RCSD Retreat
This past weekend we hosted a retreat at camp with about 30 students from Northeast High School in the Rochester School District. Since first working at a summer camp in 2014 as a 17-year-old, the first night with this crew ended up being one of my hardest nights at summer camp yet.
The students who came to camp have been through hell this past year and beyond. Let’s be real. The pandemic devastated families, especially Black and Brown families, the education system, and exacerbated preexisting racial tensions and issues in Rochester. These kids have been on the frontlines of this devastation and have experienced trauma in ways I will never be able to relate to or maybe even understand. But what we know at Stomping Ground is that to practice radical empathy we do not have to have been through the same hard stuff to relate to or connect with one another. Through listening and having opportunities to find a sense of belonging with ourselves and one another, we can connect across different identities and experiences. This is the gift of summer camp that is not always possible in the communities that exist outside of our camp bubble.
So now you have some context for who is showing up and how big of a deal it is that we are gathered as a group. I’m sure you can all remember your first time at a new space, maybe even summer, camp and the nerves you felt, or the questions you asked yourself wondering if you would fit in. These kids showed up many of them not having been outside of Rochester before, much less the woods, and we’re asking them to play our icebreaker games, trust our rules, and walk to a weird building in the night to pee instead of having a toilet inside the cabin. It’s all weird! But damn I am so grateful they were willing to give camp a try.
I was a cabin counselor for a group of 16-17 year-old girls. They were funny, high-energy, and definitely knew how to annoy one another when they wanted to. The first night I was exhausted after only half a day together. Safe to say I was easing back into *camp mode*... It was midnight, everyone was still chatting and a bit nervous about going to bed. (Not that they would admit this of course!) There were whispers about sneaking out, who was going to go meet up with who, and of course “We want to stay up all night!” So I put on my best counselor voice and said “Hey y’all, time to get some sleep. If you want to stay up you can be on your phones but let’s bring the volume down for those that want to sleep.” (AKA ME.) If there’s anything you remember about being a teenager at a sleepover… that didn’t stick. At first I took it personally. I tried allll my counselor tricks! Flashlight time, whisper time, lights out time, played music, asked them to stop, etc. None of it worked. They were going to stay up all night. So I got a couple crappy hours of sleep but we made it through. The next morning I felt defeated and cranky, feeling like I let them get the best of me and probably showed them my frustration more than I would have liked to.
On our last day together the students were responsible for facilitating their own circle as a cabin group. One of the closing rounds of the circle included answering the prompt, “What was one of your favorite parts of the retreat?” With no exaggeration they each shared, “The first night laughing!” “Klee yelling at us!” “Making Miss Klee laugh at our jokes!” “Miss Klee not being able to fall asleep!” “Staying up all night!” My mouth hung open as I realized OH, the most stressful part of the weekend for me was actually the students’ favorite part?! This circle humanized the experience for me. While I felt defeated and bad at my job, they were having the time of their lives. OF COURSE it’s fun to annoy the authority figure in your cabin and stay up all night. The best part of sleepovers is going “Sshhh” then someone inevitably says something, and everyone laughs together. I almost forgot what that’s like to be a teenager and I’m glad they reminded me in this moment.
A lot of the students had other favorite memories to share too. I’ll share one with you that will stick with me for awhile. A student says, “Honestly, I didn’t really like you guys before this because I thought you didn’t like me. I know I’m weird at school but I feel like now you guys might like me back too. I’m glad we were in the same cabin.” The rest of the group validated this camper by agreeing and saying that they were also happy to meet new people.
Whether you’re a camper, parent or caregiver, staff member, donor or supporter, thank you for making moments like these possible. Because of you we were able to bring together kids from different cliques and friend groups, create sleepover memories that will last for a longtime, and see the power of belonging come to life that is uniquely found at summer camp.
