Changes

   As the colors of fall are changing, so are the campers' lives transforming here at Pfiefer. I have been watching these four trees since the leaves have been changing on the trees here at camp, and have been mesmorized. The colors have been changing from the right tree to the last one on the left. It just seems the perfect juxtaposition with life here. One person takes the first step and begins to change. Soon those besides them change as well. The girls in my cabin are truly modifying their behavior and growing leaps and bounds academically. They are becoming a beautiful group of young ladies. We have this last week left, then they get to graduate as "Pfeifer Camp Kids" on Halloween Sunday. It will be a Blessed event and I look forward to sharing it with the girls and their family and friends. In the next update look forward to an overview of this past 5 week session.

Loves to all and pray for Camp Pfeifer as we look to graduate our first group of ACE Campers this year.

  

Erika's Wedding

As many of you may know, I had the opportunity to spend this past weekend in Napa, CA for Erika Schmid's wedding. She is one of my dearest friends, so I am extremely grateful to Pfeifer Camp for letting me leave camp on Thursday afternoon to be in the wedding. Here's a brief overview of my weekend!

  

After too much time traveling on Thursday I finally reached the Sacramento Airport at 10pm to be greeted by Erika's father, Mike and her sister Heidi who had just flown in from Irvine, CA. After another hour of driving, we finally reached Napa! First, we headed to the Schmid household to say hi to the bride and groom, then I went to Lily's parents house which was where I got to stay for the weekend.

Lily's house is also called the Trubody Ranch and her parents grow and sell wine grapes. They used to run a Bed & Breakfast there for 19 years, but found they could make a living just by selling the grapes. The picture up on the left is a view of what I woke up to on Friday morning. It was a beautiful morning.
  Friday pretty much just consisted of wedding stuff. Setting up the gym for the reception, rehearsal, and rehearsal dinner. It was a long day, but it didn't matter because I was with such wonderful people.

This is us setting up for the photo booth- which served as the Guestbook.

Left to Right (Eli-groom, Erika-bride, Lily-maid of honor, me- bridesmaid)

Here are just an assortment of pictures from Friday:

Danika and Heide: Erika's sisters.

 Laine- Reader for wedding and dear friend of the Schmids. Josh- Groomsman and DJ for the wedding.

Elliot and Lily

Erika and me

Location of Rehearsal Dinner: Carpe Diem Wine Bar

AND NOW ON TO THE WEDDING DAY!

Gettin so fresh and so clean clean.

Erin all the way from Knoxville!



Almost ready!



Okay, so I don't actually have any pics from the ceremony or of the happy couple...but they really did get married :) It was such a joyous occasion and I feel blessed to have been a part of it. Prayers and much congrats for Eli and Erika Stepp.



Oh wait. Maybe I do have a pic of the lovely couple. hehe.



Love you E!

Pfeifer Camp Intro

Here are some pictures from around Pfeifer Camp for those that want to see them!

The wonderful POOL. It goes to 12 ft deep and is one of the only remaining pools with diving boards at a camp in Arkansas! It sure was a great place to relax and get to know each other on the weekends during training. It was consistently in the high 90s for the first couple of weeks here, with the humidity being at about 90% as well.

Below is Cabin # 6. I am currently living in it with my co-counselor Jennifer (from CA) and the campers during the week. Each cabin has a fireplace, a ceiling fan, and during the ACE sessions they hold 2 counselors and 10 campers.

These cabins have been at the camp pretty much since it started. They are very cozy and are starting to definitely feel like home to me.

To the left is the bathhouse and AmeriCorps shed. There are no bathrooms in the cabins, so we always have to walk down to the bathhouse. To help you picture the camp, the cabins are all to the right of this picture up a little hill. When I took this picture I was standing where cabin 4 is, which was where us lady counselors stayed during staff training. On the right of the bathhouses is the equipment shed for game and camping supplies. This includes tents, tarps, sleeping bags, balls, cones, etc. We camp out with the kids every Wednesday night to help them learn outdoor living skills. We use OBIS activities (Outdoor Biological Instructional Strategies) to help them become closer with nature. I'll have to fill you in on some of my favorite OBIS activities later :)
Above is the Stanford Tollette Pavillion. It is an open building that is mostly used for Arts & Crafts. It also has a fireplace in it. We haven't used it much for ACE, but I hear we use it more for Summer Camp. I really love all of the stone they use in the buildings.


This is the Classroom for the kids. During the week they go to school from about 8:30am to 3:15pm, with a bathroom break and a lunch break. I will take a picture of the inside later and post it. It is very unique inside and I love that it is a one-room school house. You just don't see those much anymore. There are 2 teachers and 40 kids max with numerous helpers throughout the day. The curriculum includes Math groups, Reading groups, Social Issues, Handwriting, English, and Spelling, and much more.



Alright, I think that is enough for now :) I am glad to be sharing this experience with you, and look forward to updating my blog whenever I get a chance. Oh wait! I'll give ya one more picture...the wonderful ladies that I work with. We call ourselves WOMP. Maybe I'll tell ya what it means later. We pretty much just created a group because the guys were always having "Man Meetings". We have a code, a mascot, and a mission statement :D

In this pic we are at Community Bakery in downtown Little Rock. It was sunday afternoon and we were planning for the next week with our campers.

It has great sandwiches and desserts!

(From left to right: Jennifer, Melody, Tracy, Heather, me)