Days Six and Seven (the end!)

Apologies for the delay - the end of the trip was rushed with packing and driving and then heading back home from Columbus to PA.

The high school freshmen who came on Friday were interesting to say the least. There were just around 100 of them, with four teachers from the Esko high school, just about 5-8 minutes away from the camp. They were split up in groups of 25, and rotated through four stations - moving and splitting the logs we had moved on Thursday, making wooden nametags for the summer campers, making birthday cards for the campers, and going through an educational session about One Heartland with Jill. They were full of energy and questions ("Do you have class with Tyrell Pyror?" was a common one, actually) and we were worn out by the time they left at 2:00. We spent the rest of the afternoon cleaning the camp and finishing up projects that we had been working on all week. After dinner, we did our final reflection session, talking about what we had learned from the camp experience, and what our favorite parts of the week were. A huge thing we discussed was what we could do when we get back in Columbus to help. We had decided that, in the case of most campers, HIV/AIDS wasn't the biggest concern for them or their families - poverty was. We're going to attempt to do a group service day at the Columbus Boys and Girls Club sometime during winter quarter, to do something for the underprivledged youth of Columbus.

Saturday involved getting up at 3:30 am, leaving at 4:00 am and driving back to Columbus. Ironically, our Minnesota trip was the only Buck-i-Serv trip that didn't get caught in a huge snow storm on our drive back.

All in all, it was a fantastic trip, and I think more than a few of the trip participants are going to join OSU's Students for Camp Heartland organization, in addition to toying with the idea of volunteering as a counselor for even just a week this summer.