Life is Just a Bowl of Berrys : Girl's Camp

From left to right: Me, Heather Mueller, counselor in the Stake YW presidency, Allison Tolbert, Stake Camp Director, Karen Workman, Stake Certification leader, Mindy Christensen, Stake YW President

I was called to serve as the Stake Assistant Camp Director of all things at the end of last year. I've been in the Young Women program, but I was willing.

It was a great experience.

The theme was "Your Happily Ever After" based on President Uchtdorf's talk to the Young Women in 2010. Everything was princess themed.

Girl's camp here in Florida is held the end of March during Spring Break. I asked someone once why it was not in the summer. Her answer was because it's too hot, muggy and buggy. Makes sense.

The camp was awesome! We stayed at Camp Flaming Arrow, a boy's scout camp. There isn't a church girl's camp here so we schedule and pay for one close by. As camps go, this one is pretty comfortable. There are buildings with beds for the leaders and adirondacks or heavy duty tents for the girls and their leaders. The only thing was it was COLD! The temps got down into the low 30's and even though we told the girls that it was going to be cold, many still came very unprepared! Most hunkered down and were okay, but we ended up putting the YCL girls (5th year leaders over the girls) in one of the buildings because it got so bad.

But there was a huge lake with swimming (after it warmed up at the end of the week), boating, climbing wall, shooting and archery for activities. And, of course, certification, great food, awesome camp songs and inspirational speakers and testimonies. I think everyone had a good time. It was a lot of hard work and little sleep for us as leaders, but really the girls did most of it. We had a Junior Staff group of 6th year girls. They pretty much ran things and they did an amazing job!

One of the best parts, aside from the food was a fabulous video one of our girls made. She had filmed the boys in our stake singing "What Makes You Beautiful." I love, love, loved it!! And so did the girls: You should have heard the screaming! They loved it so much in fact that we watched it many times during the week. Well done, Jenna Workman!! Here's the link so you can see it:
http://karensphotographix.smugmug.com/Category/Stake-Youth/Stake-YM-Video/28672193_SV2Wxn#!i=2432670362&k=pjqnQGv

The highlight of the week was when we wrote our dreams on paper sacks and put candles inside and floated them on the lake. It was a beautiful, spiritual experience watching the lighted bags floating on the lake.