Girls Camp

Girls Camp was fabulous. We had such a great time at Frost Valley YMCA in the Catskill Mountains of New York.  

Here are things that I highly suggest! I got the fabulous idea of lanyards from this blog . Inside the lanyard I gave every girl a schedule of the week to carry around their neck so they knew what was going on, and there was no excuse for "not knowing where to be".  Since we are a new stake and the girls didn't know each other I put their names in there. 

In addition every girl got a welcome bag that contained their t-shrit, pen, earrings, lotion, a few jelly beans, a mini first-aid kit, gum, their lanyard, and the name of their secret sister. It was definitely fun and they totally loved the "gifts". 

This was definitely unlike any camp I have ever been to. The YMCA did all of the certification and the cooking. Which is a huge stress relief. As for the certification they were amazing. Their staff specialize in outdoor education and ecological things. They helped us identify rare footprints, plants and were amazing with starting a fire, sun/stars.... The girls actually loved it by the end. It was like pulling teeth to get them there. 

We had time for Recreational Activities every day which included a zip line, rock climbing, kayak/boating, archery, and arts & crafts. I was too chicken to do the zip line, jumping out of tree isn't really my cup of tea. I did climb the 40 foot rock wall and I did make it to the top. 

It rained and poured the second day we were there so our service project had to be postponed. We focused a lot on team building games and ice breakers! This really helped bring the girls together. After this they really bonded and came together. 

The third day we were there it snowed. We decided to hike anyway. It was cold but absolutely fabulous. I went on the 5 mile hike which took us across a cable bridge, across rivers, and a waterfall. We build a fire on the trail and had lunch, tinfoil pizzas! I was really glad to get the 30 capri suns out of my backpack! woooooo! 

 

When we got back we planed trees along the river to help reinforce the banks that were damaged by flooding during hurricane Sandy a few years back. The 65 of us plowed through the 100 trees in about an 80 minutes! I was really proud of the girls. They were exhausted from the long day but held out like troopers! 

I was definitely pooped when it was all over! After a 3.5 hour drive I for sure wanted to die. I slept for probably 12 hours when I got home. 

* my only suggestion for Secret Sister is to either give them girls they know within the ward or to create a central "mailbox" area so they can give gifts*