A Week in SOEC

Hey everyone. Yes it does seem that I'm double posting today but I felt the last post needed to be separated from this one.

This week another 2 yr 7 school groups for 2.5 day programs. I might just run through how a week in the Summit Outdoor Education Centre goes down so you guys can actually get what I mean when I say stuff like that. This is basically how a week in my life goes down:

Monday: Up and at breakfast by 8am. Quick re-briefing on the school that is coming in that day (We had the initial briefing the Friday arvo prior). Briefing involves finding out what programs we are running, how many kids there are and any additional info such as what they were like last time, if we are trying to win the school over, if the parent volunteers/teachers are really enthusiastic or more hindering, anything Shannon (our Outdoor Ed Centre Director) thinks we need to know to prepare us for dealing with the groups.
We make sure everything is prepped and ready to go, and then we sit and wait in the Grove (a cluster of trees where the buses pull up) for the school to arrive, which usually happens from 10 to 11. When the kids get here, we are all standing there at the bus with our staff jackets on and help them unload all their gear. Shannie does a quick welcome and we lead the groups off to their respective cabins so they can dump their bags. This is always incredibly entertaining as kids manage to bring the most stuff... it's quite ridiculous. Probably about 40% of the kids bring more gear for a 2.5 day camp than I have for my entire trip. So once their gear is put away we all head to the field where Shannie introduces us and we play some silly introductory games to get them all loosened up and sort of set them up for the atmosphere of camp, which is all about making a fool of yourself and having fun. Some of the Vancouver kids sometimes struggle with this, but by the second day they've usually got the hang of it. Lunch after that, at about 12:30pm. Once lunch is over we start rotations. These are basically the activities that the kids get to do. 1 or 2 staff run each rotation and they last for 1-1.5hrs. The activities are chosen by the school but are usually from following: High Ropes, Climbing Wall, Bouldering, Archery, Campfire Cooking and Outdoor Living Skills, Low Ropes, Mountain Biking and Arts and Crafts. Certain activities like biking and high ropes are run by specialised instructors and the rest of us assist, but the other activities are run by all of us. We swap around a bit so we get a taste of everything and keep it fresh. A few of us (including myself) have our Level 1 Ropes Certification so we get put on ropes more often than the others. I have run every program at least once so I'm pretty confident with all of them. It is nice to run them with other people, especially as most of the staff have heaps of experience, have got degrees in Outdoor Rec and then years working in camps and things on top of that, so I learn heaps every time.

So after lunch there is usually 2 rotations, then we eat dinner at 5:30pm. Once dinner is over we have Evening Program, which involves a Camp Wide Game. So much fun!!! I have an absolute ball every night. A CWG basically involves the kids running all over site, usually chasing us staff, or trying to find us. If we aren't involved directly, the older staff run the game and us youngies play with the kids. We play stuff such as Zoobreak (we all dress up as zoo animals and escape from the zoo, the kids have to chase us in teams, make a circle around us by linking arms and bring us back. They get points depending who they catch), Whistle Tag (we all hide in the woods with whistles that we blow every 30 seconds, they have to find us and get points for who they find), Clue (they have a list of staff names, places on camp and objects and there is one combination that is supposedly the person who stole evening snack, what they used to steal it and where they hid it. They eliminate people by running around to the staff who are hiding and getting clues in return for doing silly things, like singing a song, dancing or building a human pyramid. At the end they surround all the staff and each group yells out a person they know it isn't until there is only one person left in the middle of the circle. That person gets a 20L bucket of water poured on their head.) and a bunch of other fun games like that. I love doing the games because we just run like non-stop for an hour every evening. So much fun!
After the game at about 7.45 everyone gets evening snack and then they head to the campfire pit. Campfire is super fun. We have a big fire with everyone sitting around and we sing songs that the campers all join in with. Hilarious times, just so funny it's insane. That's why camp people are awesome, they don't mind getting up in front on 60 teenagers and making a complete fool of themselves every night.
Bedtime and all that is up to the teachers, once campfire is over (at about 9pm) we are off for the day. We have a short evening meeting (The Ceremonial Burning of the Dog) when the kids leave the pit and then we are free to go. We usually hang out and play football or frisbee until about 10 and then usually end up talking or doing other stuff.

Tuesday: Also known as program marathon. Today we do 4 rotations back-to-back, with no break except for lunch in the middle. It ends up being a solid 6 hours of program. They start after breakfast and then run until dinner. Then as usual there is evening program and campfire and before you know it the day is over.

Wednesday: Changeover day. Runs as per usual except the school groups switch over at lunch. So after breakfast the group that has been at camp will pack and clean their cabins and move all their gear to the grove. At about 10.30 they either have program elective (choosing from programs they have/haven't done) or another camp wide game. Daytime camp wide games have been tough of late as it is usually pretty hot by the time we get going. And running about in an orange wig, a dress and a construction vest (I was 'Fire' in Survival) is not exactly a sweat-free exercise. The other school usually arrives during this game, so some staff are with them running introductory games. Then lunch is sometimes early, like 11:30am. The first group leaves after lunch and then the second group starts rotation until dinner, evening program and then campfire. Once we are free on Wed all the staff gather in the lodge for 'Family Fun Night'. Everyone is rostered on to run FFN for the staff, so they organise a special snack and a game for us to play all together for an hour or so. It is so much fun, and nice way to sort of reboot in prep for the last 2 days of program. We have played Cranium, Zilch, Speed Scrabble and some other fun stuff. It ends up being sooo darn funny.

Thursday: Just like Tuesday, big program day. Tends to fly by as you are pretty much busy the entire time running your activity. Camp wide game and campfire to finish.

Friday: Similar to Wednesday but less of a gong show as there is no other school coming in. They pack and clean, play a game or do elective programs (sometimes both) and are usually offsite between 1 and 2. Then we have 'Power Hour', where the staff (both instructors and site maintenance) work for an hour or two to reset camp, such as cleaning the lodge, picking up rubbish, cleaning bathrooms, checking all the cabins, wiping down mattresses, cleaning the staff lounge, chopping wood and restocking the fire pits and anything else that needs doing so that camp is immaculate. This means we don't have to do anything Monday morning, and also occasionally we get drop-ins, families who are interested on sending their kids to summer camp at Summit who just drive in on the weekends. Parky usually gives them a tour and is always stoked when the camp is ridiculously manicured. After that we have the week debrief, everyone names their GMIC of the week (Greatest Moment in Camping) and then Shannie briefs us on the upcoming week. We are usually free to go around 3pm. Alot of the time we head straight down to the river or play footy and stuff.

So that is pretty much my life at the moment. I am loving every second of it. This Friday (yesterday) a bunch of us volunteered at the Relay for Life which was at Brennan Park in Squamish. So much fun, we just helped set up and ran the information tent and stuff like that. We all had a ball and I think Parky was super impressed with us for having a sense of community. We wore our Summit OE Staff jackets and spoke to a bunch of people about camp. We even saw some of the kids from Mamquam (the second school we had this week) and were waving and chatting to them. They looked pretty confused. I don't think they understood us in a context that wasn't camp. I guess it's sort of like seeing a teacher outside school for the first time. But yeah we had a ball. I'm defs going to help out at the one in Perth when I get home.

Anyway it's hot, I'm hungry and I have typed a novel. I will write again next week!