I Survived Girls' Camp

Last week was the YW girls camp up American Fork canyon at a campsite, Mutual Dell.  I was one of 4 leaders that attended with 21 girls.  It had been 24 years since I last attended girls camp as a YW leader and I was never much into girls camp when I was a youth, only having gone 2 years.  My memories of girls camp back in the 1970's was of pretty primitive conditions.  I forgot to take my camera so I have no photos to share.  I'll try to add some later if I can get copies from the other leaders.

This camp had flush toilets, running hot/cold water and showers, although we still slept in tents.  The stake also provided full-time cooks so the girls never had to cook one single meal.  Because of the dry conditions in Utah and the multiple wildfires so far this summer, we were not allowed to light a fire, not even to dutch oven cook.  How's that for a camping experience?  A long cry from what I remember girls camp being like!

The Laurel president worked closely with the stake and along with her first counselor and a stake rep from some of the wards, planned most of the activities and took care of most of the preparations.  I was in charge of the desserts for two nights at camp.  I also was responsible for collecting parent letters to the girls.  The leaders did such a good job carrying out their responsibilities it really allowed me to pretty much just enjoy the experience.  Kudos to Amber Edgecomb and Emily Bridges for being such great youth leaders!  They really took the younger girls under their wings and helped them have a great time.

The theme of camp was "Light the Fire Within" Arise and Shine Forth and they used the Olympic theme since this year is the 10th anniversary of the SLC Winter Olympics and the London Summer Olympics is happening at the end of the month.  Each ward had to pick a country and our ward was Tonga.  The YW president is married to a Tongan and had some good props.  We had a big conch shell that we could blow as a wake up call, or to call the girls to camp.  Our ward had been assigned the value color red and we gave each of the girls a red bandanna, red nail polish and cherry chapstick.

The first day's theme was Bronze the Beauty Within.  I was responsible for doing a certification presentation to the 3rd year girls about nature and expressing through the arts (which I focused on music) how they felt about nature.  I taught them a few camp songs about nature, reviewed a few primary songs and hymns that focused on nature.  The girls were pretty quiet and it was hard to generate much enthusiasm from them.

The first night was skit night.  We did a skit related to Tonga.  Erin Summerill, the YW secretary and Jodee Mickelsen, the YW president acted the part of filmmaker and incompetent assistant who had just returned from filming youth in Tonga learning a cultural dance.  The rest of us played the parts of the youth being filmed.  We did a brief dance segment at regular speed, rewind, fast forward and slow motion.  It was quite fun.

We also heard a great talk from Bro. Atkinson about how the gospel is the only way to happiness; that no other way, any other way, every other way does not work.  Amen to that.

The first night at ward scripture study each of the girls/leaders shared a favorite scripture.  I shared Romans 8:35, 38-39, about the love of God.

The second day was the high adventure day, with the theme Silver Day of Service.  I had looked forward to participating in the various activities planned.  The girls were going to rotate between archery, zipline, canoeing and rappeling, but I was asked by the stake leaders to help all day at the zipline, which I did.  I spent all morning and afternoon, hooking the girls up to the zipline and encouraging them to not be afraid and go for it.  The older girls who had done it before didn't need much encouragement, but the younger girls were leery about the whole experience, until they did it.  On their second go round they were all excited to go again.  What a change for some of them.  It was like night and day.  We were told we were the "hookers" for the day and since we had to be in a safety harness while on the platform, I felt like I had spent the day tied to a tree.  I didn't mind too much missing the other activities since it was my opportunity to provide service as we were encouraged to that day.

Later that day the girls did crafts.  They made a flower origami lei with different colored flowers representing each of the value colors, a red bracelet using washers and feather earrings.  They seemed to have a lot of fun with that.  In the evening was a fireside.  That evening we did thankamonies during our ward scripture time.  We each shared three things we were thankful for.  I choose to name, working with the youth, living in this country and having a good husband.

The last day had the theme, Golden Moments of Glory.  For the younger girls it was their hike day.  Since I was working with 3rd years, I learned to orienteer, using a compass.  It was very informative.  I hope to surprise Dave in the near future with a date night activity using that.  In the afternoon was the sports day and water activities.  The hit of the afternoon was the waterslide down the slope into the grass field.  It had been so hot all week long that it felt so good to the girls to get wet.  I even went down the slide 3 times and I have to admit it was quite refreshing.

That evening was the bishopric visit.  The girls got their parent letter.  Dave had snuck into camp earlier without me seeing him and had left me a letter and strawberries, but I was so busy that night that I tossed them aside thinking they were from my secret sister.  I didn't realize they were from Dave until the next morning.  He wrote me a very sweet letter that made me cry.

That evening we revealed who was our secret sister.  I had Amber Edgecomb and I had given her a small perfume sprayer, a talk on tape by Sister Ellen Edmunds about love & service and then the book, I Challenge You, I Promise You by Paul H Dunn from my floor to ceiling library.  My secret sister had been Varia Aird who had given me a set of hair items each day, bronze, silver & gold, along with a mirror & a flashlight.  She had also arranged to have Lynzie Weakley french braid my hair one day, which was fun to have.

That night as well was the ward testimony meeting.  We started just after 10 pm and ended a few minutes before midnight.  All but two of the girls stood to bear their testimonies.  I shared with the girls two of my testimony experiences as a youth.  One when I knew that God loved me and that I was a daughter of God at BYU's Academy for Girls and then when I knew the church was true on my choir tour in Victoria BC as a junior in high school.  I encouraged them to gain their own testimonies now so it can be an anchor to them as they go through the trials they will have in life.  I also invited all the girls to be a more active part of our Beehive class because they each contribute something and make us better and I told the girls I miss them when they are not there.

Some of the fun of camp was staying up late with the YW leaders and sharing life experiences.  I learned a lot about Sis. Mickelsen, her first marriage and how she met Al.  She was only married 3 years to her first husband, but 25 years to Al.  I learned a lot about some of her kids and grandkid situations.  Besides Jodee and Erin, Jaime Stubbs was there.  She is a lot more quiet and private, but she celebrated her 14th anniversary during camp and I learned she has a daughter coming in to YW next year.

It was satisfying to see all the girls work together and get along so well.  It made me think of Zion, and the scripture that talks about being of one heart and one mind.  The stake leaders chant was "Come to Zion, come, come to Zion.  Come to Zion, come, come to Zion."  How I wish my family could be more like that!  We have the eternities, I guess to work on that (and it may take that long).  Dave has been such a big help in what progress we have made as a family to become like Zion.  I am so grateful to have him as a marriage partner.

This camp experience has also gotten me excited about serving a mission.  I can so see Dave & I serving as a host/hostess for one of the church's recreational properties and working with youth as they participate in scout & girls camps, youth conferences, trek experiences, etc.  I even looked on the lds website to see what is out there and there are plenty of places right here in Utah to serve, but also in the Pacific NW (WA & OR) that would be fun to do.  I vote that we do that first and our second mission experience be a Spanish speaking foreign mission of some kind.  Life could be very fun and rewarding working together to build up Zion and prepare for Christ's second coming.