelet while she was playing in the water, but we made sure she knew she could have another one when we got back.

Right before we left the beach, everyone got cupcakes. In true kid-fashion, a lot of the campers just ate the frosting off their cupcakes. With big, frosting-smeared smiles, the kids walked back from the beach with us. A few kids asked to be carried, but most of them were pretty good sports about the 30 minute walk.

After we got back, it was sadly the end of day camp. It was time to sort out what towel belonged to who, give campers their gift bags, and say goodbye. It was really sad to see the sweet kids we’d gotten so close with leave, but it felt good to know we’d always have the memories we made together.

While I waited upstairs for the bus to take us back to the hotel, I had some time to reflect on day camp. My big takeaway was that while these kids may speak a different language, live in a different country, and have very different experiences from us, they’re still just kids. They still cry over lost bracelets, eat frosting off cupcakes, love swings, and make up their own games. I’ll never forget the campers I got to connect with these past two days, and I hope they have a lot of fun memories of 4-H camp!

Ariana Blake, Fairfax Co.