April Fools!

Some of my favorite memories of camp were sitting in my cabin surrounded by my bunkmates brainstorming all the hilarious pranks we could pull on (fill in the blank, either an equivalent boys cabin, or our counselors usually), a la The Parent Trap. Now keep in mind we almost never actually pulled them off, and certainly none were as complicated or technical as Google’s pranks yesterday. And while I don’t condone being a bunch of merry pranksters, I also must acknowledge that I learned a lot from my time behind the wheel.

I can only remember two pranks that we actually attempted as campers. The first was taking my counselor’s clothes and artistically placing them about the cabin, strewn in such a way through the rafters and bedrails as to be difficult to retrieve. While funny to us and obviously aesthetically pleasing, we didn’t think about how our counselor would feel, walking into the cabin and knowing that we’d gone through her things and then thrown them everywhere.

The second was much more complicated: my cabin decided to take forks from the dining hall, two per meal, until we had enough to make a path from the dining hall to the boys’ unit (when in doubt, blame it on someone else). We successfully took two meals’ worth of forks before our counselors saw one of us trying to pocket them, and we stopped (if I remember correctly, however, we never divulged what we were doing or what our ultimate goal was. Discretion was the most exciting part). Here’s what we’d neglected to consider this time: taking forks from the dining hall actually had an impact on camp. As we took forks, fewer forks remained in the dining hall. Now this seems like an obvious premise, but that sort of cause and effect is not always apparent when A. you are 14 and B. you are having fun. We assumed someone would notice the forks missing, but we didn’t think they would sorely missed. There’s a distinction there. No one considered that camp probably doesn’t have hundreds of extra forks laying around for prank-use.

As a staff member I was a passerby, a victim, and the wise elder guiding the pranks. I’ve seen campers get in serious trouble for pranking the opposite gender by taking their clothes and wearing them to formation (neglecting to consider how serious the rule is about not going into the boys’ or girls’ cabin). I’ve had tough conversations with other staff members about jokes they are pulling (“if you only prank ONE person, it’s rather similar to bullying, don’t you think?”) Perhaps my favorite was several years ago, when my cabin of 15 year old girls decided they wanted to have a stunt go down in history. It took a lot of late night discussion and strategic questioning to figure out what kind of caper would be appropriate. Ultimately, they landed on painting tons of rocks from formation and the woods, and creating a sign that said “Add some color to your day!” Lots of fun, could be done in secret, no one got hurt, in fact ultimately delivered a positive message...seemed like the perfect prank! Guess what we still forgot to consider? The nature of what we were suggesting meant rocks were being removed from the formation area, something that was bad.

It turns out there isn’t the perfect prank to pull at camp, probably because we shouldn’t be pulling them at all. This doesn’t mean they aren’t fun, funny, and hugely teachable moments. Elements of camp like coming together as a cabin to try and play a joke on someone brings people together, and also helps campers learn boundaries, with counselors there to talk things through and maintain those boundaries. I sure hope I haven’t just inspired a whole summer of campers to try and pull off the perfect summer prank, but if you were to consider it, make sure to think it through veeeeery thoroughly first. I’ve seen a lot of stunts, and only one makes it even close to that pedestal, and there’s no way I’m telling you about that.

Falcon 2002: Part 1

Eleven years ago, I headed to Carrollton, Ohio, for the start of my first summer as a four weeker at Falcon. This would be my third summer, so I was familiar with the place, the activities, and even lots of the people. I didn't know it yet, but something big would happen this summer. This summer I would become friends with Elizabeth (name changed). (Actually, several big things happened, but I want to talk about one specific thing. We'll get to the next one in Part Two.)

Let me tell you where this story is heading--at the end of this summer, my 14th at camp, I'm going to be in Elizabeth's wedding. 

That summer, Falcon 2002, I arrived and moved into my cabin. Elizabeth was already there, had already been there for four weeks. She had been coming to camp for a couple years longer than me, and stayed for six weeks each summer. Although she was only a month older than me, the year before she had been a cabin above me. Sometimes things work out this way because of a large number of a certain age. Because of this, I didn't really know Elizabeth, except as the cool girl who had been coming to camp forever and was friends with The Twins (the two coolest girls (in my mind) from the year before). 

But Summer 2002 threw us together. Needless to say I was a little intimidated. Elizabeth and I both have pretty strong personalities, so this was either going to result in something great, or Clash of the Titans. Of course, as a 13 year old, I didn't really comprehend any of this. 

By day three or four of my time, nothing had happened. We were supposed to go on a canoe trip. For different reasons, neither Elizabeth nor I was excited. Our counselor told us that we could go in the motorboat, but we should keep in mind it would just be us, and we should figure out how to help each other. We spent the next 45 minutes before evening activity talking about everything. Why we were upset, what we liked to do, how annoying our counselor was for making us do this. But if that night wasn't turn out to be a huge turning point, then I'll eat my hat. From then on, Elizabeth was one of my closest friends. When something was wrong, I talked to her. When we were bored, we found each other. Luckily, we were the kind of campers who loved our individual activities enough that we didn't just go where the other person was.

When camp ended, the hard part started. I lived in Chicago, Elizabeth in Cleveland. But two weeks at camp was all it took to know this was someone I wanted to be friends with forever. So we talked on the phone every day. I remember one month (and I'm guessing this happened more than once) when I had to pay my part of the phone bill because we talked so much, and it was over $70. 

I would visit Elizabeth every winter break, and when my whole family went to Cleveland for Passover, I'd talk myself out of as many family obligations as possible in order to hang out. Keep in mind this would be Passover so I couldn't eat any non-Kosher-for-Passover food. The first time this happened we went to the mall and wanted a snack. After wandering the mall for a while searching, we came up with deli pickles and Diet Coke, and paid for it with mostly coins (remember, 13 year olds!). To this day we joke about this delightful meal. 

Finally, it would be camp time again. Camp was a short couple weeks that felt like eternity of eating pretzels dipped in frosting, playing games, and talking late into the night. And Elizabeth was the person to do it with. We only spent 10 weeks total together at camp over 3 summers, but that was all we needed to form the basis of a true and strong friendship. At camp, making friends is different. You're living together, sharing everything from experiences to bedspace. You also have to figure out how to navigate the things that aren't as easy: arguments over how something happened to misplaced items and more. Counselors mediate differently than teachers or parents do, allowing and sometimes even pushing campers to figure out how to work things out mostly by themselves, with the older presence ready to step in when needed. I know most campers, counselors, and alumni would tell you that they have forever friends they made at camp, and for a lot of them, the number of weeks they've actually spent together there is limited. 

When we were 14, I met Elizabeth's boyfriend. With a 14 year old's naivete and confidence about love, I wrote her a letter telling her how awesome I thought this guy was, and how I was sure he was the one and that I was excited to go to their wedding many years down the road. Like I said earlier, in August I'm going to be a bridesmaid in Elizabeth's wedding. To her boyfriend from when she was 14. Who I predicted she'd marry. Am I saying I have great instincts about love and/or can see the future? No, but I'm not denying it either. 

I'm so excited (and honored!) to be a part of her wedding. It's been a lot of years, many ups and downs, some periods of more or less closeness, like all friendships. But I'm so glad to know the kind, smart, amazing person that is Elizabeth, and I owe that to Falcon 2002. 

What Falcon Taught Me As A Mom

 Parenthood.  It seems like such a simple word.  But as a mom of three children I am challenged, fulfilled and exhausted as I try to meet the daily demands of these ten letters.  Mistakes come with the job. I know I make them frequently.  In fact, my four year old is most likely tabulating a list of these mishaps she will present within the year in exchange for more TV time. Yet parenting mistakes bring on a whole new set of guilt that far surpasses many of my other errors.  There is just so much riding on this role.  

  It is in this parenthood journey that I appreciate and call upon all of the values I learned from Falcon.  These values help me aim for a destination and not to worry about the side steps along the way.  So for the next few weeks, I humbly present a few of these values below starting with how I learned them at camp and how it has carried into my life as mom.  

The First Mom Value I Learned at Falcon: Perseverance

Falcon: As a camper, that first day was always the hardest for me.  I kept on my brave face while making my bed and unpacking my things.  But the goodbye before swim tests made my heart race, stomach turn, and palms sweat. 

One of my top secret coping strategies was to think of all the unfair things my dad had done in the previous year.  I fully needed and deserved to have a phone in my room.  He needed to understand talking back was a way of expressing my opinion.  It may sound crazy, but that was enough to get me through the goodbyes and shift into enjoying the place where I spent all of my summers.

    Tough days can happen and for lots of different reasons.  But at Falcon we appreciate the opportunity that a tough situation can create.  It is the chance for our children to learn how to persevere in a place where the staff offers support and guidance for kids to work it out.  As adults, we so often want to fix things for our kids when what they really need is the experience of working it through themselves.  

Mommyhood: Just when I thought helping campers navigate toward a direction without trying to determine it was tough, I became a mom.  The need to love and shelter your children conflicts and sometimes tries to suffocate that ability to step back and let your babies work through the situation. 

  So our moment was swim lessons.  The class descriptions were rather vague and I placed my six year old as best I could based on her abilities.  She had all of her high stress indicators on the way into the pool: chewing on her suit, blushed cheeks, and holding my hand tightly. But she sat down with her class and waved to me on the bench. The other students looked larger and older.  It had been months since she swam and my heart began to pound.  The warm up was two lengths of the pool.  She was by far the slowest as the other students were resting on the wall and she still needed to swim another half of a length.  It is in those moments my need to protect her overwhelms all logic. What if the other students laugh? How is she going to make it through another hour of this class? Engrossed in these thoughts, I resolve to change her out of this class and go to the lower level. The instructor, who has diligently followed next to her in the pool, asks if she is tired.  My mommy brain responds: Yes! Help her! Give her a nudge!  But my baby looks up and shakes her head no.  She shook her head because she was too out of breath to say it.  And so the rest of the lesson continued in much of the same fashion.  But my girl never quit. What a life lesson for the both of us.  

--Nici 

Culture Vs Climate

I recently read an interesting article on the difference between culture and climate in a school. The article posited that culture is "shared beliefs, its ceremonies, its nuances, the traditions and the things that make the school unique" (Jakes, Your climate, your culture). Culture is developed over years. Climate, on the other hand, is the now, the current conditions, impacted by many things like "contract negotiations, a death of a faculty member, a state championship, perhaps a change in leadership" (Jakes). Climate is constantly changing, and over time, influences the culture.

I think the same is true for camps. At Falcon, we've created a culture through things like Senehawk competitions, Awards Nights, commitment to friendship and compassion, and more. When I think about our culture, I think a large part of it would be being accepting of everyone, trying your best, and doing things with smiles on our faces and songs in our hearts, as unbelievably corny as that is. Those beliefs and morals date back many years and have been important at Falcon Camp for a long time.

Climate, on the other hand, is a cool thing to think about. I've seen it change at different times in my 14 years at camp. I've probably impacted it myself. When we add little things like Formal Dinner (new last year) that changes the climate until they become a part of traditions, and therefore part of the culture. Because we are a small place relying on each other a great deal running for a condensed period of time each year, climate can have a huge impact on our summer, and therefore we can always be thinking about how we are impacting it. I think the most important way we impact climate is how we respond to outside stimuli, be it a change in schedule due to weather, or a greeting from another camper. We choose to keep the climate and consequently culture an upbeat one. Instead of sitting in our cabins and moping when it rains, we decide to play mud soccer, or have a Bingo Night in the lodge. When someone says hi to us, we smile and say hi back instead of grunting in their general direction or not responding at all. All these little things means Falcon remains a place where people want to smile. And each one of us contributes to that.

Original Article: http://smartblogs.com/education/2013/02/28/your-climate-your-culture/

Michael Jordan and camp: My First Great Loves

Sunday was Michael Jordan's 50th birthday. For any of you campers reading this, that might not seem like the biggest deal. Sure, he's the greatest basketball player of all time, but he's so 1998. It's like Paul McCartney having a birthday. You know his name (I hope you know his name) but who cares, and how on earth could this relate to camp? Well let me tell you. About Michael Jordan, that is. We can get into The Beatles later.

First of all, here's a little background. I grew up in Chicago, in the magical '90s when the Bulls won six rings in eight years. My earliest memory of basketball is sitting scrunched in the corner of the couch next to my mom, watching one of the finals of the first 3-peat, and being absolutely terrified because all the grown-ups in the room would simultaneously and inexplicably erupt in cheers or groans or boos, and I couldn't follow for the life of me. But watching Michael Jordan, who I still remember recognizing on the screen, I knew something great was happening.

The same thing happened the first time I got to camp. I was pretty scared of what was going on around me, but then I would recognize something and focus on how great it was, and man oh man, were those moments awesome. I think that first day, my "Michael Jordans" probably ranged from something as small as unpacking my suitcase and seeing my sheets in a new place, to walking to the archery range and knowing what it was. Seeing the same looks on new campers faces is one of my favorite things on opening days; the mixture of fear and excitement that I know will quickly be replaced by smiles as it all becomes recognizable. It's amazing how quickly we all know something great is happening.

One of the the most confusing times for me, Chicago, and the NBA was when Jordan decided to play baseball. He signed with a White Sox minor league team, and I was sure that he would immediately be a star there too. He wasn't. But for him, taking a break from basketball to pursue this dream, to pick up a bat, something he and his dad had always talked about, was important. This was always meaningful for me: Michael Jordan left something he was great at, something he was voted the Most Valuable Player of both the regular season and the Finals a total of five times already, to pursue something he wasn't so sure of simply because it meant something to him, because he was curious. Now I'm not condoning giving up, or saying you should throw everything away for curiosity, but what I am saying is that if you do sailing every single day, and you're great at it, maybe MVP, and you've never tried canoeing, maybe one day pull a 23 and pick up a paddle. You never know what you'll find out. Maybe you'll bat a .202 and hate it and go right back to that sailboat. But you could also keep trying and become a great (or at least competent) canoeist. It might mean that second 3-peat would never have happened, but luckily we are much more supportive than the city of Chicago.

In 1997, Michael Jordan had been back to basketball for a season and a half when the Bulls faced the Utah Jazz in the Finals. He had already clinched Game 1 for them at the buzzer, but there would be another high-pressure game pretty soon after: Game 5. The Flu Game. Jordan played this game even though he was feverish and dehydrated. When I think of Jordan, I think of him leaning on his teammates after scoring. Because despite the fact that he was feverish and dehydrated, Michael Jordan put up an astonishing 38 points, including the winning three pointer. Sometimes you have to play through tough times. Sometimes you're sick, sometimes you're lonely, sometimes you're upset. Sometimes you just don't want to. But you have to get back in the game and keep shooting. Luckily, your friends will be there to prop you up, especially at camp where we value going out and giving it your all even in adverse situations. As another athletic great said, "You miss one hundred percent of the shots you don't take." (Wayne Gretzky)

The most tumultuous time in my relationship with my hero came after he stopped playing basketball for the second time and returned as part owner and Director of Operations for the Washington Wizards. See, not only was he not with my beloved Bulls, but it was also slowly becoming clear to me that Michael Jordan was sort of a jerk in real life. Finding out later that your knight in black pinstripe armor isn't as perfect on AND off the court as you imagine is really hard. That happens at camp too. I discovered that a counselor I looked up to so much when I was camper actually had flaws--can you believe it?? And sometimes we find out our friends might be a little different than we thought too, especially as we live with them for weeks on end. And you know what? That's ok. Most of the time, it's small things that don't matter. We're all human, after all. Maybe in MJ's case it means he's not QUITE my hero anymore, or doesn't get all my blind adoration. We do have to be realistic after all. Sometimes it means you might not like a person anymore. Cool. As long as you tried, and you're still nice to them.

Especially for an eight year old, it is clear that Jordan's best off-the-court contribution was Space Jam (1996), and the best part of that was R.Kelly's "I Believe I Can Fly". This song inspired lots of afternoons running around my backyard pretending to open doors and touch the sky (and has since become a Junior Boys/Blue Jays and Kestrels theme song), but it also truly became a pick-me-up and a motivator. So I'll leave you with this, and the reminder that if you are ever having trouble remembering all that you can do, send me a message, give me a call, because I certainly believe in you.

"There are miracles in life I must achieve/But first I know it starts inside of me
If I can see it/Then I can do it/If I just believe it/There's nothing to it
I believe I can fly/I believe I can touch the sky
I think about it every night and day/Spread my wings and fly away
I believe I can soar/See me running through that open door
I believe I can fly/Cuz I believe in me."
                       --R. Kelly, "I Believe I Can Fly"

Ohio Camping Conference

Hi Everyone, and Happy Friday!!

I hope you've had a great week! We certainly have here in the Falcon Office. We were lucky enough to attend the Ohio Camping Conference in Columbus, Ohio, hosted by the American Camping Association (ACA). This conference had about 150 people from different camps around Ohio--one of my favorite parts was meeting them and hearing about how their camps work, and how they are different than or similar to Falcon.

Dave and I got to Columbus on Wednesday to help set up. Most of the rest of the Ohio Council of Leaders (of which Dave is a member) were there, moving tables, setting out name badges, and arranging chairs. One of our campers, Isabelle, was there with her parents too. We went out for dinner together, which was super great because in addition to the Ohio Council of Leaders, the ACA National President, Tisha Bolger, was there, as well as the Keynote Speaker, Joanna Warren Smith. Needless to say, dinner was an exciting affair. We talked about different experiences growing up in the camp world, how camp has changed in the past fifty years, and what each of us see as the value of camp today, especially as a technology-free bubble in world of electronics.

Thursday dawned bright and chilly (my job was to stand outside and make sure attendees had parking passes on their cars. REALLY chilly) and busy. First up was a session by Joanna Warren Smith, the keynote, followed by the first small group session of the day. I attended one on on-line camp photo albums, and got some great ideas about how to make our photos next summer better, and easier for you to look through. Dave attended (and helped facilitate) a session with Tisha that was an open discussion on what the ACA can do to better serve and help camps.

My favorite session was next, about team leadership. This was my favorite because it was playing games! A nice break in the middle of the day. Isabelle came to this with me and we had a blast. I stockpiled some new games for this summer, as well as some advice for our younger staff.  Finally, my last session was about pop culture and programming, and how to weave them together. We do some of this already, like with our Harry Potter Weekend, but I got some great ideas for others.

After talking to all the vendors (we always need new t-shirts, after all) and cleaning up, Dave and I were ready to head back to Cleveland. We talked the whole way back about the different things we had learned, and what we wanted to implement next summer. Can't wait for you to see some of these things in action in June!

Tali

Welcome!

Hello, and welcome to the new Falcon Camp blog page!

This is a place where different members of the administration, staff, and perhaps even some campers will be writing about what's happening during the summer, and what we find interesting and camp-related during the winter. With lots of people posting, you'll get lots of different perspectives on our world. Some of us may focus more on recent research about child development and how we think it relates to camping, while others may choose to look at recent litigation, or perhaps a conference or camp fair we attended. No matter what, it should be an exciting new resource that we're eager to start using.

If you have an idea for a blog post that you would like to write, or would like to see written, let us know! You can email us about any of our social media at falconcampsocial@gmail.com

Can't wait to hear from you,
Tali