I.I.L. Part 1

An important part of our summer camp experience at CFA is our motto "Is it Loving?" This means is everything that you do in a loving manner. In these next two blog posts by me I am looking back at some of the camp experiences I have had in my life that really exemplify that motto and why I truly believe that summer camp is a great place for young people to be learning how to Love others.

One of my first memories of summer camp was when I was in seventh grade. It was my first time at Camp Pike (my camp I went to when I was younger, a Christian-hiking camp in Colorado near Pike's Peak). The first night I was either crazy homesick or crazy dehydrated (probably both). My counselor carried me back to the cabin. Once there, he gave his own personal gatorade. I drank it amazingly fast. When I was feeling terrible, we were doing signups for that weeks activities and I hadn't even filled any of my spots. After I got done drinking his gatorade he left and took my sign up sheet. After about 40 minutes he came back with the rest of my cabinmates and he had filled out all my activities for me. Not only did he fill it out, but he filled it out perfectly, which meant lots of sports and not a lot of arts & crafts (no offense). I remember that counselor's name to this day -- Brian Sheraton. He loved me and the rest of my cabinmates before we even arrived. He showed the camp Love the first day I was there.

A story about this past summer at CFA is about the staff. It was during the end of staff training week and the whole staff was in Strong Hall. It was time for me to ask them to donate to our Y Partners campaign (it is our scholarship program that helps send kids to camp). It was my first time to ask people in person to donate to camps scholarship fund. I was extremely nervous and I did my speech that I had been practicing all week in my head. The staff sat there and listened quietly. At the end, they filled out sheets of paper of how much they would donate. As they started to turn them in I started to get goosebumps. I was calculating the numbers in my head and the numbers were shocking. They were passing my goal, which was $1,000. Bill and I stared at each other teary eyed, overwhelmed by the generosity of the people surrounding us. In the end, they donated a total $1,400 dollars, which was good enough to send two campers to camp. It was at that moment I realized how amazing our summer was going to be because of all the Love in that room.


Live, laugh, LOVE and look up.

Ryne