Whit's Travels: One Week, 300 Kids and Two Parties

Hey there everyone! I have managed to survive one of the busiest weeks in the Outdoor Ed Centre. We had three groups, two lots of year 7s and some little year 3s. It was pretty wild during the transitions, at one point we had 140 people eating lunch in the Lodge. They even took our staff lounge table, so we were all squished on the sofas in the lounge eating with our hands and drinking from bowls... all our cutlery was used and we ran out of cups. The changeover periods between the schools were pretty hectic, trying to keep everyone in the right place at the right time proved tricky but we did manage to keep it together.

So we had Gleneagles yr 7s for their grad trip at the beginning of the week. They were also the first onsite group for the 09 season so we were all pretty stoked. I was doing High and Low Ropes with them, so I would do an hour and a half of Low Ropes with a group and then take them to High Ropes. It was pretty fun watching the kids scrambling all over the vertical playpen, I think they had a good time. At the same time Gleneagles were in we also had a leadership group from King George. They were yr 10s and I wasn't on their program.
Later in the week the little yr 3s from West Point Grey came to stay for a night. They were kind of tough to keep entertained and the Lodge needed a massive clean up after every single meal. I was on Campfire Cooking, so I took the yr3s off to build a fire and cook popcorn. At first my fire-building skills failed abysmally, but eventually Crumbles and I got the hang of it and we had popcorn every time.

This weekend was Summit's 10 year anniversary party, so a whole bunch of past Summit staff flew in for a massive celebration, complete with Bocce Ball tournament, Red Bull girls and a giant rather hectic campfire. The presentations and speeches were really awesome, it was cool to see the history of Summit and how it has come to be. It also opened my eyes to the whole Camp World and how it is a massive thing that people grow up in and can spend their entire lives involved with.

I am now lucky enough to have a couple of days off and it has been raining so we are currently in the middle of a giant gossip girl marathon. Time to chill out until Wednesday morning when we get a fresh bunch. Might be heading into Van on Tuesday, we shall see how the chips fall.

Only a couple of shots this time, my camera battery died so was out of action.