Walking In a Winter Wonder…Plan
One of the questions that we are asked most often as the Highroad staff is, "What do you do during the winter?" Usually, as Naturalist, I'll give a smart-alec answer like, "hibernate" but the truth is that I'm really evading a question that takes a good deal of time to answer!
Truth-be-told, the seven of us on year-round staff often don't know exactly what kind of craziness we'll find ourselves in during this time of year. I (Josh) have been here full-time since June 2008, and my job has changed every year! My first year, our Programs Director left shortly before the fall… so Sean Baker and I traded duty weekends every other weekend through the winter (yes, we still have groups on the weekends!) and I took the responsibility for scheduling staff, planning Winter Camp and doing other Program Directorish things. During Snowmageddon in 2010, we plowed snow and did indoor work, like designing this website. Last year, I helped plan advertising through WPER, reblazed the trails, made new maps, managed the website, and helped the other guys decide on crazy new camp pursuits, like Awakening Fest. In the midst of all of our normal maintenance and program development, we also plan new camps and improvements for the new year. This year has a LOT of them!
This year, in addition to taking advantage of the beautiful weather to cut firewood and fix tractors, we're planning for a whole list of new 2012 programs and improvements. First, we're installing a new high ropes course that will be one of the best in Northern Virginia. Second, we're launching more weekend camps after the success of our last two winter camps. This year we will have one "Spring Camp," and we hope to offer many more opportunities like that in the future (including a father-son "Man Camp"). Third, we're restructuring our summer staff so that chaplains will now be more involved with the specific age-groups whom they teach. This will allow both campers and counselors to build relationships with the individuals who we know to be solid Christ-following leaders and solid role models. Fourth, we're bringing back a "High-Adventure Trip Camp" this summer. This program, which was done somewhat loosely in the past and then shut down, has been revitalized under new leadership and will provide an opportunity for a group of high school campers to share amazing experiences off-camp with their counselors and Highroad staff. Fifth, in response to the needs and comfort-levels of this generation of campers, we're moving Wranglers into Willow Lodge and scrapping our platform tents. Sixth, we're offering a new "Graduated Seniors Mission Camp" to give our former campers an opportunity to return to camp one final time in order to put what they've learned into practice.
We continue to thank God for the many successes at camp over the past years and we look forward to continued improvement in the future. In the meantime, we'll keep on planning and adapting to whatever comes our way!
Wednesday, January 25th, 2012.