Camper Connections with Mary
This week I'm grateful to share some thoughts from one of our Viking village counselors, Mary. She shows how camper connections happen at camp in unexpected and adorable ways. Stomping Ground is a great place that allows for and encourages great camper connections.
-Nigel
There is one kid in my cabin, Trent, he is a very sensitive kid. He is attuned to other people’s emotions, kind of how they are feeling, and he is off in his own world, marches to his own drum, doesn’t seem like he is paying attention a lot of the time. Then my other camper, Bryn, was feeling really sick at the beginning of the week and was having a really tough time. He was really worried he was going to throw up in the middle of the night. As we were going to bed he was like, “Mary, am I going to throw up? What are we going to do if I’m gonna throw up?” I was like, “I really think you’re going to be fine, let me tuck you in again. It’s going to be fine.”
No one thought Trent was paying attention or maybe even in the cabin, and he goes, “Hey Bryn, do you want to be my buddy at waterfront tomorrow?” and it was just really cute. It was a very small moment, they’re so small, and they really do take care of each other, it’s really cute. It’s nice to look out for each other.
Trent kept forgetting my name, and last night after I sang them to sleep, he was like, “that song made me cry.” And I said, “I didn’t mean to make you sad, was it a bad cry or kind of a like an okay cry?” and he was like, “a middle. It was beautiful.” And he’s not just saying that to make me feel good, you know that.
Even just hanging with Bryn this whole week, there’s definitely a worry that after you just meet a kid you’re not going to be able to help them through the tough stuff and just to see how quickly they start to trust you...and he just needed a lot of comfort and kept reaching out for Chris’ hand and saying “will you just hold my hand so I feel better? I don’t know if I’m going to feel better.” And he just kept nuzzling...they are so cute here.
