CIT Guest Blog: Part I

     This week we are going to be featuring guest blogs from our CIT campers from last week.  They are giving details about their experiences as well as their overall impression of what it meant to be a counselor at Camp Whitman.  Our first blog was written by CIT counselor, James Yoon.

2014 CIT campers and counselors

Reflecting upon my Counselor-In-Training experience at Camp Whitman, I can only recall fond memories. My experience as a CIT was not only eye-opening, but it taught me skills that would be useful for the rest of my life.

One thing I learned from this week is that being a counselor is not easy. The second thing is that it isn't impossibly hard, either. Although it is quite a big responsibility to babysit twenty campers for over 100 hours. Yet, a counselor is a teacher, a parent, a social worker, a spiritual guide, all built into one. And that's what's so rewarding about being a counselor. It's beautiful. Glorious.

CITs working with our day campers

During this week, under the direction of my phenomenal counselors, Ileya and Jess, and our Graded Camp Coordinator, Courtney, we spent lots of time interacting with campers of various age groups, skill levels, personalities, and cultural backgrounds. Slowly but surely, we learned to lead entire activities smoothly with minimal help!

More than anything, my experience with the Pine campers was the most meaningful to me, mostly because I had a prejudice toward people with disabilities before. To be completely honest, I used to feel scared and uncomfortable around them. However, from this experience, I finally understood that people with disablilities are human beings just like us and that they deserve to be respected like anyone else. They have a strong faith too, maybe even stronger than any of ours.

Speaking of faith, we looked into that during this week, too. With the guidance of Pastor Colin, my fellow CIT campers and I explored our faiths and assessed our connection with God. As Pastor Colin put it, we began telling each of the beginning of our personal stories, of why we are where we are today. Through this experience, I came closer to God and formed strong bonds with other campers, counselors, and of course, Pastor Colin.

So that was my week. I bonded with remarkable people, built my faith, and learned priceless leadership qualities. I can't really ask for much else.

James playing the piano

Catching up with camp in July

Hey Everyone,

Two weeks ago we had campers come to Camp Whitman for our opening week of camp.  The themes that week included; sunfish sailing camp for middle schoolers, camp quest for 3rd graders, Leadership in Training for high schoolers, Adventures for 4th and 5th graders, and Explorations Camp for Adults with Developmental Disabiilities.

LIT campers completing the "Magic Carpet" ropes course element

Camp has been very busy over the last couple of weeks and we have had a lot of great  campers.  During the first week of camp I was a counselor for our 3 Leadership-in-Training campers. 




During this camp, they completed a range of activities to improve their leadership skills.  My favorite activity to watch campers complete was our session that focused on communitcation.  The campers were either blind,  deaf, or spoke a different language and had to show each other how to make a Peanutbutter and Jelly sandwich, and work through these communication barriers.  Here are the results of that exercise:

Mac who spoke Yiddish is trying to teach Rachel how to make a PB&J

Zack is being taught how to make a PB&J by Rachel who had to pretend to be deaf

These campers also enjoyed all the regular fun camp activities, like making homeade ice cream, and tye-dying.  This week was a good beginning to a summer of fun and exciting camp experiences.  This week also included many of our traditional camp activities like the dance and the talent show. 

Counselors and Campers enjoying the Dance

Stay posted for more exciting activites from camp :)