Sundays are for Community - Nicole Lauhon
Sunday is my favorite day of the camp week. Which is something I would probably never say during the summer months, but taking some time to reflect after our final camper goodbyes of 2019 in August, I thought more on this very busy day.
For me, Sundays are for community. It starts early, with four different staff meetings. An administrative staff meeting, a panda staff meeting, an all staff meeting, and finally, a village staff meeting. It sounds overwhelming, but it shows the hard-working nature and community focus of Stomping Ground. All of the staff meetings that we have are for coming together as a team and problem solving together. It’s a lot of, “hey, how do we make this small area of camp a little bit better this week,” or “I need support in this way, how can I return that support to you? What do you need?” It’s about putting ourselves in another staff member’s shoes to see how we can help each other be the best staff possible for the kids that are arriving soon.
Shortly after these meetings, we begin to welcome campers, siblings, parents, and the occasional dog to check-in to camp. For me, the community day continues and I make it my goal to have as many genuine conversations with parents as possible. I love hearing from parents what they love most about their kids, and problem solving with them what they suspect might be difficult for their kids while staying at camp. If Stomping Ground is about partnering with kids, then parents are as much a part of that goal as the staff are.
After getting accumulated to our new home for the week, we play. It’s incredible to welcome campers to the choice-based system of Stomping Ground and see their eyes light up when they see how many options they have. On Sundays, I like to take a lap of the field and visit all of the activity areas. I most often see my campers traveling in pairs-making bracelets, building in the adventure playground, playing basketball together-It’s like the kids are looking at each other saying, “hey, it’s scary to get dropped off at a new place. Want to join that soccer game with me?” Without ever having to say it.
Fast forward a few hours and right before bedtime, we have my favorite meeting of the day, our village community meeting. I invite the whole village-campers and staff-to join me in a big circle. We do a diversity exercise from Sylvia van Meerten to introduce ourselves to our new community for the week.
First, I ask, “how are we all different?” The answers come quickly from kids and staff, including different: age, race, boundaries, pronouns, quiet time needed to recharge, food preferences, etc. Next, I ask, “what makes us all the same?” The campers share answers like: “we all have an infinite capacity for radical empathy and love,” “everyone here deserves respect, and to feel safe,” and “everyone belongs here.”
Afterwords, we talk about how we all want to live in a diverse community, and set a few village guidelines for how we are all going to coexist that week. Because of the previous discussion, campers share honestly about what they need from each other, similar to the way we did as a staff just a few hours before. It’s not perfect and we still had moments of stepping on each other’s toes during the week, but in those moments of community we saw each other as people who make the Stomping Ground community better as a whole.
And then the next day? We played.
