gay camp!
I just got back from my three week stint at mountain meadow, the camp for kids of LGBTQ families and LGBTQ kids. It was unbelievable. I have so many stories that it is going to take me a while to write them all down. there was more excitement at this camp then I experienced in 2 whole summers at girlscout camp. there seemed to be a new crisis every day. here's a list of stories I will be recording:
day 1 funnel cloud over the dining hall with severe thunderstorms during camper registration
spent evening drying luggage and bedding of campers that did not make it into the tents before we had to take
shelter in the dining hall.
day 2 dryed more laundry, 4 hr standoff with homesick camper demanding to call home
day 3 continued de-esciliation of said camper, fight in dining hall involving a butter knife
day 4 survivor day. beached and almost flipped kayak in middle of the lake, spent another 4 hrs with same home
sick camper who started to make progress
day 5 attended a training by glad on how to talk to the media for kids, saw a 12yr old straight camper that cried all
summer about not wanting to go to "gay camp" walking around in a pink tiara, started my 24hrs off by driving
through torrential rain and scary lightening to get to kolby's moms house
day 6 came back to camp, sent home camper with special needs that we could not take care of (and that we were
not informed of before camp started) homsick camper informed me that he thought he just might make it the
whole 2 weeks, find out kids had chili for dinner- unclogged 3 toiletts and cleaned poo off a bathroom wall
day 7 board of directors camp tour, find out there are more clogged bathrooms to clean before tour gets that far into
camp- cleaned 3 more stalls that had poo EVERYWHERE, like someones ass exploted.
camp computer crashes- mother board is fried we might be screwed. at night-camp dance
day 8 visited by whyy a PBS/NPR station that did an "all things considered" report on us (whyy.org/news), saved the
day by figuring out how to hook up the projector to the big fancy dj speakers so the kids could watch a movie,
drove assistant kitchen director to the train station in phily after she was fired.
day 9 atlantic city beach trip, packed my car with 200 peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, a stupid crab bit me on my
big toe, sent home female camper for peeing on a male camper's hat
day 10 got a cold and ended up out of commission for the whole day- sent home 2 campers (siblings) for 2
different reasons. computer is back up and running
day 11 spent half the day in bed. did drag facial hair for a talent show with tackey glue and mascara
day 12 gave up half day off because of being sick and in bed for 2 days
had first ever trans support meeting at camp (4 kids and 6 staff came)
someone let 14 teens go to the bathroom unaccompanied and 2 kids got sent home for an incident
3 9yr olds got into a scuffel and my staff called for help over the walkie for an emergency- ran 1/2 mile a long wiht 7 other leadership staff to find out no one was bleeding
had discussion wiht staff about what constitutes an emergency and proper walkie procedures
day 13 sent home camper for tormenting a trans camper by calling them their birth name (the camper sent
home has a trans sibling and knew the name would be hurtful)
caught my staff having a "dance party" with campers in their pavilion dancing on tables with the lights out at
10:45 at night, 4 more clogged toilets
caught jr staff member alone with 15 yr old camper looking guilty, she refused to talk to me the rest of camp
day 14 got woken up at 3:45 am to patrol parimeter of camp looking for a drunk man on a golf cart- sherif's office
called us at 5:15 to say he had been caught.
camp show- kids went home yay!
staff dinner- staff go home yay!
complete 8 staff evaualtions
day 15 leadership staff have final meeting and we go home yay!