May 13, 2008
I turned the corner to the entrance, the same road that I would ride that big yellow school bus as a camp counsellor. When you made that turn, if you were good, you knew exactly when to start. You would time it so when Bus 3 rounded the corner and entered the main camp you would be in full voice. All 40 kids screaming the camp song. It became a battle between buses. Kids would talk about that days winner around the flagpole.
“Bus 3 was the loudest!” one young boy would announce. His statement met with jeers from the Bus 6 line! “Bus 6 can’t be beat!” , they would reply! The battle would go on all summer.
I closed my eyes… I could hear the roar of the young campers as their excitement grew. This was my camp, their camp. It was a pride of exceptional levels!
I opened my eyes to look down the camp entrance… gone. The trees and grass and wild flowers over grew the once well travelled path. I trekked down the road, hoping to see some of my past, where I grew up. As I turned the corner into main camp… nothing. The kitchen, brownie lodge, south lodge, the directors cabin… the flagpole, gone. There wasn’t a trace. Like nothing ever existed. Decades of childhood memories had to be just that. Memories. I looked for anything to touch, to hold, to look at… all gone. It felt like I had dreamt all of those summer stories.
I walked down to the waterfront, the path so overgrown I got a little lost through the forest, the same woods that I could navigate in the pitch black without hesitation. I had to hike along the lake to find the waterfront area. I did get there, but it was nothing anymore, just a few feet of sand. Drift wood covered the once large beach area, weeds filled in the holes.
I closed my eyes again. I could hear splashing, laughing, people swimming, I could hear my counsellor telling us it was time to canoe, to learn a new stroke, the J, the C… quiet now, gone but not forgotten. As I walked up the old service road I finally found a piece of the past. A couple of old archery stands, fallen over covered in Moss. There was the proof. I was there and so were thousands of other kids over those 40 or so years. I became a good person there. My mom made a choice so many years ago. Send Stuart to camp. I went. It made me in part who I am today.
I heard the words of another camp director who retired earlier this year. He said, “I wanted to retire while I still loved what I did.”
I still do love it. I was missing something though… I regained it back at that old waterfront. The innocence, the fun, the purity of it all. I truly hope that the thousands of campers that have been part of YLCC over the last 15 years will have such strong warm memories so that when they close their eyes they can remember the good, the laughter and the friendships.
My old camp is gone, but it will never be forgotten. As I drove away, I thought of what it was, how it could disappear. Hard to understand. When I reached the top of the road I noticed an arrow nailed to a post. The arrow with the camps name on it was pointing to the direction of the camp… the camp that no longer exists. I stopped my car and got out. I looked up at the sign and jumped up to grab it. I pulled it off that pole and held it. I needed that sign more then the old camp did. The last physical proof that the camp ever existed is now gone. I will put it up at my camp. That way I can see it everyday, so I can remember why it is that I do what I do.
I still think that Bus 3 was the loudest…
Posted by Stu Saunders in Leadership on May 13, 2008 at 8:43 am | Permanent Link | Comments (4)
Comment posted on Jun 6, 2008 at 9:10 am by Amy (YLCC Guest)
I just want to say Stu that it was 2 summers ago that I last went to YLCC, and I still read every post on this blog and I still look through pictures at the end of every summer of other people’s experiences at YLCC. YLCC totally changed the direction of where my life is going to go (for the better) and has created some great friends. I still think about all of the awesome times that I had there… opening campfires, bedtime stories, ORNG and his crazy antics and heart beads, flagpoles, craft barn, polar bear dips, creating the FIRST EVER banqet on the beach (which was a sweet idea if I do say so myself), and most of all opening up my life to positivity and making me feel that my life is worth living. I will never forget YLCC and all that you and all the staff and campers did for me that first summer I attended. I hope to come back in a year or so and become a councilor, but in the mean time, I still think of YLCC as my favourite place in the world.
Comment posted on Jun 6, 2008 at 9:10 am by Gillxxx (YLCC Guest)
What a wonderful blog Stu. Thank you, I am missing camp and missing you. It is nice to think that camp can be close even when it feels so far away.
Comment posted on Jun 6, 2008 at 9:11 am by Kim Markvoort (YLCC Guest)
Stu,
I am not sure what inspired me to check the YLCC website today, or even go and read your blog, but I did. I think that it must be the time of year, when I truly refelct on which direction my life is going...or maybe its that the sun was out this weekend and I finally got to wear shorts and flipflops...whatever the reason...I checked out YLCC, and your blog, and I just wanted to say that the old camp of yours is not forgotten.
When GWOC was sold, I thought that I would never work at camp again...then an email from you arrived and I made a decision to give it a go at the brand new YLCC. I am happy to see that it contiunes to grow, and that you keep delivering what I know are excpetional camping programs to kids from all over the world.
I live in Clagary now, and when I was home last I drove down Clarke Rd, the GWOC sign was long gone, and there was a huge lock on the iron gates that once used to always be open...open to learning, and growth, laughter and dreams. I haven’t returned to Sr site in many years, but had heard that Brownie Lodge, the office and all other camp infrastrucutre was gone. I am glad that you have the sign, and are displaying it at a place where someone can appreciate it.
When I read your blog I thought of all the time I had spent there myslef, and wanted to thank you for taking me back. Back to a time when I knew anything and everything was possible, when I didn’t sit at a computer almost everyday and keep reading reports about how almost every inch of Alberta needs to be cleaned up (I am an environmental scientist out here), when summer was a time of unforgettable magic...not just another time to get up and go to work.
Don’t get me wrong, I really enjoy what I do...I think its challenging important work...BUT, the magic of camp, and youth and the laughter and excitment that kids bring to camp can not be found in even the best corporate office groups.
Today, being inspired by a time that feels like forever ago, I am going to try and change that. I am going to challenge myself to find that enthusiam and excitment in the place that I work, if not in the people around me, but in the way I feel about what I do.
Thank-you. I hope you have a wonderful summer, and that spring was super successful.
Yours in true Y-MA-WA-CA spirit,
Kim Markvoort
Comment posted on Jun 6, 2008 at 9:11 am by Mitchell (YLCC Guest)
Wow Stu!!!
That was very well written, and I truly appreciated being able to read it.
Thank you so much for that.
I think that blog might have just changed my outlook on working at YLCC this summer. Being my first year, I’m looking forward to the laughter and time I will get to spend with all the staff and campers, but that may have just added a new dimension to it, one alot deeper than the first.
I’m ready to take in every second of this summer, and be ready to cherish every single second of it, knowing that one day in the future, YLCC will be over for me, as it will be everyone at some point. But now I plan to go on with an entirely different approach to it.
Journal like crazy, take a zillion pictures, and most importantly, remember every second of it I get to spend with the most amazing people on this earth.
Thanks a lot Stu