Firefly Song Newsletters

I wanted to use this edition of the newsletter to highlight our Work Projects activity area. In Work Projects, campers build or fix all sorts of things: they work on projects that help camp as a whole (e.g., building new meeting benches when we learn we do not have enough for everyone); they work on projects of their own choosing and design; and they learn to use all manner of tools.    

So I sat down with our Work Projects Activity Head, Juniper, and asked her a few questions. 

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Q: What made you pick Work Projects as the area you wanted to work in? 

Juniper: I enjoy building and designing things and this is the closest thing to what I am doing for school [studying architecture]; I wanted something that would align with that. Mostly though, I just wanted a chance to build things and use the knowledge that I already have and learn more, which I have gotten to do! 

Q: Tell me a few highlights from the summer. 

 Also, I love seeing kids make their own projects and come and finish them. For our senior Lodge Apprenticeship during second session, we are building a full size [wooden] truck, motivated by the song “Truck Driving Woman”.  It will be a lasting contribution to camp, a place for folks to sit along the road.

I was struck by Juniper’s emphasis on this idea of completion, here. She emphasized how so many kids ask to come back during time that is not designated program time. Once they start a project, they get invested and really develop a goal of finishing what they started.  Juniper loves seeing that motivation and commitment in the campers.

Juniper talked about how excited she is to see both staff and campers alike gaining confidence from working on this project. 

I asked Juniper for any final thoughts.  She talked about how much she loves the work projects space, and never wants to leave it (indeed, we hear sounds of work coming from that area, which is right underneath the main lodge, all the time.)  She notes that she is not sure there is any other place or situation in which she would get to do this much actual building.  She also remarked on how she loves working with campers to help them figure out their projects, and figuring out what is the best way to do something. Finally, she talked about how she learns a lot from working on all the different projects happening in this space, and how fun that is. 

For me, as a director, I definitely think about staff learning as well as camper learning, so hearing this directly from a staff person feels pretty amazing. 

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I also did a quick walk through of our Work Projects area and talked to a few campers about what they like in this activity area.  Here’s what they said: 

"I love building and how we get to use power tools that we would not normally get to use"

"I love building new things and having them in my cabin or my room at home, and having something that you built yourself."

"Building things that sort of help F&W  - like the new buddy board, the coat rack, and the Cocoa House benches.  I like it that everybody can use these, not just you."

During the non camp season, I have been working on designing program outcomes, goals that I want to see campers achieving.  There are so many different ways these outcomes can be achieved, with our activity programming being just one. Agency, Identity, and Interdependence are the key outcomes at Firefly Song, and both interdependence and agency feel very present to me in the answers these campers gave, and more broadly in the work we do in Work Projects.  I sometimes wonder why there is all that pounding coming from below the lodge, and while I loosely knew what was happening there, after talking to Juniper and these campers, I have a better sense of how important it is and how much magic and joy is being created through all this work. 

Chat soon,

Clarisaa

Why yes, yes it is raining, AND we are also having lots of fun in all kinds of great camp activities.   

Before the floods, Senior Lodge trips were out for much of last week:  Jay Peak, Monadnock, Stratton, Richardson Canoe, Adirondack Climbing, and Little Rock Pond.  Classic Farm and Wilderness trips, classic type 2 fun (fun that may not seem fun while you are doing it, but you look back on with a sense of pride and accomplishment).  I saw smiles, sensed exhaustion, and heard staff and campers alike noting good parts of their adventures.  We’ll be sending the Big Lodge and First Lodge campers out next (weather permitting, of course).   

With all this rain, we have had some little waterways morph into bigger waterways and run over some of our paths. The Work Projects crew, alongside campers, built some bridges to make it possible for us to ford these spots. Watching a group of campers and staff carry these (quite sturdy and heavy) bridges up to their new home, and was just so proud of all these folks seeing a need and jumping on it. 

One of my goals this summer was to fit in a few more rounds of “Cocoa House” – our skit/variety/talent show.  It’s a camper favorite, happens on Sunday nights, and the list of acts is always soooo long (this is a good thing!!), and I worry we send campers to bed too late on those nights. We are trying some different Sunday routines, and I am simultaneously working in Cocoa House a little more frequently.  Tonight, after our day of rain and inside activities, we had a somewhat impromptu Cocoa House (our second of the session, but the first that Senior Lodge was here for). I asked Birches – one of our oldest camper cabins – if they wanted to host it, and they jumped at the opportunity, and the evening was a huge success. I am consistently amazed by the bravery, humor, silliness and joy that these campers bring to their performances, in front of our entire community.  A great way to end this day. 

Chat soon,

Clarissa

The campers are HERE! On top of that, I was so happy to see so many of you yesterday: folks I know from previous years (last year and the years way beyond that!), folks I have talked with this year, as you made decisions about sending your children here. 

Here are a few snippets of what I saw and what we did, in the time since you dropped your campers off with us.

First lodgers dutifully heading to the waterfront, going to do their “swimtroduction” – a term coined by our wonderful returning waterfront head, Julia. I think of all our campers, they find solidarity and community with each other in this activity, so many of them being new, and going to do this together in small groups throughout the afternoon.

Big lodgers reconnecting with friends from years past and warmly welcoming new friends and showing them the ins and outs of camp.

Senior lodgers hearing about apprenticeships and trips, both experiences that provide opportunities for campers to grow and challenge themselves in their final summers at Firefly Song. 

As I wrapped up the day, chatting with our amazing camp nurse, Emma (herself a former camper and staff person) we remarked on how special it was to hear such quiet (and see the lovely nearly full moon) even as over one hundred campers were tucked in to their beds, experiencing their first night sleeping in this new place. Prior to that, they had their first Cabin Night, spending time getting to know one another, beginning to create cabin community, sharing stories about themselves, and of course building a fire in their cabin fire pit and having s’mores.

The other joy for me was seeing our staff anticipate and then jump in to camper arrival.  We have been working for three weeks, in preparation for this.  Staff have learned about working with kids, as well as spent time learning and refining skills in each of the activity areas they were hired to work in.  The arrival of your children marks the culmination of some very hard work they have all put in.  They were literally and figuratively jumping for joy yesterday afternoon, and turning to the work of making camp magic happen is a special thing to see.  

Looking forward to the next three weeks with your children,

Clarissa