Averting Chaos–The First Day of Camp{s}

There are a few things that set Camp Homewood apart from a standard camping experience:

1.  It is located on an island. 

2.  During the busy summer camp season, it runs 4 camps simultaneously. {Sailing, Ranch, Woodsman, and Harbour}

Today was the first day of a new camp session.  127 campers arrived…for 4 different camps.

This process  has the potential for being utter chaos.  However, over the years, it has been honed to be  quite organized.  I thought you might like to take a peak into how this all works...

On opening days of camp, the staff pull out their “official” staff shirts.  The “red shirts” are our senior counselling staff, and the “blue shirts” are our CITs (counsellors-in-training) and junior counsellors.  I’ll post an official staff picture later (when we can actually get them all to stand still at once!)…but for now…here’s a sampling of our {approximate} 75 summer volunteers.  These shirts help campers to quickly recognize which people are our staff, and can go to them if they have questions.

 

The first group to arrive (around noon) are the sailing campers.  They spend the day doing some fun learning things with the sailboats…Like “man overboard” drills and exciting things like that…

 

 

Meanwhile, the luggage van heads over to town (Campbell River) to await the other campers and loads their luggage into the trailer to be brought over on the ferry. 

The handsome camp director man (on the far left)  ~who also just happens to be my husband~  tries to be on that luggage run.  He likes to greet the happy campers and their families.

Campers are organized to walk on to a specified ferry (the 3:30 sailing), and start their journey across the water.  15 minutes later, the  BC Ferries boat docks on the Quadra Island side.

 

A sea of campers (and tourists, too!) walk off , accompanied by some of our red-shirted staff…

 

 

and get on to the awaiting Camp Homewood buses.

 

 

A short 10 minute drive later, they arrive on the Camp Homewood property.

 

 

The main lawn becomes the central site for organization…

The kids meet their camp director and counsellor for the week.

 

 

They head to the office to finish up registration with the secretary, and then visit the “nurses station” to make sure all the applicable health information is taken care of.

 

 

Those that are staying at the main camp site (ranch and harbour campers) grab their  luggage and head to their campy abodes…

 

 

After making final arrangements with the camp secretary, those heading to the Woodsman camp get back on the bus for a 25 minute journey to their {spectacular!} woodsy camp site.

 

I found it interesting…in only 15 minutes, the activity on the front lawn went…

 

 

 

…Let the fun begin!!…

 

*I’ve tried very hard to ensure that all children shown in the above photographs have been given permission to do so.  However, if for any reason you see a picture of your child and do not want it to be posted, please e-mail me at harbourbreeze@hotmail.ca and I’ll remove it lickety split!

This Year’s T-shirts!

The first time I started helping with the choice of Homewood t-shirts was four years ago.  A little “t-shirt committee” was formed and we had a hoot plotting and planning Homewood’s t-shirt designs for that year.  We drank lots of coffee as we chose colors and a design that we thought would be neat.  Sales of that shirt at the beginning of the summer were so good that we decided to re-order to ensure that we had enough for the rest of the year.

I don’t know what was in that coffee the day {James and I} put off that re-order…  We ordered WAY too many!!  The colors that year were light pink and baby blue.  I’m happy to report…as of today, we only have one of them left!!  {It’s almost time to celebrate!}

Since then, we’ve been a little more careful with the number of shirts we order!  But, we do still love to plot and plan the colors and designs for each year.

This year, our new staff member – Linn -  designed a great vintage- inspired line of t-shirts.  They are fun, bright colors…

 

…and based on each of our 4 camps.

 

{Green} Woodsman, {Navy} Sailing, {Blue}  General Homewood,  {Pink} Ranch, and {Royal} Harbour.

 

They are already a big hit.  Can you guess which one is the hottest seller???  If you picked the green Woodsman one…you would be right.  They are all in a close race, though, and these hoodies are favourites, too…

 

 

If you’d like one of these for yourself, come pick one up at our “Bookstore”. 

It’s open {almost} every day right after lunch…  and you could also choose your favourite candy bar to go with it!:)

Family Camp Fun Times

As I sat down in the camp Dining Room for dinner last night, one of our staff guys leaned over and said,

“Rita, I just checked out the camp blog.  I was so disappointed.  You haven’t written anything new for a long time!”

Yep, he’s right. It’s time to get back to writing again….

***

The past few weeks here have been a buzz of activity.  Our summer staff arrived.  The Woodsman campsite was set up.  Our first set of camps (Adult Sailing, Eager Beavers, Day Camps, Ranch Camp, and CIT camp) are over.

Currently we have a group of {over 100} family campers at our main camp site, and 35 Junior Boys are out at our Woodsman site.

I laughed as I contemplated what to write on this “10 o’clock coffee” blog today.  The ironic thing is…right now, our days are too full for actual 10:00 staff coffee time!

I thought you might like to see a glimpse of what was happening around here this morning at that time.  We like to have lots of options for activities for everyone.  As I walked around with my camera, here are just a few things that were going on…

A group of bottle rocket builders were carefully constructing their works of art in anticipation for the big launching competition in a few evenings.

 

 

This little smiley face was having a “Super Happy Fun Time” on the swings.

 

This boy informed me that his new bead snake was going to be named “Anthony”.

 

The “first time on a horse” activity {we call it “pony rides”} was a hit!

 

These kids took a break from their play time for a picture in the boat.  The “driver” told me she was taking them all to Disneyland.

“And what is there in Disneyland?” I asked…

“CANDY!”, she exclaimed with gusto…!

***

I thought it was fitting to end this post with a picture of our staff guy who prompted me to get writing again.  Let me introduce you to Joel…

Joel is one of our faithful, hard-working wranglers.  One of the moms told me today that he is “just  a gem”.  I agree.  His mamma did a good job…and yep, she just happens to be a good friend of mine!  {But she did NOT pay me to say that!  Ha!}

***

As I type this post, I’m doing so to the sound of rain pounding on my roof.  We’re praying that summer arrives here soon!:)