Hey, Camp Aficionados!
Happy to see so many great entries about kids’ camp experience for our ‘Share Your Camp Story’ Contest that we held here at Everything Summer Camp. So, we’re posting each of your entries here on the Blog! Following our seven lucky winners who g
ot larger prizes, the rest of our entrants received a $15 gift certificate to our online store! Today’s post is from Maya C., who wrote in to tell us about her fun summer at Camp Netimus. Here’s what she had to say:
“This Summer I spent my 3rd year at Camp Netimus, a sleep away camp in Milford, PA. At camp I met so many friends and had so many great experiences. One great experience was shooting a bulls-eye in Riflery for the first time and then doing it again! I had an awesome cabin this year with my 5 friends from the previous 2 years. This year I was considered a JCIT (Junior Counselor In Training). JCIT’s have a lot of responsibilities, like calling cabins when we had picnic or giving a speech at the last green cathedral, which is like church every Sunday where one cabin says there 4 experiences. JCIT’s also have to rover, or check on cabins during counselor meetings. At this time, working seniors and major minors—both of which train you for becoming a JCIT—and soon counselor, have to cover lower camp cabins. The JCIT’s job is to make sure the working seniors and major minors had their lower camp/lower upper camp cabin under control. Lower camp is cabins 1-7 and upper camp is 8-JCIT. Lower upper camp is 8-10. JCIT’s also had to teach a class of choice and assist a class of choice. My ‘teach class’ was Riflery and my assist class was Jewelry. JCIT’s were the only ones allowed in our cabin which had two rooms. One room was empty, the other is the one we slept in. While JCIT’s did have a lot of responsibilities, we also had a lot of fun. We got 2 days out, one each month, with the working seniors where we got to go shopping and watch movies at the nearby mall and theater. I stayed season, or 2 months, at camp. We weren’t allowed to have a phone, but I didn’t need one because I was having too much fun. During the fourth week, we had a float night banquet, where we had a canoe show at the lake and then a banquet like dinner. Also, every Thursday we had a dance with our brother camp Shohola, which were lots of fun. During changeover, the weekend between 4th and 5th week, we went to a water park that used to be called Action Park. It used to be the most dangerous park in the world, but they tore it down and built Mountain Creek Water Park, way safer. The next day we went shopping at the mall. During 5th week we went to Branchville, where I got on my first Merry-go-round. I also got on “The Claw” which spun you up and down and in a circle. Then we had our normal banquet, where they decorate the dining hall all day with an unknown theme. Normally campers don’t know the theme until their cabin gets called down, but since the JCIT’s had to help with something outside; we were allowed to go in for a couple minutes to see the theme. This year’s theme was Enchanted Forest. The next day we had candle light, where at 8:00 we all sat around a big campfire holding a candle of our own, then moved to our cabins with the candle and talked about our year as a camper. My favorite memory from this year was when my cabin tried to scare me but ended up scaring themselves. I was at the nurse one night for stomach cramps and my cabin wanted to scare me. They were sitting in the cabin in our empty room and started chanting random quotes from ‘Harry Potter’. The plan was to scream at me when I walked in, but it didn’t go well. Right before I walked in, the CIT’s, which were next door, opened their door and slammed it shut. Then I walked in our cabin and slammed our door closed. The sound of the doors slamming scared them and they screamed at the top of their lungs. Apparently they were expecting me to turn on the light, but I was way too tired to think, and figured they were asleep. Overall, I found Camp Netimus was like a second home for me and loved every minute I was there.”
Camp Netimus must be a great camp that you keep going back! I’m glad you’re happily accepting more responsibilities as you continue your years at summer camp. Look into Camp Netimus for yourself and discover what a special place it is. As always, thanks for reading!
- John