Vlog by Pixels
Amazingly, time always seems to find a way to go by too fast—today is already the sixth day of YLC! After breakfast and our cleaning assignments, we split into our teams and did an activity to enhance our bond with our teammates. We did a trust fall activity as a group, each member on our team stood on top of bleacher and the rest of the teammates surrounded that person from behind and catch the member when he/she falls backwards. It was very successful! Afterwards we did a blind trust fall activity; we formed a circle around each team member, and that person had to close their eyes and trust their teammates not to let him/her fall out of the circle. Then we did a final activity relating to trust where we had to pair up with a person we least talk to on our team and trust them to catch us when we fall backwards towards them. These three activities definitely boosted our trust in each other!
During Camp Council, we voted for three positions: President, Vice President, and Secretary. We will have elections every week for new Camp Council administration so that several campers can gain experience from the position. We can bring back what we learn about parliamentary procedure to our schools! Several campers ran for the available positions and in the end Martha Wolcott won the president position. Stephanie Johnston won vice-president, and Michelle Mansfield-Hom won secretary of Camp Council! Congratulations to them!
Every day at YLC, we have media hour during which each team works on four different projects: Vlog, Blog, the DVD yearbook, and the Daily Drum! The Vlog is a video blog that will sometimes be featured on this website along with this blog! Instead of just reading, you can press play and get a visual idea of what is going on today! The DVD yearbook is a great way to save paper! It is like a year book but on DVD. Instead of printing papers, we do everything on the computer and burn it to a CD and we still can enjoy it! The Daily Drum is a newsletter for YLC, we write articles, stories, and jokes, and we also put in some riddles and games! The Daily Drum is something for the campers to read and be aware of what is going on here at YLC! The DVD yearbook, Vlog, blog, and Daily Drum are created by us! The staff help us and guide us through the process, they want us to take on the responsibility and gain experience in working on different types of media!
Full of energy and ready to go off to the fireside! It was time for Outdoor Living Skills class. We all sat down, in front of us were ten big green backpacks. We had no idea what to expect! Our counselors told us to make ten groups. Then the counselors came around and picked up our backpacks and dumped everything out and on the ground! Before that they explained to us that the most important things always go on top. It was up to our group to pack our backpack! When we were done we went on a surprise hike! We had to put our skills to the test. It was a warm and beautiful day for a walk so we were glad to have the opportunity walk through nature! When we arrived at our destination we had to find and tree and “bear bag” it. Bear bagging is when you find a branch more than ten feet off the ground, and hang your bag on it with a rope so bears won’t be able to reach it. It took several groups several tries to get our rope over a branch! But we finally achieved what we were trying to do and it felt great! We headed back to the fireside, when we returned it was our canteen break! It sure felt like a prize for all our hard work!
For tonight's Evening Program, we played Turtles and Rabbits! Four staff members stand and "mark" four corners. We split up into two groups, each team starts at opposite corners, the objective is to catch the other player by catching up to them while running around the circle! Firefly and Callus teamed up against Group A and B. It was a lot of fun! After we finished the game we still had some time left, we decided to play knock out again on the basketball court since we all had so much fun playing it a couple of days ago!
The Fireside began with a disappointing start as we (Firefly) nearly failed to light up the fire. The first two matches failed, and we had only one match left. After 15 minutes of trying to ignite the fire, we realized that we needed help. Callus, another group who also had experience with the fireside willfully helped us! We did it! We were unable to give a skit as we were running out of time! Ryan Baldiviez and Bethany Weiner proceeded to give a warm welcome to Vivienne Schroeder, who came on the stage with a smile. Upon arriving the stage, Vivienne went on to describe her personal life. She mentioned that at a young age she thought that she had a perfect life: Two happily married parents and one older brother. Being an innocent child, what could go wrong? But as she got older, she became a victim of abuse. She was hurt physically, emotionally, and especially mentally. Being the strong person that she is, she had to keep it together but she was falling apart every day. She had a hard time during her first year in college and found herself victimized by some people there. But she emphasized that one of the greatest things about going to college is that, even if you feel alone, you will find true friends who will stand by your side. Vivienne was truly blessed to have a friend who helped her through her darkest moments by bringing Buddhism into her life. Today, Vivienne is a most courageous young lady who encourages victims of abuse and bullying to get help immediately, or find someone to talk to, because “no one should ever have to go through it alone.” We were all moved by her story, it was very brave of her to share it with us!
Subrina Morales getting ready to fall back on her group during the Trust Fall activity!
Mike Hesser was smart to trust his group!
Dathan Brown and Joshua Canulla laughing during the group activity!
Team Firefly ready to catch their teammate!
Johnny Bonilla brought an excellent idea to our Camp Council!
Campers cheering for our new Camp Council president: Martha Wolcott!
Shu Han Guo and Kayla LaBruno watching the backpacking and bear-bagging presentation.
Esther Fass, Ray McCall, Joshua Canulla and Kayla LaBruno worked together to pack their bags the right way!
Anthony Finocchio and Asia Riedinger are ready to get going on their hike!
Cheese! Dan Mabashov, Hillary Frankowiak, and Carolina Kohn posed for a great pic!
Nha Kim running as fast as she can during the Turtles and Rabbits game!
We have been having an amazing time here and it is a lot of fun! The staff are keeping us busy all day, and we are really learning a lot as well! We still have 21 days to go! We're excited to see what's in store for us!
LONG LIVE YLC '09! GOOD NIGHT!!!
