Goodbye ITC

Friday was the last full day at ITC and there were signs of this everywhere. Campers like Bennett were exceptionally emotional and people were cleaning like crazy so we could leave as soon as possible on Saturday.

Richard was leaving in the afternoon on Friday so I spent the morning making sure he cleaned up all the messes he made. The biggest area he had to clean was the prop house, where I am sure he tried on over half the clothes and threw them on the ground. I was not about to let Richard get away with this mess, so I watched him like a hawk as he put all the clothes away in the correct place and not stuffed under a shelf, a trick he tried to pull on me several times.

In the evening, we had a family picnic where both camper and counselor families could visit the camp. My whole family came and I was happy that they could meet Calvin along with some of the other campers. I think Calvin made a lasting impression on them because he introduced himself by stealing my brother's cookie.

After my family left I had another task before the picnic was over. For the last two weeks, there has been a slowly growing group called the "Blow horn Bandits." The group started with one person blowing an airhorn in the middle of the night and trying not to get caught. Next, he passed it on to someone else and if that person did it successfully he or she would receive a coveted red and black bracelet along with the knowledge of who else sounded the blow horn.

This time it was my turn to blow the horn and in order to create more hype on the final day of camp, I had to do it right behind the band's stage at the picnic. For my disguise, I had a full-body orange suit. Sadly, the suit was not enough to hide my figure and many people recognized me as I ran past but it was still a thrill and I still received a bracelet so I was satisfied.
After all the campers were in bed, I had a great time reflecting on the summer with other staff members, sharing our best and worst times at camp this year.

Saturday was the last official day of the Seneca Sheepdogs and it was hard to say goodbye to a lot of the campers. When Calvin's parents picked him up, he gave them a big hug and they said he would definitely be coming back some time.

Overall, I had a great second summer at ITC. Although I was extremely tired and my patience was tested over and over again, I have no regrets because there were so many great campers and counselors I got to know this summer. I will miss my time there, and I will hopefully return for holiday camp in December.

Music is in the Air

On Wednesday, the band “Brena” returned and the campers had a great time dancing and singing along. This was with the exception of Bob who chose to listen to the music from the ropes course for reasons only Bob understands.

On Wednesday night, I played checkers with Gus on the porch while Jason and Bob played Uno. It was great to see Jason’s dismay while Bob laughed in his face, giving him one “Draw two” after another.

I liked playing with Gus because he always has a smart comment to make as we play. His comments annoyed me the last time he was in our cabin, but this session I have really grown to like Gus a lot more.  

In the afternoon, we made a cabin DVD that we will watch Friday. We chose to make an ITC commercial by first doing a spoof from an Old Spice commercial and then getting more serious by giving some camper testimonials.

The talent show went pretty well. We had Gus playing guitar while Jason played a keyboard. Of course, Richard dressed like Steven Tyler and screamed into the microphone. With all his practice, he was ready to go; toward the end of the song, the music overtook him, and he planted a kiss right on Kyle’s face. Kyle was very taken aback to say the least; he did not know how to react to this act of affection.

After the cabin act, Bob did his act, which was doing what he does best: picking on counselors.

For his act, Bob sat ready with a super soaker while Kyle and I had our backs turned. After a little bit of soaking, we retaliated by dumping our water bottles on him, which were conveniently full and ready.

After Bob’s act, Gus told a joke. The problem with Gus’s joke telling is that he takes forever to get it out. Instead of going straight through the joke, he tends to go on tangents, which, in my opinion, are actually funnier than the joke itself. 

The Olympics at ITC

On Monday morning, we woke up to Eric’s blankets and sheets tossed everywhere except for the actual bed. He spent a lot of the night getting out of bed and approaching us to tell us to put him back in bed. We only fell for this a few times before we decided to let him do it himself.

Nathan preparing the slip-n-slide

We have another talent show this week and Richard is without a doubt the most excited about this in our cabin. He spent his rest period practicing in the screen house for his big Aerosmith performance.

At night, we had a slip-n-slide, which was yet another opportunity for Calvin to enjoy himself playing in water. He went down every time with a huge smile on his face. I was happy too  because instead of using water from the dirty lake this year, we used hose water.

Tuesday afternoon was a rough one for JJ. We started off with a nature memory game. He stormed out a couple times and I was able to get him back in by finding books for him to look at while we played. The third time, however, I was not so lucky. This time he threw his glasses, something he does every time he is angry, causing the lens to pop out and the nosepieces to break. After he realized the nosepieces were not fixable, he threw them causing them to be lost forever.

The afternoon only got worse for JJ when I brought him to the bike track and he fell only a few laps into his ride. “It’s the end of the world, I’m dead, I’m dead!” he yelled, even though his only real injury was a scratched elbow.

Even though JJ had a bad time biking during sports and rec, our other campers were busy winning a competition.

Going along with the Olympic theme, our cabin had to rack up as many points as we could in the hour. Seth got points by throwing a football while Jason got points by shooting baskets and Eric bowled a few strikes.

However, the most important player in our cabin success was Calvin. Another way to score points is by riding bikes around the track, one of Calvin’s passions. Calvin racked up 60 during the time, giving us a total of 138 points, hopefully enough to bring home the gold medals. 

In the evening, we had more Olympics. Seneca and Chippewa had Scotland for their country, so we decided to paint beards on the campers to represent the typical Scottish person.  I do not think many people understood the beards, but I was happy with it

The End is Near

Both Friday and Saturday were restful days, to no complaint of any of the counselors.

Friday Morning started with a totem pole dedication ceremony using the totem poles we decorated earlier in the week.

Each cabin had to choose a chief and dress them up for the ceremony. We chose Alex as our chief and with a little bit of war paint and a flashy vest to go along with it we made him look like a true warrior.

Each of the chiefs marched down to the fire pit, assisted by a counselor, and read their cabin’s speech about what it meant to be a camper here. For ours, we opened by using a speech from “The Hangover” about a wolf pack and changed it to a dog pack.

We spent the rest of the day packing and we said goodbye to Max a day early because he wanted to go to his Mom’s birthday party.

At night, we had our final council fire of the year and I was rightfully the archer once more. I thoroughly enjoyed my time as the archer here and I will never forget my only line, “We are the campers and staff of ITC who have proven themselves worthy of this council fire!”

After a relaxing Saturday with a lot of napping, we welcomed our final new campers on Sunday. Our cabin for session seven includes many past sheepdogs. Both Calvin and Seth are staying from session six. In addition, both Gus and Bob are back. Four new campers, Richard, Jason, Eric, and JJ, arrived on Sunday as well.

One day into the week, there has already been a lot of interaction among our campers.

We gave Bob a great homecoming by having the camp’s power chair that is so dear to him. We also told Calvin to give him a hug, which he did with pleasure and put a huge smile on Bob’s face.  

The funniest example of the interactions is Eric and Bob. Eric is a nonverbal camper who often comes up to us and points to his favorite stuffed animal: Barney.  For some reason, Eric took to Bob right away. He pointed to Bob and we quickly realized that he would go anywhere with Bob.

“He is infatuated with me,” Bob said as we lead Eric up to get his medicine (the only way we could get him to go.) “I now have a leech,” he added.

During the fire, I noticed Bob off in the distance by himself laughing very hard. I was not sure what it was about but then I realized that he had found someone’s flip-flop and was throwing it to make it harder to find. The look of self-satisfaction on his face was hilarious considering he did not even know anyone was even watching.

At night, Richard organized a miniature game of football in our cabin. It was funny to see him try to get Calvin to mimic his three-point-stance.

The only person who did not enjoy the football game is Gus. Richard spent a long time trying to convince him to play, giving him very specific instructions to which Gus replied “Here’s the deal, just go ahead and pretend I am playing because I’m going to bed.”

Overall, I think this is going to be a great final week of camp because we once again have such a wide variety of personalities in our cabin. 

A Day in the Life of Calvin

Today is Thursday, I woke up to my counselors and I was ready for another day of camp.

At breakfast, I saw one of the camp bibs and it had a fray. I do not like frays at all, so I proceeded to rip it off, ripping the entire bib in half. My counselors were not happy because there are not many of these in the camp. However, I still managed to rip one more on the way out of the dining hall.

Next, I made play dough out of salt and flour in art class. I had a lot of fun feeling it between my fingers.

We had a special lunch today; it was a barbeque that some of the camp sponsors provided. While in line, I saw that Brian had his hands full with two plates of food. This was the perfect time to strike. I noticed there was a tiny hole in his staff t-shirt, and I had been dying to take care of it. I quickly ripped it as much as I could before he could stop me, leaving a gaping hole in his shirt. I heard him talking to the director to arrange plans for a new shirt for next week.

During rest period, Brian took me to the bikes and we biked for about an hour straight. Next, I went on the paddleboats and pattled my cabin mates around the lake several times. Hopefully all of this exercise will cause me to sleep better at night because I have been waking up earlier than everyone else.

At night, we had the talent show. I sang “Who Let the Dogs Out” with the cabin while wearing face paint and hats that looked like dog ears made out of construction paper.

For my individual act, I got to perform my great talent of destroying boxes quickly. I had 30 seconds to destroy as many boxes as I could. I ripped as hard and as fast as I could and I was able to completely destroy six large cardboard boxes.

I also enjoyed Javelle and Seth’s rendition of Lady Gaga’s “Poker Face,” it was a tough act to follow.

Overall it was a great day and I did in fact sleep really good at night after such an active day at ITC. 

Water Days

Tuesday started off with music class, where we quickly discovered one of Calvin’s passions: water. Because it is sensory week, campers had the opportunity to play with different textures. Calvin took to the water right away and continually poured it in and out of a bucket with a cup. We used this activity to keep him busy during rest period as well.

Jordan made big strides today. He overcame his fear of eating in front of people and I was able to feed him. First, I started with applesauce, the only thing he would eat last year, and then I tried sloppy joe meat because it is similar texture. Finally, I worked my way up to solid food and he still ate it to my surprise.

I was a little disappointed in the evening activity. There were sponsors of Indian Trails at the camp so during a ceremony we were instructed to play with the kids on the bikes and with a parachute. We were definitely just putting on a show instead of acting how we normally do with the campers and I really did not like this.

On Wednesday morning, Seth arrived. Because he was three days late, he is staying until next Thursday in order to get his full week’s worth of camp. Once he arrived, we threw a bathing suit on him and went to the pool with everyone. Most of the cabin enjoyed it with the exception of AJ who just wanted Kyle to hold him, something he always loves to do.

It rained again on Wednesday but “big booms” (thunder) is one of Seth’s favorite things second only to Lady Gaga so it kept him in a good mood.

We played with Play Dough and Javelle thrusted it wildly across the table while slamming it as hard as he could. We thought Calvin may throw it everywhere but he actually had a good time with it, making about twenty yellow pancakes.

In the evening, we decorated totem poles. Obviously, we went with the sheepdog theme and did a big head at the top. We added paw prints that everyone helped paint and a collar. The finished poles are going to be displayed for several years around the camp so the Seneca Sheepdogs will be forever remembered. 

Seneca Welcomes Puppies

When I worked the Easter weekend at Indian Trails I thought I would never have an easier cabin; so far it seems this week’s cabin proved me wrong. Of course, it helps when three of the eight campers do not show up. One of these three is Cody, who had tubes put in his ears and will not be back this week.

With only five campers, and a week to rest, we are ready to begin another session of camp. This is a kids week, so all of our campers are very young. This is exceptionally strange because we have always had the oldest cabin in the past.

Alex was the first one to arrive. He was here before in another cabin and he is both helpful and well dressed. Today he wore a polo and nice new shoes.

We also have Calvin. It is his first time at camp and he seems excited to be here judging by his high pitched noises that he makes. Both Alex and Javell, another camper in our cabin, love to echo what they hear, meaning that when one of them makes a loud noise the other repeats it, causing the other to repeat it back. So far, we have found that the best way to stop this is to take on e of them away so they no longer have anything to repeat.

Seth and AJ...best friends

AJ is in our cabin as well, and he seems to be a favorite among the counselors. He is small, cute and loves hugs so it is obvious why he is well liked.

Finally, we have Jordan who is nervous about being at camp so far. Like other times when I have had Jordan in my cabin, he will not eat in large groups because he is too nervous.

On Monday, we did in fact gain another camper; Max, who was in our cabin for the first session, returned to Seneca. He really enjoyed camp the first time and he was on a waiting list. With all the cancelations, he was able to come back. So much for the very easy week, but oh well.

Alex continued to walk around with a brush in his hand all day, brushing his head often, despite the fact that he does not have any hair.

We also discovered that Calvin loves to break glass. First, he broke a bowl that was in our cabin by dropping it on the ground and then he did the same thing during breakfast with my coffee mug. Because of this, we told the kitchen staff to give us only paper plates for the rest of the week.

For the evening program, we played a game of “Eagle’s nest.” It was a lot like basketball but with only one basket. We teamed up with Algonquin, our brother cabin for the week, and the campers took turns shooting balls into the basket. 

The End of the Stretch

The last two days of the long three-week stretch passed quickly. On Friday, most of the cabin seemed out of energy. The campers were almost all there for three weeks straight, and I guess they were getting tired. The most obvious example of this was Abdul. He is always the loudest person at camp, whether it was yelling for his girl "ROHINA," or other campers "Happy Birthday Craaaaaaiiiiiggg," he said over and over on Craig Poe's birthday. Instead, he seemed exaused all day Friday and he did not even want to go to  the final council fire.

For the first time, I did not play the role of the archer at the council fire. Instead, I got to watch it happen and take a video of it. I will also add that the person who took my place did screw up the one line he had so I would say I showed him up.

Saturday was a bittersweet day. I was exausted, but at the same time it was sad to say goodbye to some of the campers that I knew would not be coming back. I was really thankful that most of the campers stayed in our cabin for the three week stretch because it allowed me to get to know them really well. It even go to the point where I did not laugh at every corny joke Lesley made, I was just that used to his personality. I also learned that no matter what, Bob will always be stubborn, so it is best to just laugh it off and let him do his own thing.

Chinese New Year

Wednesday was the first day that our cabin was the messiest one (or at least the first time on a day where they were checked). For this, we had to spin the “wheel of justice.”

Jason devouring his watermelon

Around and around it went, each space representing a different punishment. Slight hope held out for the “salvation” space dashed when it landed on “ITC makeover.” In the past, people have gotten in dresses and make-up for this, but we  found that all the dresses disappeared from the prop house. decided to take a cooler approach to this. Instead, I wore a red cape along with a large hat.

In the evening, we played a game called “world domination.” We teamed up with our sister cabin, Kickapoo this week, and formed on team, which we called “Pooca” (we took the last part of each cabin.)

As Pooca, we first had to hide an Easter egg in our territory. Next, we had to challenge two other cabins to a watermelon-eating contest. Two campers and a counselor from each team faced off. From our cabin, it was Jason and he was the first one done. Our three members won the contest, so we now had five minutes to search for their egg. We hid ours up in a tree, so I mostly looked there, and it was not long before someone else found the egg up in the big bell.

After we found the egg, we officially conquered this teams territory, so we now had to capture more. The other challenges were a large game of tic-tac-toe where campers got to be the pieces and a chant-designing contest. In the end, Pooca conquered all, meaning we won two nights in a row.

Josh’s dress clothes  had been taunting him the last few days. They are hanging up on his feeding tube right next to his bed and every time he lays in bed he just stares at them and smiles in anticipation for the dance. On Thursday, Josh did not have to wait any longer because it was finally time.

First, however, we had ropes in the morning. It was here that we finally came up with the theory that Bob is in fact a reptile. Instead of sitting in the shade by the swing, he went up the path and found a spot of sun to bake in while everyone else got ready to swing.

The dance had a Chinese New Year theme At the dance, almost everyone at the dance got what they wanted.

Bob got to sit by the speaker with his head down most of the night, even during a song called “Put your Head Up.” I tried dancing with him a little and it was too loud by the speaker to tell if he liked it or not.

Lesley got to sit at a table with all girls because there were no other spots by us. A girl counselor asked him if she was feeding her right and he replied, “You can feed me any way you want to.”

Josh also got to dance with a lot of girls, and he got to look good in his purple and grey dress clothes, spiked hair, and freshly shaved face.

As a whole, most of the campers once again looked like they were having a great time dancing all night. 

Cake Masters

When Chris left camp on Saturday, I was not sure who would be worthy to fill the empty void of the bed next to mine, but when Josh came back to Seneca on Sunday, I knew he would be a worthy camper.

 Seneca is running out of bed rails so I had to push Josh’s bed right next to Abdul’s so they can share the rail in the middle. Hopefully the two are good friends because they will be seeing a lot of each other even when they roll over at night.

Our cabin is quite similar to last week’s; Grandpa Greg switched cabins while Chris and Matt went home and we got three new campers. This includes Josh, who was in our cabin a few weeks ago and is still one of my favorites. We also have Jason, who was in my cabin for holiday camp. Jason is very high functioning and he loves everything about camp. Finally, we have Jeff, who I have never met before. So far, he seems easy to care for with the exception of his trouble swallowing; Jeff is the first camper I have had who needs his food pureed.

Monday started with some bangs. The first bang was Abdul running into the bathroom door, causing it to fall off the hinges. It also caused Josh to laugh for about five minutes even though he only heard it and did not actually see it happen. The other bangs were from thunder; it poured as we ran everyone up but the running did not help, we were soaked.

Thankfully, we had music in the morning so that activity was still on despite the rain. We thought boating would be canceled but when we woke up from a very successful nap the sun was shining and it was back on.

In the evening, we had a Rick Ruther concert. He has a Jimmy Buffet style and he played mostly older songs. The concert had a Cinco de Mayo theme to go along with the week’s theme, holiday week. Campers got virgin margaritas and other flavored drinks. I think I heard at least five campers who were disappointed in the lack of alcohol. Most of the campers wore leis as well, which I think is more Hawaiian than Mexican but I was not going to question it.  

Cody opened Tuesday morning with an announcement “Everyone, today we have a birthday…it is my birthday today so we will be singing ‘Happy Birthday.’” Cody has been planning his birthday for the last three weeks so this came as no surprise. Cody assigned me the task of making and designing a two-layer cake and he had other people on other duties.

By some miracle, the evening activity Tuesday was a cake decorating contest, so I told Cody that this was the cake I was making for him. In order to keep up the incredible amount of spirit our cabin has for our mascot, we chose to make our cake into a sheepdog head. First, we used white frosting then we had campers put black sprinkles around the edges to add a shaggy feeling to the dog. Next, we had campers put on a Fruit loop collar and dye marshmallows blue for the eyes.

One of the rules for the contest was that every cabin member had to be represented. We were wondering how to do this for awhile but then it came to us. Cody was adamant about adding dog poop to this cake, so we decided on eight chocolate piles of dog poop for the eight campers this week. This may seem like it was going too far to an outsider, but at this camp hardly an hour goes by without someone talking about poop so we were really just filling a quota.

Between our creativity with the poop, our cheerful presenting skills, and our high amount of camper involvement, we took first place in the contest. We were especially happy with this because there was some fierce competition out there between a well-done bumblebee cake and a castle complete with a moat. 

Boating with the Boys

Thursday was the day of the eagerly anticipated boat trip. For the older campers, it was a surprise trip to the Grand River ferry. I went on the trip to Crystal Lake in the Grand Haven area with the younger campers including Matt and Cody from our Cabin.

Sadly, Bob was still too sick to go on the trip. He said he felt fine, but his pale face and exhausted look said otherwise. I was later told he spent the day sitting in an even more slouched position than normal on the deck by the water to pretend he was on a boat. 

     
Instead of one of my own campers, I switched with another counselor and got to spend the day with Sha guan, an 8-year-old with Autism. He mostly repeats what you say, but he will answer some questions. I quickly discovered that he loved ice cream as “ice cream truck” was one of his most popular phrases.  He was sporting shorts and a cut off that were way too big for him because they were actually his counselors (all of his own clothes were dirty) so he looked pretty funny.

When we first got on the boat, Sha guan only wanted to sit inside at first, but we eventually were able to coax him into sitting in the back to look at the water.

After we were off the boat, we sang songs for the Coast Guard people who were there. This was Sha guan’s shining moment. He went to the middle of the circle and sang while constantly spinning in circles. After that, the Coast Guard showed us what they do. We went to the harbor and watched a  helicopter rescue demonstration

On Friday morning, we found out that all three of the counselors from another guy’s cabin were sick with the same stomach flu that Bob had. I helped them out in the morning and we ended up dividing their campers among the other cabins so they could rest. For us, we got Matt B, Bodie, and Danny, three more wheelchairs.
      

Most of our campers were excited for doing the swing. While I was helping Matt W put his harness on, he told me that he liked to critique restaurants’ food for their health and taste. I wondered which restaurant had the best healthy food and he answered with McDonald’s so I do not know if I would trust his judgment on restaurants.

Bob continued to surprise us with his ability to be sensitive given his normal, mischievous nature. I asked him if he wanted to join the cabin in the art room and he responded, “why the hell not?” but then when he got there he colored a rainbow that he was very proud of.

I once again got to be the archer for the council fire which I was happy about because it was the first outdoor one, which is much more special than the indoor ones, in my opinion.

As a birthday gift, we let Cody play the part of the golden eagle. This was the first time a camper was able to play a part in council fire. The golden eagle is covered in black paint so this was the perfect role for him not to be recognized and  therefore envied by other campers. During practice, he missed his cue and we were not sure what to expect, but he ended up doing a great job in the actual event, making it a great way to end the week. 

Stretch Out

If our cabin was experiencing problems with flexibility, this would no longer be an issue after Tuesday.  Because the pool was once again out of service, our first activity became chair yoga. The first afternoon activity was….chair yoga again! Luckily, most of our campers did not seem to mind and the leader did a good job trying to change it a little bit by making it into a game the second time. Chris spent most of the time choosing soothing songs for our cabin to enjoy from his collection of over 50 CD’s that he brought.

   
The evening program was open mic night, an activity that campers always seem to enjoy. In our cabin, Larry and Abdul performed a rap together and Grandpa Greg sang a song by the Eagles. However, no one could compete with Cody’s performance.

Cody spent a long time getting ready. He put on a nice shirt and tie and found a long gray wig to give him the rock star look he was trying to achieve. He spent an equally long amount of time choosing a song that was just right. He finally chose “Bohemian Rhapsody,” by Queen.

     
His performance was compete with background dancers that he called out of the crowd, a power slide on his knees, and a throwing of the wig at the end of the song. This was a side of Cody that we liked to see, instead of the emotional Cody we often have.

     
Wednesday started off with art. The campers started by using crayons and then covered it with a thin layer of black paint. After it dried, they could scrape the paint off to draw a picture.

     
The counselors also did an impressive drawing, a “Seneca Sheepdogs” poster that we can hang in the cabin. This will be especially nice since our posters disappeared during the week off.  

     
A lot of the campers wanted to go on the boat on Root Beer Lake. “Is this coffee decaf or regular?” Leslie asked when he saw how brown the water was.

     
Bob came down with a stomach ache and all he wanted to do was lay in bed, which meant that the counselors also got to fight over who  got to stay in the cabin with him while he rested and took a nap of his own.

     
Bob was not the only one with this sickness though. There were at least 11 cases in the camp and more with counselors. The sickness caused the evening activity to be canceled and counselors were instructed to get campers to bed early.  We had our cabin soundly sleeping by a little before 10, which is a big feat for us this week. 

Stars and Stripes of ITC

Matt W always talks about his love for America whenever he gets the opportunity. He speaks about George Bush and our troops more than anyone I know. When asked if he liked the Indian costumes, he replied "yes, but nothing is as beautiful as old glory there," and pointed at the flag. Monday was the Fourth of July so we knew Matt would be exceptionally excited on the holiday dedicated to his favorite thing.  Everyone, including Matt was dressed in his or her red, white and blue  and Leslie even wanted to deck his face out with full face paint (Which later got in his eyes but it was worth it he said).

   
I got to know Grandpa Greg and he had a lot of good things to say. For his job, he is a motivational speaker and according to his business card, he is a cancer survivor. Grandpa Greg also got even more in touch with technology than he already is by getting a Facebook account with his iPhone.             
   
For the Fourth of July, we celebrated with a parade. Everyone wore flags, streamers and firefighter helmets in our cabin. When the music started playing, cabins filed in a line and we marched around camp. Most of the campers did not have a problem, but Bob was a different story. Bob loves to go as fast as he can in his chair and even though he was dressed like a member of the parade, he did not want to be one. He ran into at least 3 people trying to pass them with his signature mischievous smile on his face.
   
The parade ended at the fire pit, where we had another fire. It was so patriotic that when Grandpa Greg called me during the fire, it took me a long time to find him in the sea of red, white and blue.

   
After the parade we had a firework show. All of the fireworks were legal, so it was not the most impressive display but the campers still enjoyed them and most had the opportunity to have sparklers.

   
At night, Leslie told me about his boss that he did not like. I asked him why he did not like her and he responded “She was mean to me and cut my hours….plus she was fat.” 

The End and the Beginning

Friday and Saturday were both relaxing in terms of activities. On Friday, we created a poster to represent our cabin. The poster obviously had a picture of a sheepdog and had everyone’s signatures on it. Cody helped draw a picture of a campfire that was a little too close to the sheepdog so it ended up looking like a sheepdog being roasted.

 
 Chris spent pretty much the entire day working on a large art project. He used a big piece of paper and glued glitter, paper cutouts, feathers and even a toy magic wand to it. It also says “office” because he plans to bring it to his office.

 
 We finally got a teepee at the camp so we were  excited to have an outdoor council fire. Sadly, it rained so it ended up being inside again. However, this did mean that I got to be the archer for the third time in a row so I did not complain.

   
We received our cabin assignments for next week and we will be getting four new campers on top of the 5 that are staying, so it will definitely be a busy week next week in Seneca.

   
Most of the cabin was tired on Saturday which was good for me because I needed some rest. We watched Grease for the evening activity and I even got in a nap and run during the day for my one-hour break.
   
On Sunday, we welcomed Matt W, Larry, and Greg into our cabin. Larry was supposed to be in my cabin three times last year and never showed up so it was good to see he actually exists. He is good friends with Abdul so he was especially happy when he arrived. 

The legend: Grandpa Greg

   
Greg is a legend here at camp. He is 67 years old and he has been coming to camp since it opened, thus he gets the nickname "Grandpa Greg." He has all the latest technology including an iPhone and a very fast wheelchair. 

   
The night was pretty crazy with getting 6 people with wheelchairs in bed but it should get faster as the week progresses. Hopefully I will have some more funny stories from these campers. 

The Week's Events

Tuesday started out with some picture frame decorating and painting. However, Lesley was a little late because he had to go to the bathroom. “For now, I will just do farts and craps instead of arts and crafts,” he said. When Lesley arrived, he painted his picture frame pink for a very complicated reason. He said pink reminded him of the band Pink Floyd, a band he has only heard of and never listened to, but Pink Floyd reminded him of a racecar driver named A.J. Floyd, so naturally he had to paint it pink.

Bennet's Birthday party

After lunch, our cabin painted a derby car and played some basketball, bowling, and biking during sports and recreation. Then came the evening program. We were supposed to have an improv group come to the camp and perform but the plans unfortunately fell through. This meant the counselors had to do the improv instead. The camper’s favorite acts were ones where counselors sat on each other’s lap and the back person became the “arms” for the front person while performing various tasks.

It was Matt Bennett’s birthday Tuesday and he is a very popular camper to say the least. I had him in my cabin last year so he invited me to his “secret” birthday party which consisted of pizza and celebration after most the campers were in bed.

Wednesday began with swimming in the pool. This was the first time I have had every camper want to go swimming and it was great to see the enthusiasm. On the other hand, it also got tough to get everyone out of the pool on time for lunch. Abdul got the award for most unique way to spend one’s time in the pool. He decided he wanted to go in with his (waterproof) wheelchair so he did and he spent the whole time sitting in the pool with the chair instead of swimming.

We also had boating Wednesday and had a scary experience. I put Nate on the shore, which is on a hill and locked him in place. The instant I walked away he took his brakes off causing him to roll down the hill and off the pavement and fall over chair and all. Fortunately, he seemed fine, probably because he is so tough from all the pushups he likes to do, and he still enjoyed his ride on a boat.

Seneca hits the stage in "ITC Idol"

Wednesday night was the time for “ITC Idol,” and we learned how hard it is to have a whole cabin sing a song we barely know with only one piece of paper with the lyrics. Luckily, Cody was the one with the microphone and the lyrics so he pretty much stole the show. 

On Thursday we had a pretty relaxing day compared to the last few. We had coffee house where Chris finally got to bowl on the Wii, something he has been wanting to do for the entire week. I played cards with Bob during this time and when he drew a 2 of diamonds he showed it to me and said it was the number of my IQ (as a joke of course).

It was also Tim McGraw night, where an impersonator came to ITC. He looked and sounded quite a bit like the real Tim McGraw and I think Chris was the most excited about this. Last year he played a song by him at least 20 times a day on his CD player so I knew he was a fan. At the end, he gave out signed pictures which Chris put in his picture frame he made a few days before.

What Happens in Vegas...

The break is over and week three is here at ITC. This week we have eight campers, 5 of which I have had in my cabin before. 

Leslie has returned, who is one of the funniest campers here. He has a closed head injury and he is full of humorous quotes that are especially funny because they are all said in his unique, Lesley voice. Today, when I opened the door, he said, “That’s right; hold the door for your master.” He also makes a lot of animal sounds and after he made a monkey one he told me his brother was Tarzan and uncle was King Kong.

Another favorite camper of mine has also returned, Chris. I requested him to be in our cabin so this was no surprise. Not a lot has changed for Chris since last summer. He still brought his enormous collection of CDs and plays one every time he is in the cabin. He still hates campers who snore and he still loves to use his favorite insult, “turkey,” on people. 

We also have Nathan, Abdul, Bob, Darrin and Cody in our cabin. Sadly, Earl did not show up today, another camper that I have enjoyed in the past; hopefully he will be coming late.

Overall, I think the week looks like it will be filled with good quotes from a lot of the campers and hopefully good sleep too. I am really looking forward to getting to know Darin and Nathan,  the two campers I have not met before. 

Monday was another rainy day, which meant no ropes course, but it seemed to be alright with most of our campers and we played cards instead.

Bob was very happy because we dug an old power wheel chair out of storage for him to use. He usually has a manual chair and he has been asking about the power chair whenever he gets the opportunity. It also made it a lot easier on us because we had 4 manual chairs to push everywhere with 3 counselors.

Our other activity was song writing. The song our sister cabin and us wrote ended up being all about none other than sheep dogs. We tossed the idea of turning the lyrics into an opera, but we ended up deciding a rap sounded even better.

The second activity was supposed to be outdoor cooking but the rain got all the logs wet so instead we practiced for “ITC Idol,” where the cabins will be singing with a live band on Wednesday night.

The evening program was casino night; it included card games, pool, roulette, and Bingo. The campers had the opportunity to win prizes both from winning bingo and from winning chips in the different games.

Dancing and the Rain

"Rain, rain, go away” Ed sang during rest period as we sat on the porch. Sadly, he did not get his wish. It rained most of the day on Wednesday, which meant no boating and no “Triwizard Tournament” in the evening. On top of that, the boiler broke on the pool, which was especially disappointing for Josh because it is the one activity in which he can fully participate.

Despite the rain and the broken boiler, we still managed to have some fun. Instead of swimming, we watched a Harry Potter movie and played Uno and instead of the “Triwizard Tournament,” we had karaoke night.

Along with the karaoke, there was a Harry Potter dress-up station, which Jim took much further than anyone else. I let him borrow my glasses and scarf and we found him a black robe; all he was missing was the long, jet-black hair. Josh was also excited about dressing up like Harry Potter so I painted some glasses and a lightning bolt scar on him.

The dress-up was not the only thing Josh was excited about though. It took me awhile to figure out what he wanted, but I finally found that he wished to go up for karaoke with a girl camper. He got his wish and sang a romantic song with a camper, “My Heart Will Go on.” 

Today was the day of the “Yule Ball,” or the big dance. For guys, this meant making boutonnieres out of pipe cleaner and colored coffee filters and manicures for the girls. It also meant a relaxing day for the guys because it does not take long to have them ready.

Most of the cabin brought a pair of formal clothes to wear and Harry Potter (Jim) made an appearance at the dance too. The campers all looked like they had a great time dancing, including best friends Bill and Scott, who danced together for a few songs. The one exception was Ed, who fell asleep on the dance floor. 

Fresh Start

Music, boats, karaoke- Monday was a great start to the week. We quickly discovered that we now have a helper for cleaning the cabin each morning. Jim loves making beds so we obviously had no problem letting him make them all.

Next, we had music where we made and decorated maracas and kazoos. I would say Ed got the most enjoyment from this because he not only shook his maraca as much as he could during music but also during open mic night, the evening program.

I spent most of the rest period talking to Ed on the porch. He was sporting his t-shirt that said, “I’m not Ed,” which probably did not fool anyone because his nametag was right below it.  He told me a bunch of knock-knock jokes and showed me some of his physical therapy that he normally does at home. The best knock-knock joke was "knock knock (whose there?) Madam, (Madam who?) Madam foot's in the door."

Ed in a good mood

We also had boating and we were able to get both Josh and Ed on a paddleboat. Both had huge smiles on their faces when they were on them, so it was worth putting our legs in the brownish black lake.

Although I think most of Josh’s enjoyment came from having a female counselor holding him in the boat.

We had two campers from Seneca participate in open mic night. First, Steve sang, “Back in Black” by ACDC and then Ed sang a song called “You Make Me Happy.” He was not sure who sang the song, so we just found one and he went with it. He said the karaoke was the best part of the night, so it must have been good.

On Tuesday, we started the day with art. It was tie-dye Tuesday and I helped tie-dye for the first time. I made a red, yellow, and green shirt for Josh. This was the first time he did not want an art project to be green and white for Michigan State.  

For the afternoon activities, we painted and then made Hobo pies over the campfire. Then, in the spirit of Harry Potter we played Quidditch. Being the runner that I am, I was selected to be the golden snitch. For this game, it meant running around the bike path while other counselors tried to catch the gold painted ball attached to my waist. Sadly, the first two times the ball broke after only a few laps so we switched to just having them tap me. This was by far the most tired I have ever been after an evening program, but I used it as part of my run for later so it worked out well.

Josh: before and after

As we were putting campers to bed, the other counselors and I discussed Bill’s habit of shaving very often. This caused Josh to start signaling us that he wanted something. After a game of 20 questions we finally discovered he wanted to be shaved too. This is big news for Josh because at least since last year, when I met him, he has been sporting a long beard. Anyways, we kept asking him if he was sure and he kept saying yes, so Kyle cut it all off. He looks much younger now but much happier as well.  

A for the Day

The Sunday campfire and songs

Day one of session two was a success for the Seneca Sheepdogs. From the looks of it, we will be getting much more sleep than last week. Unfortunately, it seems like the girl cabins have it much harder this time.

It is Harry Potter week and the Seneca was sorted into Hufflepuff along with the girl cabin Huron.

Our cabin has 7 campers once again. We have three campers with manual chairs including Josh, whom I have had in my cabin twice already. He has CP and is nonverbal but can  raise his eyes for "yes" and puts them sideways for "no." My favorite thing about Josh is his sense of humor. He loves to laugh, usually at other's small misfortunes. Today he laughed when I realized that the bed he was in did not have bed rails. I can not wait to see what else he finds funny throughout the week.

We also have Jim, Bill, Scott, Steve, and Ed in our cabin. I recognized most of them from past summers and I look forward to getting to know them. Ed is a little difficult to understand, but we got through it today. He also has a great sense of humor. After we got him into bed, he told us we get an A+ for the day, so we were clearly doing something right with him even though it took awhile to figure out what he wanted.

I found another camper who knows sign language, Jim, and he is going to teach me a word every day. Today he taught me the the sign "mom" and "dog," an essential word to know because we are the Seneca Sheepdogs after all.

Week One is Done

Week one with my fellow Seneca Sheepdogs is over and I am already exhausted, but this is to be expected at a special needs camp.

This session, I had seven campers in my cabin, most of which were younger than 20.The first camper to arrive on Sunday was Jeffery. He has a pretty severe case of autism and an unusual sleep schedule to say the least. Sunday night, he did not sleep at all which meant two things: staying up with him in two hour shifts with the other Seneca counselors and a coffee-filled Monday morning. Jeffery is also diabetic so we had to stop him every time he begged for food, which was pretty much every opportunity he got whether it was attempting to raid the staff fridge or holding his hands in basket formation for other snacking campers to deposit their snacks. I quickly learned the sign for "pop," as he asked for it every time it was in sight.

Despite the food grabbing and crazy sleep schedule, Jeffery was still great to be around...during the day. As soon as I got over his peculiar habit of constantly spitting on the ground and rubbing that spit with his hand,  I began to see how fun Jeff can be. Jeff had an array of noises that he made (one night he made them from 3-8 a.m.) and he also had a trademark hop-skip complete with a huge smile. This skip was very different from his typicall, slow-paced waddle  and it usually happened when he was entering the nurse's station to see his favorite nurse, Keagan. He also loved to slam doors, toilet seats, and drawers because he has OCD. On Friday, the bathroom door could not handle anymore slamming and one of the pieces of wood came off.
Jeffery was also an expert puzzle maker. We found 4 puzzles for him to do, but they were only 24 pieces each; 4,976 fewer pieces than he has done at home, according to his dad.

Overall, I will definitely miss Jeffery, even though his absence will mean more sleep and fewer trips to the bathroom (he drank a pitcher of Crystal Lite at every meal.) Having Jeffery in my cabin forced me to learn some essential sign language too. Other than "pop," I can now say "later," "eat," "wait," "bathroom," "sorry," and of course "no," all thanks to Jeffery. Other than the signing, I also communicated with Jeffery by copying his favorite face: opening only one eye and switching back and forth.

Of course Jeffery was not my only camper this week. Roberto was another great guy to have in the cabin. He was nonverbal and his favorite look involved an eyebrow raise and a slight smile. We discovered that Roberto acts very strange right before he goes to bed because of his medicine. On Monday morning, Roberto woke up with Kyle's shirt underneath his sweatshirt instead of his own. When and how this happened we will never know.

We also had two brothers in the cabin, Zac (12) and Joe (19) who loved horsing around with one another. Even when they were next to each other in the showers we could hear them yelling and playing. They loved Pokemon and they both really seemed to enjoy camp. Joe demonstrated his Disney knowledge when we played Scene-it one night, and he was ecstatic to tell everyone how great he did.

Then there was Max. Max is only a year younger than me and he has MD. He had a great sense of humor probably got a little tired of us not being able to transfer and help him as well as his parents. Even though a lot of the activities were a little lame for his cognitive level, I still believe he enjoyed getting to know more people, including myself. I learned a lot from him, not the least being how to play Cribbage and how to adjust a breathing mask at all hours of the night.

Max's first mouth painting

Finally, Chris was in our cabin. He did not speak a lot, but when he did it was when he chose to and not when we asked him a question. My favorite memory of Chris this week was when we were giving him an award for best private dancing skills (he was shy about it, but he was good when he thought no one was looking.) When we announced what the award was, he turned around and faced the wall because he knew this award was going to him.
The week ended great for me because I was able to play the role of the archer in the council fire, a long standing ITC tradition where the campers are recognized for their achievements. I love the roll of the archer because it has the coolest paint, minimal lines to say, and of course a bow and arrow.
As a whole, it was a great week of memories, several of which I have failed to write down for sake of making this way too long. This can only be solved one way- posting more often. I will try to get in the lodge and make use of the WiFi during my scarce free time.