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!

If you are ever near the vicinity of my voice box, you’ll probably hear me talk about the weather in some way, shape or form. I can’t help it--I’m Canadian! (Also, I worked retail for 14 years, and that’s the go-to conversation with pretty much every single customer haha.) When I was in high school, I went through a phase where I temporarily wanted to be a weatherman. Before leaving for school, I’d eat my breakfast while watching the country-wide weather report on Canada AM. When I got home, I’d advertise my free weather reporting services through my screen name on MSN, and friends would inquire about their local weather for the next day!! I loved doing it! Even if it was just copy-and-paste intel from The Weather Network.com - haha!

ANYWAYS, this past week was our final family camp of the summer--Gentle Breeze Family Camp. True to this summer’s weather realities humorously being the complete opposite to our camp session names, it was blazing hot and mighty humid!! We definitely could have used a gentle breeze haha. To be honest though, I actually really love the heat!! I love being in the sunshine, and the smell of sunscreen, and collecting freckles, and sweating; and having sand everywhere, and lake hair! It conjures up wonderful memories.

Speaking of which, I thought I’d share two of my favourite [weather related] fly-on-the-wall memories from last week:

On the first full day during swim time, it started pouring rain! A lot. Which was kind of confusing considering the clouds were fairly light, and the sun was sort of shining throughout it all. Campers had already been waiting around to take their Swim Tests for a bit as there had also been some thunder (we have to wait 30 minutes before entering the water each time it sounds). The raindrops were actually really refreshing, and a majority of people stayed out in them. At one point Alyssa ‘Dash’ LaRocque began belting out the camp version of ‘Singing In The Rain’ equipped with actions, and word removals! A whole bunch of campers (including adults!) joined in--it was such a fun occurrence!! 

The other was when families gathered on the bleachers around a quintessential campfire on the very last evening. We sang praise songs while watching the sun set, colours fade, shadows roll in, and the stars come out. This time of year is amazing for star gazing at Beacon because the moon is low in the sky and also sets early enough to let the Milky Way shine visibly while most campers are still awake!! (There was a meteor shower last week too, so lots of shooting stars!) Anyways, I was positioned comfortably on a picnic table nearby, looking up at the sky, listening to the singing; as well as campers taking turns praying. It was such a peaceful way to end the week; and mighty encouraging!

In a previous blog, I mentioned that I had never been to a family camp, and realized that I’d been missing out. That’s definitely still true--I’m really looking forward to volunteering at a family camp once Beacon returns to normal (Lord willing, next summer)!

BONUS: Check out this great video made by Aidan “Coho” Beagley of the whole great week of fun!