This summer, we’re turning the blog over to Emily “Heaps” Shields, who is serving on our camp crew as our office support staff and all around amazing helper. She’s got a ton of skills, and one of them is telling THE best stories. What better person to tell you the little beautiful details about what camp is like during the summer? We’re calling this summer of Emily “A Heap of Fun”… enjoy!

I JUST LOVE MY JOB!! (In real life yes, but I mean here, at camp!) Officially, I’m assisting Luke and Suzie in the office (where I get to laminate aaaaallll the things), but I also run the Tuck Shop (where I get to use all my retail and merchandising skills from real life!), and just generally help out anywhere I’m needed (like offering good ol’ moral support by floating near Luke while he installed the ginormous rectangular ‘lily pad’ in the deep end).

Last week, I even had the opportunity to co-lead a group of 13-15 year olds with Chris ‘Abu’ Henein during Beacon’s first ever day camp which hosted 64 campers in total (12 of which were in our group)! It was definitely a whirlwind of a week. I mean, you can probably imagine the organized chaos it was to dipsy-doodle and herd the four different age groups around camp (especially the 6-8 year olds!) to participate in archery, boating, crafts, fort building, games, sports, and swimming. Suffice to say, our Camp Crew was beyond thankful to Abu, as well as Brady ‘Slugger’ Weening, Brooke ‘Lux’ Nelson, Daniel ‘Buzz’ Muller, Danny ‘Chester’ Ibrahim, and Jessica ‘Snappy’ Kingsbury for coming to help us run the week successfully. We legitimately couldn’t have done it without them.

Besides feeding the mosquitos well, and braving a few rainy days outside, Chris’ and my campers had such an enjoyable time canoeing and touring the local lakes with Paul ‘Dagwood’ Berrevoets as he regaled camp tales; and Emma ‘Brio’ Deinum made archery mega fun and competitive for us with her balloon/can/foil tin targets. In fact, two of our teens won the archery tournament in their divisions! Also, we made a LEGIT fort. You’ll be able to see it yourself as you drive up the last portion of the Beacon road the next time you’re here! 

We also spent literally every spare minute at the Gaga Ball pit! I had heard stories about the boy’s camps at Beacon, and their obsession with Gaga Ball, but had never played it and really didn’t have any interest in doing so. But I gave in to peer pressure last week, and, lemme tell ya, IF YOU HAVE NOT PLAYED GAGA BALL, YOU ARE MISSING OUT. It is so much fun!!! I got so into it that my legs were sand burned, and had cuts and scratches from rocks, as well as bruises from swinging back and forth over the boards! I felt so hardcore, and am legitimately so proud of all my wounds--I’m gonna have fond memories of how dirty my legs and clothing were too that week for the rest of my life!

All in all, day camp is a swick time to be a part of Beacon programming. I’m looking forward to our second one at the end of August - we have a lot of returning campers who had loads of fun this week, and lots of new campers too! It’s hard to believe the summer is halfway done, but here we are! On to more family camps in August!