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.