There are probably many other stories that we haven't heard yet, but at least 3 kids here swam from their homes.
The counselors are college students based out of Asheville, NC. They travel around the country working camps like this one and they are terrific. The looks on the kids faces tells how quickly these people develop rapport and trust. Almost as good as me
When the kids are ready to work through some of their problems, a professional social worker takes over. She is wonderful and it's a pleasure to see her with the kids. I would love to be able to do her work but I'd get way too involved. I don't think "ability to cry on a moment's notice while holding a kid" is part of the job description. The best part is that she will be available to the kids and families after camp ends. I know that she will make a big difference in these kid's - and their caregivers - lives.
It's a wonderful program and I'm so fortunate to be able to participate. The only real frustration is that I'm not able to post pictures of the kids so you can see how cute they are. So I'll do this instead.
That's a stock photo of child models. ALL my kids are cuter than that.
I'm much more involved in the basic workings this week. Getting food ready, serving it, setting up crafts and getting lots of wonderful hugs and high fives.
And Long Beach is much closer, too. I'm traveling about 30 minutes each way. Every day so far on the Honda. I finally got caught in a MAJOR thunderstorm yesterday and had to sit under an overpass for 20 minutes until it subsided. But once you get drenched to the skin, you don't get any wetter so I rode on home comfortably cool.
Their scheduling wasn't the best so we had the third day of camp today, the 4th of July. Only 35 kids showed up and several left at 12:00. I came back to camp and rested for a while. Then dinner and I leave in a few minutes to see some fireworks.
I hope you all had a wonderful 4th.
Life is Good here in the USA.
