My 'brief' summer camp experience

First, sorry for slacking on the posts BUT yours have been quite entertaining. Thanks!!

So I feel like my time at camp really did slightly change me. It opened my eyes to how many great organizations exist in Detroit to support the youth, how much I absolutely love the arts and reminded me how much I LOVE our city!

The camp was directed by cousin who works for Henry Ford. Organizations, including Pewabic, Matrix Theater, Mosaic and Inside Out supplied artists and chaperons. Students that participated in these organizations and students from other organizations came. The ages of the kids were from 14-18.

First it was hilarious how RUSTIC the camp really was. There were bugs everywhere and it was HOT, HOT, HOT. See the pics below. The second is a pic of my bed!

A second funny thing was the food at the camp. The camp was run by a Jewish organization so they kept kosher...no meat and dairy in the same meal... The food was prepared in a kosher kitchen and then brought to our separate camp by 2 european young girls. The servings were very small for all the young kids...for example, breakfast one morning consisted of a hard boiled egg and one pancake (not often you can say I had A PANCAKE...not pancakeS) doused in syrup. I ate tons of apples and oranges to fill the gap which wasnt super nice to my tummy :( The food that was served became a running joke. The server girls were hilarious because they didnt understand much english and would just smile at everything.

So there was one painfully shy middle eastern boy in my group who had secretly texted his sister to "get him out of here". He told my cousin it was more of the elements not the people. It was his first time away from home. My cousin convinced him to give it a second chance and he did. By the end he told me to "pound it" and corrected me when I didn't blow it up afterward. I like to think I changed a life...haha :)

When I returned from my awards banquet, it was the last night of the camp and everyone got to stay up later. So as I walked up to the deck they all began to cheer....it was so cute. I had missed a talent show but my cousin was telling me how great the kids were. One girl decided to sing a song but was quite shy and had a difficult time starting but the other kids would shout out you can do it and helped her start. By the end she was dancing and singing loudly to here MJ tribute song...precious.

The camp ended with a showcase of the students work. It was great to see kids get up and read poetry or sing jazz. I have such a respect for the arts. It has given all these kids so much confidence. They were very talented. Below are some pics from it.





Below is a clip from on of the slam poetry readings. I am so into poetry now and hope to begin going to some slams done by the city wide poets. You can youtube some of their stuff.

Also, camp wouldnt be complete without some camp songs. The kids added a twist and some beat to them to make the songs pretty fun!! Below is a clip from one of the most popular songs "fill up my cup". Also there are some more pics of singing. The blonde girls are the servers!

So that was a glimpse at my experience. It was great and I do feel like I changed from it - New perspective and renewed appreciation for our city! I would love to get involved with these organizations in my "spare time" haha! I can at least donate some loan money when I go to their events!

cheers!