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

The Emptying of The Pockets

 

Not too long ago a good friend of mine posted about the contents of her purse. This past week I was inspired to share the contents of my pockets as my next post... seeing as I don't really carry a purse around where I work because I would look silly, I decided emptying my pockets would be much better. I think that it gives a really good glimpse into the life of a Pfeifer Camp Counselor. 

Without further adeu; here are the contents of my pant and jacket pockets the day after camp-out. :)

Gloves (folded and unfolded)- The unfolded are mine. I started my morning at 5:30am wearing them while taking down my tent, but by 6:15am they were shoved in my pockets because it was difficult to quickly tie twine on my girls' packs. The folded ones were an extra pair in case a girl lost hers. Always gotta be prepared!

Socks- On the note of being prepared; I had an extra pair of socks just in case. It is started camping knowledge that you want to change socks before bed because your feet will be much happier in un-sweaty socks while trying to fall asleep. 

Twine- Twine is pretty much the most important part of campout... and also the most frustrating often times. We tie everything onto external frame backpacks with twine, so it is always a necessity. Any Pfeifer counselor would probably agree that camp-out mornings are often more difficult than the actual camp-out itself because we are up at the crack of dawn in 40 degree weather trying to wake-up 10 9-11 year olds, get everything tied back on their packs, take the tents down, and grab the bear-bag- all while sporadically taking about half of them to the bathroom in the woods because they have held it all night in the tent. Soooo having enough twine for the packs, in case they lost it, is important because THE LAST THING you want to hear in the morning is; "Ms. Adriennnnnnne; I don't have enough twine, and my hands hurt, and I'm cold, and I can't roll my sleeping bag, and I'm fixin to uuuuuuuuusssse it!" Little Rock Children's Lingo Dictionary: Fixin to use it means they are about to pee their pants. 

Pocket Knife- To cut said twine and other things that need to be cut. 

Taboo cards: We have had these taboo cards at our table in the Mess Hall so that the girls done eating can play with each other and entertain themselves so that they don't get too crazy. The ones featured here are inappropriate ones they found. The first couple of times we had the cards for meals the girls found it more entertaining to look for inappropriate ones than to actually play the game. If you can't see them one is Bunny and one of the words you can't use is Playboy. The other one is Naked in which you can't use Stripper. You also can't say Nudist Colony for Naked either. Weird.

Composition Notebook and Pen- For taking notes on the girls and the numerous lists I make throughout the day to keep myself organized. 

Folded Piece of Paper- My weekly schedule with random notes about things I needed to do.

Hairband- Obvious. It is a cabin of girls.

Cough Drop Wrapper- Because all of the girls think they are sick and in need of a cough drop because one of the other girls got one.

Cross- From my grandpa. I keep it in my raincoat pocket.

Reversible label- From one of the many stocking caps I passed out for camp out to prevent the whining of being cold. 

Justin Beiber Dog Tag Necklace- Aubrey asked if I would hold on to it to keep it safe. Gotta keep that Beiber gear safe.

Toilet Paper- Numerous reasons for having this. 

Leaf- Who knows.

Petzl Headlamp- Because it is still dark when we wake up to take down camp; and well, it's also dark when we go to bed.

Germ-X- For the germs.

Tweezers- The girls were taking showers that morning and all of the sudden I hear; "Ms. Adrienne will you come here please?!" "Yes, just a second; what is it?" I said. "I have a tick...LOOK!" Oh Lordy was it a big one right on her left hip. So I ran over to my toiletries shelf and found my tweezers because I couldn't get it with my fingers. In the 5 seconds it took me to get them though she had calmly and coolly pried it off of herself . She then proceeded to hand it to me and I squished it real good!