The four weeks of July and the first week of August of the summer of 2009 were five of the most amazing weeks of my life. I did not travel hours across the Atlantic Ocean and backpack across Europe, although that is something I plan to do. I did not help build houses and play with children in a poor town in Mexico. Instead, I went to camp. Not a $4,000 adventure camp half way across the country; just your average, ordinary summer camp on a lake in the middle of a forest. But it is not an average, ordinary camp to me in no way at all. Camp Howe is one of the most amazing places that I have ever been to. It has made such tremendous impact and influence on my life because of the people that I’ve met and the experiences that I’ve had while there.

Camp is a place where a variety of people come together and become the best of friends. You become so close that after just one week it feels like you’ve known each other for you entire life. Its strange how you can find yourself crowded on a squeaky bunk talking and sharing secrets at eleven o’clock at night with people who only three days ago were complete strangers. There is something about camp that removes all of the walls that you have put up between yourself and others, allowing you to spill your life dreams and wildest thoughts to people who you just met. I believe that there is always a small voice in your head when you arrive on that first Sunday saying “Go ahead. Tell them everything. Make a fool of yourself. No one will judge you.” That little voice; that realization is what makes camp so amazing. People don’t judge you at camp like they do at school. All they want to do is make you laugh and make the most of the limited time that you have together.

Being as it is a nonjudgmental environment, camp is the perfect place for many different kids to come together and feel included and accepted. If you have down’s syndrome, cerebral palsy, or autism, there is a place for you. At camp there is something called the ECHO (Environmental Camp for Helping Others) Program, which is for kids with disabilities. Having this program means that there are special staff to work with the kids and that the facilities are accessible. It is truly amazing when a girl who is in a wheelchair because of her cerebral palsy can be fifty feet up in the high ropes course or slide down the space mountain raft in the lake. Inclusion is such an important part of the camp experience for those with disabilities and also for those without. It is feels so incredible to see the smiles on the kids’ faces when they score a homerun in kickball or make it to the top of the climbing wall, as if they had no disability at all. Being with these wonderful kids has really changed how I view and treat people who are disabled.

Not only have the campers changed me, but so have the staff. Some counselors come from all the way across the country, or from just the next town over. What is even cooler is that a lot of the staff members come from other countries including England, Barbados, and Paraguay. It’s incredible how people from all around the world can come together in such a small place and I am so glad that they do, because I have learned so much about the different cultures and peoples in the world from them. I have learned new sports, new songs and music, and even that band eagles can see up to 500 ft. At first it is strange to hear some of them talk and sometimes you can’t understand them because of their accents, but when they are gone and camp is over, you miss them calling jackets, jumpers, and chips, crisps. Camp would not be the same without the extraordinary national and international staff.

During the past years that I have been at Camp Howe I have learned how important it is to have the support of the people around you. It really makes a difference to hear everyone below you cheering for you when you are walking on the Burma Bridge in the high ropes course, when you are going head-to-head with the boys’ cabin in a hula-hoop competition, or even when you are trying to set a record by eating seventeen s’mores. For some kids, making it to the top of the climbing wall is a piece of cake, but for others it is the hardest thing they have ever done, so they need the help and support of their friends to do it. There are so many things to do at camp and there are often times when you realize that you can’t do some of them without your friends cheering you on.

Out of everything that camp has to offer, I think that the most important and impacting are the memories that are made. I’ll never forget eating a corndog for the first time, jumping in muddy puddles with a bunch of seven, eight and nine year olds, and tanning on the boathouse ramp. You make so many unforgettable memories, but they are the kind of memories that can’t be shared with your school friends. When you try to tell stories to friends back home they just don’t get it. It’s not the same. They weren’t there almost peeing their pants from laughing so hard when your bunk mate threw the role of tape at you; they didn’t almost lose their voice from singing “Little Red Wagon” at the top of their lungs; they didn’t get up at four thirty in the morning to see a hazy sunrise that was still beautiful because you were with the people you love. Those memories will only truly come back to life the next summer when you are reunited with the amazing and unique people who they were made with. I think it is safe to say that nothing has made me cry harder than saying goodbye and having to wait a whole year to see them again and make more memories.

The five weeks that I spent at Camp Howe during the summer of 2009 most definitely changed my life. I am still not exactly certain how, but I know that it greatly affected who I am today and who I will be in the future. To tell the truth, last spring I wasn’t sure if I wanted to be a CIT and then go on to be a counselor, but with the experience that I had at camp this summer, I am without question applying to work there next summer. I know that it would be sacrificing most of my last summer after high school, but it has had such a great influence and impact on me that I don’t know what I would do if I didn’t go back.

Sam was a Counselor in Training at Camp Howe in 2009. She is currently in her senior year at Pioneer Valley Regional High School and is hoping to be attending Juniata college in 2010.