Dear Families and Friends of our 1st Session Campers –
I am noticing that Johns Island is incredibly quiet today, with the campers having left and the staff on time off, and yet the spirit of everyone remains in an almost palpable way. It’s as if I can still hear the Mariners running toward their unit, laughing, racing and shouting. I can hear the jumpers up in the lodge setting tables and preparing for the community meal. I can hear the waterfront chatter in the distance, sounds carried by the wind, the ebb of the waves and calling of the eagles overhead. And then I realize that all of our campers have gone home. Or, to one of our many homes, as we talked about in our last Chapel experience out at Chapel Rock.
Home can be a lot of things, depending on the individual. We all had the opportunity to reflect and talk about home – being home with our families and loved ones, creating new homes with new friends, and coming home to ourselves in our hearts, passions, goals and experiences. The leaders of Chapel did an excellent job and helped us all think about the transition of leaving camp and what that means to each of us.
I must say that this first session of campers truly exemplified the spirit of Nor’wester – kindness toward others, a willingness to help out in all situations, finding inner confidence, community buy-in as well as self reflection, and of course, playful abandon. We are honored to get to be part of these campers’ lives while they’re here – and to get to create a second home for them to unplug, explore and grow. Perhaps camp changes and shapes them for a lifetime of growth…but even greater, is that they all individually and collectively leave there mark here and shape the very state and future of camp.
Thank you for sharing these vibrant and wonderful young people with us. We are so grateful and look enthusiastically toward next summer and the vision onward.
In the Spirit of Camp,
Sheila and the Nor’wester Team
