Armpit Fudge and Fairy Rings

We just returned from Camp Kirby, Whatcom and Island Counties local Camp Fire USA resident camp. Every fall and spring the council puts on a weekend for the kids and leaders to attend outside of the normal summer season.

Growing up, I was a Camp Fire kid to the extreme. My mom was a bluebird, and I think she regretted not sticking with it as she got older so she was 100% involved with my sisters and I doing Camp Fire until only recently. I did camp, day camp, Horizon Cabinet, Youth in Action Coalition, got my WoHeLo and served on the board of directors. My Camp Fire career is yet another example of my inability to do anything half assed and will do anything to be indispensable whenever possible.

My best memories growing up involve Camp Fire, and Camp specifically, I am still great friends with several of my former group members and my former co-leader, and I share memories with those people that I can't share with anyone else in my life.



This weekend I got to watch my group, ranging from 4 years old to 11 years old, experience some of what I remember from growing up. We played on the beach, we hiked up to the Fairy Ring and investigated the little homes the kids have made over the years for the fairies. We taught our new members the stories we learned from the older kids last year and we stood up in chapel and gave our affirmations of self that remind us how special and unique we really are.

When we had council fire that evening, and for those of you outside the in crowd, a council fire is a reflective ceremony in which the members wear their ceremonial garb, sing songs, present awards if they have have them, and light the WoHeLo candles (Work Health Love), its kind of the last vestiges of the traditional program started in the 20's, and even though little kids kind of hate it, its really good for them to be involved in the tradition and community that it fosters.

Anyway, during the council fire, the oldest groups leader, they were about to graduate, stood up and talked about how she remembered her kids at the age Lily is now, coming to camp for their first time, and wearing their little red vests, and now, at 18, they are ready to graduate, have been together since kindergarten and are ready to move on to the next phases of their lives.

Looking at the girls in their gowns, and at my little ones in their vests, I started to get a little choked up, i thought about my first time at camp, the first time I saw Lily in her vest, getting my WoHeLo, (the highest youth award you can get, I know, i'm awesome) and listening to the kids sing the Camp Fire Law for the first time. And I started to cry a little bit.

Time goes SO fast, It hasn't even happened yet, but I can't stop thinking about what it will be like when our kids are wearing their gowns/tunics, or graduating, and I get choked up all over again.

Thinking about that makes me so grateful to the Camp Fire program, and the people that make it happen from year to year.

Camp Fire, and other youth organizations, are so important for kids, i know it made a huge difference in my life. Youth organizations give kids a chance to build their self esteem, learn team building skills, outdoor skills, community involvement, a chance to see adults take an active interest in their lives, all the good stuff that makes a "caring confident kid and future leader"

Its just so cool to see kids, some kids who have such odds against them, just have fun, take joy in something as simple as building a fire or a house for a fairy.

I am so proud of these kids, and even though I am now sore, exhausted, dirty, and was fed something that looked like doo and was called armpit fudge, I can honestly say I had a blast and can't wait until spring.