All About Aidan's First Year at Camp

Sunday, July 17, we made the long five hour drive to Waupaca, Wisconsin, to drop Aidan off at the Don Bosco Boys Camp. Without stopping it probably would've taken four and a half hours, but no one would've been able to walk when we got there.

As it always seems to happen with events, Eli was scheduled to work for both the drop-off and pick-up dates for camp, so my parents offered to come with us. Dad also volunteered to to drive our Suburban, as usual, so I could sit next to the child who gets motion sick and the child that has screaming fits every two hours while traveling. Did I mention it was a long trip? Thankfully we had movies, books, and games packed, as well as bags and coolers full of snacks and sandwiches.

A barge on the Mississippi! The boys thought this was so cool.

I always thought I'd move to Wisconsin some day, and though it hasn't happened yet, we all enjoyed the beautiful country we passed through. It's amazing how different everything is not all that far from home. This is what we believe to be a cranberry bog.

We passed potato fields....

and cabbage fields....

Marinas....

And finally, Camp Tamarack! The Society of St. Pius X (Roman Catholic) rents the camp for the duration of the boys' and girls' Midwest summer camps. The rest of the year it's a Baptist camp.

Hey, we listen to these guys! You can too at Magnificat Radio Live Radio Broadcast.

There were boys everywhere when we got there, playing carpet ball and basketball and catching up with old friends. Aidan ran off to find some boys before the rest of us could even pile out of the Suburban.

Aidan getting checked in...and a counselor showing us where to find another counselor to show us where Aidan's cabin was. That's me on the left holding Ian. I snipped these shots from the camp photographer's CD.

Dad talking to another of the counselors while the rest of us freshened up. This is the view from the dining hall.

And this is inside the dining hall. The red and blue box on the bottom right-hand corner is the mailbox where they had mail call every noon. Poor Aidan got a letter from me nearly every day, and more than anyone else at camp, which made him miss us more. Yes, I was that mom. Next year I'll have to scale back the letter writing. Aidan said some of the boys were teasing him and trying to read the letters over his shoulder. We got a letter empty envelope from Aidan stamped with a Milwaukee postmark about a week after we got home. He said he tried writing me a letter but messed it up and gave up. Someone decided to mail the envelope anyway. :)

I found the letters Aidan had started in the pack of paper I sent with him. I told him next year just to mail them anyway!

Sitting outside the dining hall by the dinner bell.

The counselor was such a gentleman and offered to carry Aidan's 125 pound bag of clothes for me. I was struggling with it and the thought crossed my mind that it'd just be easier to drop it and let it roll down the hill. Another newbie camper-mom mistake: over-packing. I now know what not to pack next year.

The blue barn was where they did arts and crafts. Gavin is way ahead of the group as usual. They're going to have fun with him next year. hehehe

This is the path up to the cabins where Aidan was bunked. I had an inordinate anxiety at this time, staring into the dense forest around us, that Aidan would wander into the trees in the middle of the night and be lost forever.

This is Aidan's cabin. Each cabin housed a team of boys, each named for a saint. Aidan's cabin team was named "St. Rene Goupil" (who was the first of the North American Martyrs). There were about eight boys per cabin, the youngest were all 9 year olds, and the oldest age 16. Each cabin team had a standard-bearer (responsible for carrying the flag), a corporal, and a captain. Each cabin also had a counselor who checked in on them.

Aidan was so excited! He chose his own cot.

This is the view from the cabin door. The camper at the other cabin door was assigning cabin team names.

View across camp.

There was quite a crowd by the carpet ball table.

Ian really wanted to join the big boys in basketball. Just a couple more feet to grow, little man!

Fr. Mackin said Mass for the travelers (like us) in the Tamarack Lodge at 4 pm that afternoon. Aidan had to lead the way everywhere.

After Mass we sent Aidan off to find the other boys. As we were walking down the driveway to leave we heard a whistle blow, and turned to watch the boys saunter over to where the medic/PT instructor, Mr. Henry, was standing. We heard him bark, "You're going to have to move faster than that, boys!" 

The sun was setting on our way home as we again crossed the Mississippi. Tired, emotional, and road-weary, it was a difficult task choking back the tears.

Pretty, even through a fingerprint-streaked window.

The day finally arrived for us to leave again for Wisconsin. I was so excited, it felt like Christmas Eve. It had been nine days of not hearing a word from Aidan or anyone from camp, and I was full of apprehension. What would we find when we got to camp? It was impossible that he had somehow slipped through the cracks and had been lost, right? We drove up the day before camp was officially over and stayed in a motel since Mass was at 9 am the next morning. Five hours in a car is much more bearable than ten. I was tempted to sneak onto camp that night and see if I could spot Aidan. I was afraid I might embarrass him the next day by waving and jumping and screaming too loudly when I saw him. 

We got to camp about an hour before Mass was supposed to start. I imagined seeing Aidan within seconds and being joyfully reunited. I walked through the first group of boys swarming the pavilion, anxiously scanning their faces. No Aidan. While my Dad decided to walk down to Aidan's cabin to see if he was packing up there, I headed for the dining hall with Mom and my other boys, noticing campers scurrying back and forth carrying chairs and bags. Maybe they had him helping out? No Aidan in the dining hall. I came back outside and started walking toward Tamarack Lodge. He had to be somewhere! (You may imagine at this point I was taking quite a few deep breaths.) I looked behind us, over half-way across the lawn by that time, to see my Dad coming toward us with no Aidan. He said the cabins were cleared out, there was nothing left in them. (Here panic gripped my heart, and I was about to go into emergency-mode, when...) Mom said "Oh, there he is!" I turned back toward the pavilion to see Aidan running down the hill toward us. Thank You, Jesus! I think three years were just shaved off my life by the stress of the preceding moments. 

Fortunately, I didn't yell or scream or wave, but I did squeeze Aidan very tight and it took a while to feel that it was ok to let him go (what's a good story without a little melodrama?) I then noticed that it looked like he had been nearly eaten alive by mosquitoes. His whole face and neck were peppered with bites.

Once the hugging subsided we headed over to the Tamarack Lodge where every camper's bags, fishing poles, backpacks, bags of dirty laundry, and everything were piled in a large room of the basement. It took some time locating the corner Aidan's stuff was buried in, most of it under other boys' things. I quickly scanned the contents of the bags and thought it looked like everything was there. Once we got home, however, I realized that all of Aidan's dirty laundry was missing. His captain had told him to pack it in a different bag, not the laundry bag I had sent, so I didn't know what to look for. The shirts are not a big loss, but he is now short his swimming trunks, and about eight pairs of shorts, socks, and undies. Those things were the most expensive and have been painstakingly collected over the past year. I was able to talk to a camper online and he said nothing is returned if left behind. Bummer.

Shortly after, Mass began in the pavilion. It was a sung (by the Don Bosco Boys Choir) High Mass, and Aidan sat up front with the rest of the campers during. When the whistle blew that last time for the boys to assemble, they ran. There was no sauntering among them. The whole experience was very military-like, including chanting, drums, processional songs (marches), but with a religious light on everything. At the end the boys barked out patron saint names (instead of "Yes, Drill Sergeant!) and Father answered with, "Pray for us!"  Living our Faith.

                                                 

Fr. Dailey said Mass. I took a short clip of the boys choir singing during Mass before my phone ran out of storage. Again.

The boys processed up and down the hill before and after Mass while singing hymns. This was part of the line; there were 138 boys in attendance at camp this year.  

Mr. Henry, the camp medic and PT instructor, walked through as I was snapping the photo.

The little guy in front of Aidan (Marcel-I love this name!) is also nine years old. The other guy peeking over Marcel's head is Zachary, Aidan's new best friend. He made sure to give both me and Aidan his mom's phone number and their address before they parted. With the exception of Zachary, who was in the cabin opposite Aidan's, most the boys in this photo were cabin mates and team members.

After Mass we assembled again in the Tamarack Lodge to watch a DVD put together by Mr. Tim Bryan of St. Mary's Kansas. It highlighted the boys' activities and outings while at camp. I bought a copy of the DVD and a CD of over 700 photos he took while following the boys around for eleven days.

We went back to the pavilion for the awards and recognition ceremony. Aidan's team won the Iron Man Competition and a basketball tournament (which he received medals for). Aidan had to point out the boy on crutches who broke his ankle during the Iron Man event. (Wait...what?! Don't they send boys home if they get hurt?!) That boy received a Purple Heart medal for being injured. Aidan showed me a scratch he got during the same event, but it wasn't nearly bad enough to earn him a purple heart. Nor a Band-Aid, for that matter. Liam fell on the basketball court before the ceremony was over and grew a goose egg on his head, so I missed the last quarter of it. There was a luncheon in the dining hall to wrap the day up.

Aidan learned a few new hymns, marches, and chants while he was at camp. Precise wording is fuzzy when he sings them, but the tune is there. :)

Aidan is in the front row, about 5-6 boys from the right where Fr. Mackin stands, behind the red/white/red flag's pole.

I noticed a change right away in Aidan when we got to camp. He was more reserved, kind, eager to help. We were on the road home all of half an hour before this new attitude started wearing off. I guess I need to start prescribing push-ups as a form of discipline around home.

One of the hardest things when Aidan got home was adjusting to not having daily Mass. It was the building block upon which his day was built at camp, and I wish so much we had that available to us here. I set up a home altar in our dining room that we can say Mass prayers at. Maybe that will help bring back some of the "spirit of camp".

I took a few photos from the CD I bought that day. Some have Aidan in them, others do not, but they illustrate what camp was like for the boys.

After we got home the stories started coming out....

Fr. Mackin told the boys stories. Aidan retold a story to me in great detail, and was so shocked that Fr. Mackin said a "bad word" during the story that he had to whisper it to me. (It was crap, and Fr. Mackin was using it to demonstrate the crude way the devil was talking. I had to tell Aidan it really isn't a bad word, we just don't use it because it's not polite!)  It was nice knowing he was at least paying attention.  He's on the far right.

They got fed generously at camp, and treats were abundant. Aidan matter-of-factly told me when I asked if they got sugar, "Oh yeah. We had ice cream bars, rice krispy bars, cake, brownies, popsicles, uh cookies...we only cooked marshmallows once, but there was a lot of peanuts! Peanuts are yummy--except for the unsalted kind. My corporal was allergic to chocolate! He couldn't have brownies, chocolate cake, chocolate milk. It was horrible. He had to just eat rice krispy bars."

They were fed for 11 days by women who volunteered their time to do so.

Fr. Dailey playing flag football. His pose, though.... >Insert laughing-so-hard-I'm-crying-face here< Priests have some of the best senses of humor.

I can only imagine a blessing was happening before the dodge-ball battle.

Aidan said so many boys at camp had braces on their teeth that he was going to write me a letter asking me to send him braces. But then he heard enough of the boys complaining about how they hurt and how annoying they were, and he changed his mind. I thought it was funny I found a shot of braces on the CD while looking through the photos..

Aidan's new friend told him scary stories of Freddy Krueger that gave him nightmares for a week after he got home, and all about the video game, "Destiny". Aidan had to tell me that his friends' parents even let him watch SpongeBob. (*Gasp* This was an eye-opening experience for me because I forget that not all Traditional Catholics are as straight-laced as I imagine them to be. They are but human too.)

As with any camp experience, one of the boys was not particularly nice to Aidan and kept telling him to "shut up". This boy was punished with push-ups...and Aidan was also punished with push-ups for not holding still in line. It sounds as though there were a lot of push-ups all the time at camp.

And other various exercises....

Maybe it's a good thing his dirty clothes didn't come back. 

"Aidan, did they make you work at camp?"

"Eh, not really."

The boys were given a swimming test the first day they went swimming. Those who could not swim out to the floating dock were directed to stay in shallow water. Aidan is at the bottom front of this photo, third from the left, with the neon yellow shirt on (so he could be seen under water). hehe

They went fishing, and Aidan caught a fish. It was brown, and that was all the info I got about that.

They got to play "real baseball", in Aidan's words. What actually happened is they loaded all the boys up in buses and drove close to a real baseball field. They then camped the night in a massive tent (camping during camp) and then headed to the baseball diamond the next morning.

Aidan getting food.

Aidan got to target practice with a BB gun and bow and arrows.

Fr. Mackin displaying this year's camp Tshirts. The boys wore them for any outing.

The whole group of boys were bused to a Minor League baseball game, and watched the Wisconsin Timber Rattlers beat the Fort Wayne TinCaps. 

Aidan's the only kid with a Hawkeye cap on in that sea of gray and red.

They also made a trip to the Shrine of Our Lady of Good Help, where Aidan was amazed that they prayed "FIFTEEN mysteries of the rosary, Mom!"

And then they stopped for pizza and games. Can you imagine how much it cost to feed 138 boys? God bless them.

They had music class, and catechism class, and lectures. Aidan, bottom right corner in the photo above, looks sleepy. Much better though than the boy in the bottom left corner! What in the world is going on there?!

Music lecture. Aidan said he was explaining how sound works.

They applied their newfound music knowledge in songs around the campfire at night. Aidan's in the bottom right-hand corner, in his Hawkeye hat and a pair of shorts we'll never see again.... I'm truly working on letting it go yet.

And of course they sang during processions.

They did crafts, and Aidan made this rosary. It's very heavy, made from metal beads, and it's his new favorite for every day.

Ultimately Aidan's camp experience was a great one, and it took a while, but he is now excited to go back next year. Initially he went through a sort of post-traumatic separation anxiety, unreasonably afraid he was going to lose me, and worried when his Dad wasn't home.  After picking him up he said he wouldn't go back unless a brother was with him.  It was hard on us here at home, too. But as a dear friend reminded me recently, God gives us ways of letting go of our children little by little, letting them spread their wings in little ways at first, so when it's time for them to leave home for good it's not so painful. (Thank you for that!) Knowing Aidan will have Gavin with him next year helps as well. I'm sure it'll be even better! (And heaven help those people when Gavin hits the campgrounds! I love him dearly...he's very much a "puppy" of a boy. We all know how puppies are.) 

So thankful to the priests, seminarians, and volunteers who make this possible for our boys!