As the door alarm sounded and continued to sound for the next 30 minutes I thought, “Yep I am back at band camp for the 41st year. Equipment to unload, setting off the alarm, hauling in all my electronic equipment to communicate with the world, and counselors diving in and going to work for little or no remuneration except for the joy of working with 10-18 year olds for 4 days, 24 hours a day.” Counselors have the wide-eye enthusiastic look, thinking, “I can help them just like one of the counselors helped me.” Little did they know exactly what that task would entail.
A short few hours after we set off the emergency exit alarm by mistake, the microphone stand got knocked into the fire alarm and it proceeded to go off for another thirty minutes, until the poor security guy who was locked out of the building managed to come and turn it off. Meanwhile, the kids didn’t care; they just sat and talked to each other. All the younger students had the usual questions: “Where do I shower?” “Do I have to shower?” and “Why isn’t the band director stopping? The schedule said he should have been done ten minutes ago!” That last question only got asked once and by someone very young. 
My work really starts in January when we try to get everyone thinking about camp and the time and place. We want all the new kids to know how great it is. Dispensing the information in tiny little sound bites so they get interested is the first job, and the second is talking to the kids who haven’t signed up and finding out why. The entire process goes on until the end of April, with new kids coming all the time and panicky new parents thinking they have missed the deadline.
The brand new parents are really more panicky than the student they are sending off to camp. Understandably so: they have not had enough experiences with us to know the staff and to know that we take extra special care of our campers and that, most of all, we allow them to think for themselves within a framework of responsibility. Making a bad choice, which usually constitutes drinking too many Rock Stars (translation: “energy drinks”), not sleeping when they have the opportunity, or arriving late to band, sectionals, or recreation time. Life is full of choices and consequences. The worst consequence of all is to have the staff disappointed in you because of a bad choice or because you didn’t work hard enough to get the two measures correct.
New parents think that moving the kids into their dorm room means making the bed. Well, I can tell you right now that bed making is a total waste of time. I have now made my bed three times in two days. The only thing that stays on the slippery mattress (only good for hygiene – not for sleeping) is the paper thin mattress pad, which serves the purpose of holding the bed sheet on the bed. (We will see after day three). I am so smart and have been to camp so many times that I brought a fitted sheet this year—no, not fitted to a college bed, but to a double bed. “Surely it will fit and I’ll be able to just tuck it in, so I won’t be needing the mattress pad…” Did I say I have made the bed now three times in two days? Typically it is very warm at night in Ft. Collins, so I was so prepared, I opened up the window in anticipation to cool down my room in advance. Given the stormy weather all around the state, I probably don’t need to tell you that I froze to death on Sunday and Monday night. That would account for the fact that I awoke at 5:00 a.m. on Tuesday morning thinking that if I would just get up I could get the other blanket and not freeze. This is an adult fighting with the bed and bed sheets. Ahhh, the joys of being under 30 years old: 1. You don’t open your window, because it has a lock on it with a board in the slide to keep people from getting in your room and also to keep you from freezing to death. 2. You don’t bother to make your bed three times in two days, because you don’t care and your Mom isn’t here to make you make the bed. AND 3. You only care that it is a soft, flat surface you can lie down on and, now that it is Tuesday and you have been through a few days of hard work, you do care about sleeping whenever you can. I have now been in enough rooms to know that the nice freshly made bed on Sunday doesn’t exist anymore, especially if you are the proud parent of a boy.
The best part of camp for me is having known students from their first day as a beginner and then watching the growth and development that occurs in them in four days. We love the kids here at camp. They are fun, enthusiastic, and tenacious, and we get to know them as real people, not just a “tuba player” or the student who NEVER remembers to bring his stand. We find out who can shoot a hoop from half-court, who can out-swim the whole bunch, and who can dance us all off the floor. I also enjoy watching them make new friends from all over the city, knowing that these friendships will last a lifetime and that they will share these camp experiences for their whole lives.
The skills they acquire through band also follow them throughout their lives, and when this growing process happens in a focused and fun environment, it all begins to make sense even to the youngest of them. Band is a social activity as well as a competitive activity, but the band is only as good as the last chair. In and among that competitive spirit it is also important for the best to help the rest to become better because it makes everyone even “GOOD-er.” (Straight from a student’s mouth.) The spirit of band is like no other: no one sits on the bench, and everyone plays—and this week they play to the very best of their ability. Musically, no one can dispute the advantages of concentrated effort all squeezed into four days. The students have to muster a great deal of focus, and the schedule can be grueling for kids who at home have enforced down time. Here they have to recognize that recreation time IS the down time and play basketball with the rest of the crowd.
A few more comments now that I have blogged on and on. I got conjunctivitis and took a trip to the eye doctor a block and a half away, who immediately informed me that I was NOT contagious because I caught it immediately, but that didn’t save me from buying a $70.00 prescription. Better me than one of the kids.
Monday night we had the usual attitude of, “Boy am I tired, and have I really only been here 24 hours? Guess I will sleep tonight…” Then a bad burrito caused a few upset stomachs, but Tuesday is a new day and we have more music to learn, more theory to do, and definitely more basketball and volleyball to play. Oh…and did I mention that we are going to play Polish Horseshoes tonight? I can hardly wait; should make for some great pictures. The verdict is still out on the success of my bed-making.
