Most of you might be used to hearing about the fun times at 8th-grade camp. But this year things were a little different. Brentwood decided to take the new 6th-grade class to camp rather than having them wait until 8th grade for their camp experience. And instead of going to Camp Lakewood in Washington County ,Missouri, which is where eighth graders have gone for many years, the district chose a new camp: Touch of Nature, located in Southern Illinois.
Why the change from 8th grade to 6th grade?
Since normally there is a bit of a “rivalry” between the two elementary schools – McGrath and Mark Twain – which can then cause some growing pains as the schools combine for sixth grade, Dr. Wehner, principal of Brentwood Middle, asked the question: “Is there some way, something we can do to get them to really bond with each other?” From that question came the idea of switching 8th-grade camp to 6th-grade so that students could have a bonding experience earlier in their middle school experience. For those in 8th grade right now and those in 7th, don’t worry, you will still get to go to camp, too!
Not only did 6th graders get to attend camp this year, but a broader range of high schoolers also had the opportunity to volunteer as counselors. For the first time, sophomores were allowed to participate as counselors, rather than just juniors and seniors. In the past, the district felt that 10th graders were too close in age to the kids in camp. Now that the kids were in 6th grade, it worked much better.
When I heard about this, I knew I wanted to join in on the fun. Not only do I already know a lot of the 6th graders, but I thought it would be a great experience. I didn’t go to Brentwood in middle school, so I never got to go to 8th grade camp. In addition to me, 7 other high school students came along as counselors: sophomores Belen Campos Martinez and Chloe Zhang, as well as juniors Adia Wren, Cloé Bass, Byron Jenkins, Oliver Holmes, and John White.
How did it go?
While I had never been to Camp Lakewood as a school camper, I’ve visited the camp before as a YMCA summer camper. While both Camp Lakewood and Touch of Nature are located on a beautiful lake, Touch of Nature is a lot smaller than Lakewood, and it’s farther away. One standout for Touch of Nature was the staff. They were fantastic and really got along with the kids.
During the day, we had activity groups, which I think was a good idea because the kids weren’t all together at the same time. My favorite activity was the giant swing (pictured below), where I was harnessed in and dropped from thirty feet in the air. It was very scary but so exhilarating, I wanted to do it again. A lot of the sixth graders were terrified, and some didn’t even do it, but once they were convinced, they had a lot of fun.
As for food, we ate our meals together and there weren’t many complaints from the kids. The hot dogs and burgers that the kids got to cook over the fire were a big hit, yet perhaps the most balanced of meals. “The food could’ve been more balanced,” said Dr. Wehner. “We could have had more vegetables.”
When it came to the sleeping situation, we were split up into separate girls’ and boys’ cabins. Each cabin had about seven kids and some had two counselors, but some had one. There was one group bathroom that each cabin shared and then all the teachers were in a cabin together. The girls in my cabin were a little crazy at times, but overall, it was fun getting to know them, and it was cool getting to be in charge and having them look up to me.
Overall, from my point of view, camp went well. It was nice to get a break from school and just have fun with the kids and be in nature. It was new for everyone, so we were all kind of learning as we went. I was surprised with how well the kids handled being away from home. I didn’t see any rivalry between them or competition, so I think in that sense, it was a big success.
Middle school math teacher, Mr. Royal was also very happy with how it turned out. “From here on out, we’re expecting to have this experiential learning be part of the 6th grade year,” he said.
