By JAN McLAUGHLIN
BG Independent News
Fifth grade camp for Bowling Green City Schools students is always a week of new adventures. Students experience challenges way outside their comfort zones – like canoeing, holding snakes, even letting a tarantula walk on their faces.
But this year at Camp Michindoh, in Michigan, there was also a group of BGHS students who learned new skills as camp counselors.
Last year, a small number of high school student volunteers went to camp, and helped support teachers in the cabins. This year, 17 volunteers went along – some of them being in charge of cabins and others sharing the cabin duty with teachers.
As teachers Bob Marzola and Heather Fallis shared stories from camp at last week’s school board meeting, they thanked the high school volunteers: Tanner Amos, Dylan Haught, Kaitlyn Clingenpeel, Marissa Bernal, Jocelyn Loe, Cooper Nagel, Cameron Fallis, Baylie White, Melanie Long, Kyle Maunz, Dylan West, Brianna Taylor, Angela Ducat, Devry Crespo, Morgan Hoffman, Cheyenne Daman and Ava Kenyon.
“Thank you so much for giving up a week for us,” Marzola said.
Fifth grade camp, afterall, is not a week of rest and relaxation. Campers rise at 7 a.m., and gather around the flagpole at 7:30 a.m. After breakfast, there are classes and more classes – learning pioneer skills, checking the ecosystem of the lake, trying archery, scaling a climbing wall. Plus students work together to keep their cabins clean.
“A lot of students experience things they never have before,” Marzola said.
And the days don’t get any easier as they go on. Evenings were spent around the campfire, performing skits, and dancing.
Meals at camp are always plentiful – and an eye-opening experience, Fallis said.
“For some of our students, this is the most food security they will have in their school life,” Fallis said.
In addition to the high school volunteers, Marzola and Fallis thanked all the district’s fifth grade teachers for putting so much effort into the week.
“You made magic happen for fifth graders,” Marzola said.
At the end of the camp presentation, video clips were shown of fifth grade students talking about their week. They raved about camp being the “best week of life,” having so many food choices, getting to make friends, feeling their classmates becoming family, learning how to face fears, and having “one million percent” fun in their cabins with friends.
