Hello blog readers! My name is Michael Pater and I am a 2nd year counselor at Peace Camp and one of the counselors of the 10 year old purple group.
Today, with a healthy attitude and a tuned up approach to our morning routine, Peace Camp started off smoothly. All of the kids began the day holding hands in a giant circle singing our theme song for Peace Camp 2011. This time, we had a working projector so that we could project the words on the big screen so that the kids could sing along throughout the entire song.
The Purple group was introduced to today’s lesson, “Forgive and Act Courageously” and was taught the lesson throughout the day within the various classes. One thing Ms. Pearl, the dance teacher, told us counselors the other day, was that the kids are really looking up to us and really paying attention to us. Lately, I’ve been paying attention to how the kids respond to us. Ms. Pearl was absolutely right! The kids are watching us diligently to see if we’re paying attention to the teachers and if we are having a good time there. I caught them doing it many times over the past couple of days. Today, we were finishing up our friendship bracelets that we started in Art class. One little girl didn’t have a bracelet to work on because she missed the Art class. I first though “uh-oh”, but then said “hey, just take mine. I’m okay with that”. Another little girl came up to me after that and said, “did you really give her your bracelet?!?” It’s really nice to know that they look up to us and that we can be an influence for them.
I have so much more to say, but don’t want to make this too long. Before I finish, however, I do want to explain a really cool project we did today in class. We had the kids write down on a piece of toilet paper something that they needed to forgive someone for or something they needed to be forgiven for. After that they took their toilet paper and flushed it down the toilet as a method of moving on and learning to not be weighed down by the things in our past.
Peace Camp 2011 is one of the greatest experiences of my life and I appreciate you letting me share it with you!
