Deutschland Round Two! : Thursday&Dessertfest

August 28^th, 2014

Thursday was just a whirlwind of a day! We woke up at our usual time and got to Camp by 8:15 to finalize some things for Dessertfest later on. We hung up most of our posters from the whole program and decided to auction them off right before lunchtime. After hours of dealing with the slideshow and projector, we finally figured it out and were good to go there. I made a 16-minute slideshow of our program over the past 6 weeks, so I was glad to be able to show it.

Because it’s the last day of a Camp week, the kids have the option of dressing up. There were a lot of Harry Potters, Hermiones, and other witches, which made it feel like Halloween! I was the only one of my counselors who dressed up and was out of uniform, but I loved being Hermione and letting my hair just do whatever it wanted.

We did our last blitz with the kids, which was bittersweet, but wonderful because everyone got into it! My favorite part of today was the Raffle. We signed 8 Camp Adventure shirts, lots of socks, and auctioned off most of our posters. Sorry parents! lol. Ms. Mango drew each kiddo’s name from the sorting hat and one by one they got to come up and pick something. Surprisingly, every single kid was happy with what they got. I was afraid that a bloodbath would go down over the signed shirts. Thankfully, we were good to go! Surprisingly a lot of kids picked socks and had us sign them—so cute! We also had Glitter the Counselor in the morning and I got glittered a LOT today!

Dessertfest was insanely awesome because so many parents came, the Colonel Commander attended as well, there was plenty of dessert for everyone, and the slideshow worked. First, we had the kids filter in through a counselor-created tunnel to a Camp song and then each house (group) came up and performed their songs or skits. I am so impressed by how good they are and I love to see the looks on their parents’ faces :) Afterwards, Colonel Gray gave a very touching thank you to us and the program and gave us each a little gift, which was so thoughtful! It feels wonderful to feel so appreciated :)

My favorite part of the event was when us counselors went up and sang a song that revealed our real names to all the kids and parents. You can imagine the surprise when they heard me reveal my name as I went first. Everyone was expecting us to sing our Camp names too. I heard so many gasps and little giggles; it was great! Afterwards, we showed the slideshow, enjoyed some desserts, and chatted with parents and kids until it was time for our very last Closing. Our last Closing was very emotional and we had a lot of camper volunteers to tell stories. I’m so unbelievably blessed to have worked with such great kids and a lively staff. We concluded the day by taking pictures with Campers and we even received gifts of cards, chocolates, loom bands, etc. I almost cried when Liam came to say by and he kept his head down cause he was getting emotional too. I let him know that I hope to be back next year, and if not, we had a great summer together. I’m gonna miss him and all our little nuggets so much!

Jacob and Elsie’s dad came up to me as they were signing out and told me that he really wants us to know how much we mean to his kids and how we really do make a difference and that our efforts don’t go unnoticed. Later on, Liam’s mom found me on facebook and sent me a message thanking me again and expressing her and Liam’s gratitude. I let her know that I’d message her if I am able to come back to Paderborn next year and wished her and Liam the best. Another parent texted me and said thank you as well. What wonderful parents! I seriously could not have asked for nicer parents of our campers. They are so involved with their kids and are just so kind to us. That’s one thing that I’ll definitely miss about this base for sure!