I know I'm not supposed to have favorites...

I have known Deasarae for a year and a half now and have seen her graduate three times from Pfeifer Camp’s ACE program. In fact, I was her first counselor a year and a half ago and this last session made me the last counselor she would have as an ACE graduate. I have literally watched her grow into the mature young lady she has become. When Deasarae came to camp as a fourth grader she was timid, didn’t believe in herself, and was drawn towards the negative influences in the cabin. Throughout that first session, she and I had many talks about how her poor choices were impacting her life.  It was through those talks and her experiencing how positive choices could bring her positive results. The success she found during this first session was something she could take with her, and something that she continued to experience during her subsequent sessions. During this most recent session, I was most impressed with Deasarae’s mature ability to share her feelings with those around her. I often had her share her feelings with her cabin mates during difficult situations because of her eloquent way of speaking her mind and her prior experience at camp. This ability was something her cabin mates also looked up to her for. When Deasarae was put in leadership positions, she relished the opportunity and asked for more chances to work on her skills as a leader. Every moment I could, I praised her for the change I had seen since her first session. She came to understand the process of camp and the love that the staff has for the kids they work with. She came to understand that she was the only one in control of her destiny. She could pick the friends she wanted to be around, she could earn the grades she wanted, and she could be a leader if she wanted to be. She has truly exhibited the transformation Pfeifer Camp kids go through during their five weeks of camp.

Another Session of Success!

Pfeifer Camp had it's 117th graduation yesterday afternoon. The weather outside may have been overcast and a bit drizzly.... but inside the classroom everyone was all smiles! Speaker Tyler Thompson was wonderful and kept everyone engaged in his speech as he did a wonderful job articulating all the hard work the kids do to graduate, and how equally hard their counselors and teachers work to help them be the best version of themselves. I was like a proud momma with my girls as I watched them cross to receive their medal and certificate of achievement. Two of my girls were also chosen as class speakers and they did wonderfully. One of the best lines by my camper, Colleen, was "if you ever meet the teachers you would be like OMG! They are awesome!" The entire audience laughed. It was precious and made me well up because of the new found confidence Colleen has found while being nurtured at camp. All the girls still have a lot of work to do, but they have achieved so much in the last five weeks. I am so glad to get to see them finish the year out at their regular schools.

  Here are a couple of pictures I wanted to share. One was given to me at the end of the fourth week. The one with my name in the middle was a part of an activity I like to call, "Compliment Nametags" where we each pass the papers around with our name on it and everyone writes a compliment on it. I put little pieces of paper over parts where someone put down their phone number or last name (for privacy's sake). 

One of my fav comments is "Lets Get Funky" by Lyndsi