Photo By Steve Larson | Reciting the Pledge of Allegiance is a morning ritual at Camp Wood near Elmdale, the...... read more read more
ELMDALE, Kan. - Every summer, the Child and Youth Program of the Kansas National Guard conducts Teen Camp for teenage members of its military family.
“It brings them together, brings them camaraderie,” explained Liz Dodds, Child and Youth coordinator for the Kansas National Guard. “It lets them get to know other children who are going through the same things that they are.”
For many of the teens, it’s like a family reunion.
“I just love the environment and love seeing all my friends because I don’t get to see all of them all the time,” said Madison Ruthig, a fourth year participant. “And so when I see them it feels like we’re all just a big happy family.”
In past years, Teen Camp was held in Salina over a three-day period. This year’s camp was quite a bit different. This year’s week-long camp was at the YMCA’s Camp Wood near Elmdale, Kansas, where they shared the camp with other non National Guard groups.
“We decided this year to partner with Camp Wood and give the teens a more traditional camp experience that we sometimes can’t give them,” said Dodds. “We do a little bit of everything, from rappelling, climbing towers, paintball, more of the traditional things too like canoeing, swimming and archery.
“We’ve got counselors from across the world, so they’re learning how to play cricket and they’re learning how to dance – there are a couple of counselors from Colombia so they’re learning how to dance like they do in South America. It’s a pretty broad experience, but it’s also the traditional
camp experience that maybe they haven’t had before.”
At first, the change of format was a little unsettling for experienced Teen Campers.
“This year was kind of bumpy, but we all recovered from it very quickly,” said Ruthig. “As we got used to it and the week
went on we all said ‘OK, this has changed, but it’s a good change and it’s for the better.’”
“I like the fact that we have more activities here,” said Taylor Dunbar, who was into her “fourth or fifth year” of Teen
Camp. “But my Teen Camp is somewhere I go to get away from what we deal with at home and it’s where I go to relax and spend time with friends that I don’t normally see. It was more of a retreat before.”
In addition to the change of venue, the teens discovered there were a few changes in the rules.
“I’ve tried to remind our teens this is a very structured camp,” said Dodds. “They have to set up parameters, but they’ve learned that by following the rules, that later on in the week it gets a little easier and the counselors kind of ease up a little bit, let them have a little bit more interaction,
a little bit more fun outside of the parameters of the structure.”
One rule in particular seemed to stand out to the teens.
“We’re not allowed to have our phones, which is kind of weird,” said Nola Limon, a first-year camper, “because I’m usually on it all the time.”
“We usually keep in contact through our phones and social media,” said Mackenly Worley, who was in her second year at
Teen Camp. “It’s different. It’s not my favorite part about it, but it’s all right.”
“Not having our phones was the biggest bump,” said Ruthig, “but we’re all like ‘Okay, we can’t have our phones. Oh, well! It’s the memories.’”
Yet despite the changes, Teen Camp participants quickly settled in and found the camp offered a packed schedule with a lot of options.
“Normally we get up a little bit early, by about 7:45 or so, which is early in teen world,” said Dodds. “We start our day off with meeting at the flag pole, do the Pledge of Allegiance, raising the flag for the day, talking about any special announcements for the day, anything that came up that we need to talk about before breakfast. We go in, we have breakfast, we say grace.
“By that point, the campers know what their day looks like activity-wise,” said Dodds. “They picked what they wanted to do each day, whether it’s athletics, whether it’s canoeing, spending their day walking through a nature trail. They usually do two activities in the morning, then they do a big switch and come back to lunch. After lunch they do a couple more activities or they do one big group activity. After that, they go back to their cabin, they rest a little while, they come to dinner. The evenings have been a mix of everything. We’ve had one night where the boys all went out to campsites throughout the camp and slept outside on tarps in sleeping bags under the stars, did the s’mores experience, more of a traditional camping experience.”
“I’m doing archery and I’ll have fishing next,” said Enrique Nusz, a second-year camper.
“For me, it’s athletics,” said Dunbar, “where we go play games, and we play sports. Today we played ultimate Frisbee with a football. That was interesting.
“Down at the lake we do canoeing and we do kayaking,” she continued. “Yesterday we went out through the little streams as deep as we could.
“One day I did the tower. We climbed up 50 feet on a harness. It’s just gorgeous looking out at the hills from up there.”
“I’ve been doing the archery and I’ve been doing a lot of the boating and watching people tip over because that’s just hilarious to watch,” laughed Ruthig.
“I did boating last night,” said Worley, “but I stayed out with another girl because there was going to be an odd number and I didn’t want to leave her out.”
And it’s that inclusive attitude that lies at the heart of Teen Camp.
“I’ve had several campers ask ‘I know this camper in our cabin isn’t part of our military group, but gosh I’d sure love to have him at Teen Camp with us next year. How can we make that happen?’” said Dodds. “They really have come together.”
“Even if it’s your first year, you get brought into the family,” said Ruthig. “It’s just a big happy family.
“It’s the people. It’s the bonding experience,” Ruthig continued. “It’s a bond that never breaks. You get to meet so many different people from so many different places around Kansas. You get excited to see everyone.”
Dunbar, who has been part of the Kansas National Guard youth camp experience since she first went to Kids’ Camp, agreed.
“(It’s) the lifelong connections and friendships I’ve made here,” said Dunbar. “Some of these kids that are here with me I’ve known since I was 8 years old.
“We count down our days until we go,” she said. “This is my home.”
| Date Taken: | 08.06.2015 |
| Date Posted: | 09.23.2015 10:04 |
| Story ID: | 176951 |
| Location: | ELMDALE, KS, US |
| Hometown: | TOPEKA, KS, US |
| Web Views: | 38 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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