Sisters of St. Joseph of Baden

Celebration of Learning

Sisters of St Joseph — Mon, 08 Aug 2011 00:51:25 +0000

Hi everyone! My name is Colleen and I was part of the Green Turtles group made up of 8 and 9 year olds. This was my first year at Peace Camp and I am so thankful to have been a part of it. I’ll be writing about the fifth and final day of camp.

At the beginning of the day, the last installment of the “Inspect Patereye” skit was performed. It recapped the themes of the week and brought together all the counselors and campers for a dance party at the end. We all had a blast dancing and I think it was one of the greatest moments of the week.

The last day of Peace Camp is a celebration of learning and Friday truly was a celebration, but it was also bittersweet. The counselors and campers formed amazing bonds in five short days and it was sad to think that Promise Camp 2011 was coming to an end. The day was made easier, though, by the incredible performance the campers put on. The extremely talented group of campers we had got to display all that they learned in art, music, theater and dance in a performance put on for parents. All of the teachers planned classes that the children really enjoyed, and the kids were so proud and excited to display what they did all week. We also got to introduce the guests to our song “The Magic of Coming Together.” It was great to sway and sing with the kids and their families.

This week blessed me so much. God’s goodness and beauty was so evident in the children. The counselors got so close and we feel like we have known each other for years rather than just two weeks. This was one of the greatest experiences of my life.

Imagination and God’s creation!

Sisters of St Joseph — Fri, 05 Aug 2011 04:20:45 +0000

Hello everyone! My name is Megan and I am a counselor for the 8 and 9 year old group…otherwise known as the Green Turtles! I’m here to recap the fourth day of Peace Camp

Today’s theme was Respect Nature. In the morning, Inspector Pater taught us that we shouldn’t disrespect nature by littering. Instead, we should take time to appreciate the world around us. After learning this important lesson, the kids had a great time singing along to our theme song: “The Magic of Coming Together”. Smiles were abundant as the day began, and I don’t think they disappeared until it was time to go home.

In dance class, the kids enjoyed role-playing as trees and practicing how to show tension and relaxation. They acted out their best animal impressions in drama and were definitely ready to take a break for lunch. After lunch, it was time for visual art. The campers mastered the art of paper folding as they created origami cats and dogs. During Play Creatively, the Green Turtles enjoyed a game called “Garbage Collector” and listened to a heartfelt story known as The Giving Tree. Music class was wonderful as the campers sang songs about peace, practiced drumming, and learned the story behind peace cranes. During afternoon homeroom, my co-counselors and I asked the kids what turned out to be a very hard question — “What was your favorite part of the day?” I don’t think any of them could pick just one thing!

Today, I was especially moved because a few of my campers asked why Peace Camp can’t last the whole summer. I told them I don’t know why it isn’t longer than a week, but I would absolutely love if it could be all year-round! I cannot believe that tomorrow is the last day of camp. I want to thank God for bringing so many amazing kids into my life. This year’s Peace Camp has given me tremendous confidence as a teacher and a mentor. I will never forget the lessons I’ve learned at camp, and I hope the kids take their experiences with them as well.

Day 3 – We’re Bigger Influences Than We Think

Sisters of St Joseph — Thu, 04 Aug 2011 04:39:10 +0000

Hello blog readers! My name is Michael Pater and I am a 2^nd 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!

Second Day of Camp

Sisters of St Joseph — Tue, 02 Aug 2011 22:35:15 +0000

I woke up excited to greet the smiling children from our group the Red Robins. The children are all adorable, sweet, and bright. I am grateful to have such wonderful councilors and children to work with. Going into the theatre all the kids were SO excited to be there. I was surprised to find that there were a couple new additions to our group Maria and Karee. Karee and Maria were both shy especially Karee who in the beginning of the day was covering her face when someone she didn’t know was speaking to her. When we got to homeroom we began the lesson plan and everyone was really focused on the poem we were discussing and I was very proud. Emma was able to draw what we were discussing in the morning lesson and was repeating to Dana that we are all part of a circle. I felt like I was really getting through to the kids and when I asked them if they were having fun, they said yes. We played some name games to finish up homeroom and then went to the play creatively room. During play creatively we played musical chairs and I was so glad to see Karee’s confidence blossom when she won the game and from that moment on her introversion had ceased and she was interacting and smiling. We also created a peace sign out of yarn and I was very proud of the way everyone was listening and communicating with one another. All the children seemed to enjoy themselves during their music and dance classes. Their attention was hard to get when we were leaving the room and trying to get everyone in a line and quiet. They were a lot more talkative than yesterday and got into a few more arguments, however, once their attention was obtained they were very receptive. The art class and the afternoon homeroom went well. We discussed communication and listening. I read them a book and we had very good conversation going about ways we get people to listen and how we feel when we don’t feel heard so it is very important to listen to other people. We ended with the quote, “God gave us two ears and one mouth so that we can listen twice as much as we speak.” I learned a lot today.

Get set…Go!

Sisters of St Joseph — Tue, 02 Aug 2011 03:04:37 +0000

Get set…Go! My name is Karl and I am a new counselor here at the FRAC Peace camp. I am a psychology and English Major at Duquesne University. Today was our first early morning at the actual camp. We have spent the past six days in preparation in ways such as organizing lesson plans or spending quality time and creating connections with the other counselors. I think everyone was both nervous and excited for today, but in my mind I knew that when I woke up that this day was already over…It went by so quickly! All the anxiety from the night before disappeared within meeting our groups. I am a counselor for the orange group, which had half the amount of kids it was listed to have due to a bus issue. We hope to be able to see all twelve kids this week! Maybe tomorrow, eh? We shall see. The six children that we had were very responsive to the activities that we presented to them, which brought me a lot of relief. It is obvious to see that every kid inside that building admires and looks up to each of the counselors. When I sat down to lunch at the camp with the other counselors my thoughts were mainly concentrated on trying to remember how it feels to be twelve years old again. What did I think about? Who did I look up to? and why? honestly, I can’t remember much a’tall. But when I one of the kids imitate what I do, or talk about simple things like video games and their favourite sports, the more I get a mild taste of that time in my life…The kids seemed to enjoy the song that we wrote together! Tomorrow we are going to focus on helping them learn the words with a powerpoint, which J.T. is working on right next to me right now. I have absolutely no worries for tomorrow’s day, since we are playing a lot of music and doing a lot of music oriented activities. The plan is to write a song with the group about listening and communication, then put the words to a few chords. It shall be brilliant!

the meeting of peace at baden

Sisters of St Joseph — Mon, 01 Aug 2011 03:29:33 +0000

Hello, my name is Alyson Schratz, a second year return college counselor and junior from St.Vincent College…

It is my pleasure to recount for all your reading enjoyment what we did today…Sunday July 31^st day six of all us college counselors being together. Which I must say has been amazing and awesome so far…

This morning we drove to Baden, Pa to the motherhouse of the Sisters of St. Joseph to attend Sunday Mass, Swim at the pool, and enjoy an outdoor picnic with Sisters Barbra and Jeanette and Marcia Snowden. If you’ve never been to Baden let me describe it in one word…Peaceful… totally Peaceful. This was also very evident as our group walked the Labyrinth for our nightly prayer. The chapel in which the mass was held is my favorite by far… The most beautiful one I have ever seen. Everything about Baden from the sisters to the nature outside is pure peace. Everyone enjoyed the company of the sisters while playing some super fun BINGO! It was so funny to see the winners react and to see everyone having a blast. Another funny note, while our group was walking the labyrinth, this peace was disrupted when a rooster from nearby crowed and the proceeded to creep up on us then ran away. This Rooster obviously didn’t get the memo that it was not the AM. This little occurrence provided many laughs on the car ride home. And now as I sit here writing we are putting the final touches on tomorrow’s lessons. We are all so excited to start camp tomorrow and we couldn’t be happier with what we have in store for this week.

Planning Day

Sisters of St Joseph — Sun, 31 Jul 2011 23:40:21 +0000

My name is Dee-Jai Grecek and it is my first year as a college counselor at peace camp. I will be a junior speech pathology at Kent State University in the fall who plans to work in a school in the future. This entire experience has been more eye opening and inspiring than I could ever explain. All of us counselors are bonded as a unit. It is amazing to me that just 4 days ago I had never met any of these people and now we all get along so well. We all have a common goal of spreading the message of peace and helping the kids.

Today, Saturday, we broke up into our two person teams and made up all of our lesson plans for the week. There is a team for each age group, five groups in all, and we paired a returning counselor with a new counselor so that everyone could contribute and get the extra help they may need. Personally I was very nervous about making the lesson plans. I want the kids to get the best possible experience they can and for that to happen we need to have good lessons in hand. My partner helped me so much and we got our plans done effectively. Everyone worked diligently on their plans all day and put all they had into the planning. It was very inspirational to see how much all of us care about making a difference in these kids’ lives.

We also took some time to work on our morning and afternoon skits for the whole group activities with the kids. We, as a group of 12, were able to come up with some very creative ideas that I know the kids will enjoy.

All in all it was a very successful day that made me have faith that the camp will be a big success. I know these lessons will help the kids get the most out of peace camp and I can’t wait for the week ahead.

Peace Camp Training Day 4

Sisters of St Joseph — Sat, 30 Jul 2011 03:22:58 +0000

Hello all,

My name is Mary Eklund and I am brand new to Peace Camp this year. Coming in as a newbie and not having met any of my fellow counselors before, I was a little worried about not fitting in. As the forth day of training comes to an end I am feeling completely silly for even worrying about it. From the moment I walked in the door at Gilmary I was greeted by the happy smiling faces of some of the most sincere and friendly people I have ever met.

For a timid person such as myself it can be hard to make friends but everyone I have met has been so accepting that I feel completely comfortable around all of them, even after just a few days. Not only that, but I have more and more fun everyday.

Take today for example, when I first heard that we would be writing and recording a song from scratch I was beyond nervous. When the time came to record the song, I found that I was able to completely let go of all my worries and didn’t care if I made a fool out of myself at my attempts to “rap”. I wasn’t the only nervous person in the room today and I figured I could let my guard down and make a fool out of myself with these people because I know they were doing the same.

Not that anyone was making a fool out of themselves. I think we were all just having a good time and enjoying the new friendships we have made. I know now, without a doubt that the kids attending Peace Camp next week will have a blast. With all the positive energy and the fun the counselors and staff are having, there is no doubt in my mind the children will feed off our energies and have just as much fun as us…. and I can’t wait!!

Thanks for reading!

the best part of training in my eye

Sisters of St Joseph — Fri, 29 Jul 2011 04:03:47 +0000

hello blog readers, this is another instalment of our famous blog on how the day went. my name is nathan fetchin and i am a returner from lat years peace camp!

Today we went down to the Father Ryan Art Center and meet the instructors that would be teaching campers. We had Visual Arts, Dance, Drama, Music, and Play Creatively as our classes that we do. As a group of people we have come together and talked about what peace means to us and what we have come to think about what peace means to us. Did I mention that we have met our administrative staff who planned the event, and our high school counselors? They were so enthusiastic on how their ideas of peace that the vibe of the room just jumped from like ten levels and everyone in the room just felt it, the whole room just went from a dull sleep to a “Let’s do this attitude.”
There was one game that we played that will forever stick in my mind is this game where you and a partner stand across from each other. When this starts each person rubs their hands till their warm. And when they get warm you put the up next to each other (without touching) and see what you feel. When you do this you feel the other person’s energy and with each new partner it feels different. Say if you have a best friend it will be stronger than if you had done it with a stranger.

Peace Camp: Training Day 1!

Sisters of St Joseph — Wed, 27 Jul 2011 20:24:36 +0000

Hello everyone! My name’s Rebekah Laslow, and it’s my second year of peace camp! I’m so excited to be here with such amazing people. Today we spent the day looking at tons of great resources that great people have provided to us-craft products galore and an endless supply of phenomenal workbooks and manuals with endless activities we can use this week. I’m seriously making a list of books here to buy myself when I get home!

The afternoon focused a lot on learning about building community through respect. We really bonded as a team and I’m really encouraged to be working with such passionate, idealistic individuals. I’m so thankful that the counselors here are dedicated to working with kids, and I can’t wait to see what will unfold this upcoming week! <3