2007 Adventure Camp

Lovejoy and Hart Elementary

October 23rd - 26th

The Collin County Adventure Camp was a three day get-way open to all 5th graders from both elementary schools of Lovejoy ISD. I don't know the exact count of kids attending, but I heard is was around 400. It was held at Collin County Adventure Camp located in Westminster ... just east of McKinney.

The 427 acre facility is a joint venture of Collin County and the YMCA designed for the hands-on study of natural sciences. It is only about a year and a half old. We didn't have the opportunity to see all of the facilities (like the pool center) but what we saw was first class all the way. You will see what I mean with the following pictures.

As impressive as the camp is, the kids were even at a higher level. To the child, they were respectful, well mannered, attentive, disciplined, and inquisitive. The camp staff paid a couple of very nice comments about "these Lovejoy kids", and I knew it wasn't just lip service. That all goes back to the parents, teachers, and administrators. I felt privileged to be there to see it all for myself.

Please understand that many of these pictures are of the 12 boys Robert Gonzales and I chaperoned from Hart Elementary, but I am only one person with one camera.

Wednesday morning, all of the luggage was delivered to the Leopard's Lair at Hart Elementary. By the time all of the kids showed up, the walls around the room were filled. In fact, it took one complete school bus for the the luggage. The bags were color coded so they could be easily distributed when they reached the camp.

It took strong backs to move the bags to the busses. Each child was allowed one suitcase and a sleeping bag, and I can promise you, those kids can get a lot of stuff in those bags.

The kids start loading the buses after the bags are loaded ... about 10:30 Tuesday morning.

The drive takes about 45 minutes or so. This shot of the two lane blacktop leading to the camp turnoff shows you what the countryside looks like.

We're in the gates now but it is still a pretty good drive to the buildings. The infrastructure around the camp (streets, underground utilities, sewer, electric, etc.) was obviously very expensive.

Lovejoy Elementary students were housed in the first set of cabins and Hart Elementary had the cabins just a bit further up the road.

The cabins are set in small clusters within quick walking distance of each other. Each cluster has its own fire-pit. We didn't use them for that, but they worked well as balance beams.

Here is our gang! They were definitely high energy, but always a pleasure to be around. Several times Robert and I commented how lucky we were to get a group of kids like this, but from what I saw, all of the chaperones were thinking the exact same thing.

The bunk beds are sturdy and plenty large for the kids (but a little small for the adults). The concrete floors are sealed for easy cleanup. Each suite has two separate showers and commodes, which speeds things up in the morning. Keep in mind, this is what the cabin looked like within 10 minutes of us moving in.

Robert and I learned the first night you just don't flip a light switch and turn boys off off at bedtime (9:30 PM), but by 10:00, they were all "out". I learned there are some 10 and 11 year olds who snore, just like I do :-).

As you can see, the conditions were deteriorating quickly, so after two nights, we were just about at our limit. Many of the the cabins (boys and girls included) had their own songs and slogans. Our motto was "fun is better than clean"

Here, Robert Gonzalez, my co-chaperone, makes a futile effort to clean the place up a bit with the boys outside.

I mentioned to Cindy Bittlestone that we were having some issues with cabin cleanliness. I asked her if she was seeing the same thing with her girls. She said "No, the girls just like their cabin clean and pick up after themselves without being told". I asked her if I could take a quick look inside at her cabin for comparison's sake, and she was kind enough to let me take this shot. This, my friends, is the difference between boys and girls in a nutshell.

We all got to know this rocky road very well. It is between the dining hall and the cabins ... maybe a quarter of a mile's distance. I'll bet we walked this path 10 times every single day, so that's about two and a half miles right there. There is a LOT of walking in this camp because all of the structures are so spread out over the 427 acres.

One of the large pavilions you will find scattered across the range. They could have done these much less expensively and saved a lot of money, but I'm glad they "did them right" with stone accents and architectural appeal. Just running electricity to these buildings must have cost a bundle.

This gives you a good idea of how large these pavilions are. This one has a large stone fireplace.

The instructors were very adamant about the students listening when they spoke. The rule was, if they raised their hand, all of the students would be silent and also raise their hands. I would say they were moderately successful at their attempts for complete attention, but kids will be kids.

The chaperones, teachers, and staff in attendance. All volunteered three full days (not to mention the planning time) for the kids. I hope to have this picture all labeled with names in the near future. If you would like to have this picture in a high resolution format, you can get the copy I sent to Jason James, or just e-mail me. I would be happy to send you the picture.

The activities were staggered so each group had a chance to try them all. We started out with one of the nature tours. The instructor told us the tree in the background (called a bois d'arc) was given the French name because the Indians used its tough wood to fashion their bows.

We start out on the trail. This land is extremely rare, and almost extinct, Blackland Prairie. While some just see grass, it is a rich ecosystem very diverse in native plants. Farming has almost obliterated this land, so I was happy to see Collin County make a commitment to conserving it. By the way, we were told the large trees you see are called Eastern Red Cedar, an invasive plant that will take over the land if given the opportunity. The camp is slowly removing the trees to restore the land back to its natural state. One of our activities was to cut and do a controlled burn of a tree as the instructor told us about the impact of prairie fires.

A well built bridge we used quite a lot. It was located between the lake and the main complex.

The amphitheater overlooks Lake Livingston, a man made lake. The bonfire was held here the same evening.

Here is a picture of the amphitheater from the water. I would imagine this was a very expensive structure to build.

One of the activities was for the kids to collect samples of aquatic life to determine the extent and diversity of the existing aquatic life. From that, the kids would determine if the lake was healthy or not. They found out it was!

Everyone got a chance to scoop. Whenever there was limited equipment, the instructors made sure no-one felt left out and everyone had their chance at it.

One of the favorite activities was the boating. Although it was extremely windy on Wednesday, Lake Lindberg was below the surrounding hills and trees so it wasn't bad at all. This allowed us to take the canoes and paddleboats out, but we were not able to take the kayaks onto the lake.

These guys decided to do a little land yachting on a kayak anyway. The green notebook you see is what the students used to record their notes. Basically, any activity that did not require note-taking was a favored activity of the kids.

The one activity I was disappointed with was the fishing. There was no instructor, no bait, and no directions. We had our chaperones there, of course, but it would have been nice to actually teach the kids something about casting. Kids were throwing empty hooks into the water with bobbers. I had just as much chance of reaching into the lake and grabbing a fish with my bare hands as any of these kids had of catching a fish.

On the flip-side, fishing offered an alternative activity to those who were a little intimidated by the water and small boats. I never saw an instructor coerce a child to do something they were uncomfortable with, which is a good thing, but I still plan on offering a suggestion to the camp about this particular activity.

The nurses station and store is also in this courtyard. No soft drinks were served anywhere in any building. Kids had a choice of Gatorade, milk, punch, lemonade, or orange juice.

The big dining hall is set up to handle a lot of kids at one time. Each cabin was assigned a table for their entire stay at the camp.

Every lunch and dinner, the kids and adults could eat a salad with their dinner.

The breakfasts were buffet style and kids could go back for seconds if they wanted. Hash browns, sausage, ham, toast, cereal, eggs, etc. were offered every day. At night and lunch we might have spaghetti, chicken fried steak, vegetables, rolls, etc.

The planners of this camp thought of everything. Ms. Stacey, our wonderful Hart Elementary nurse, was on call 24 hours for bumps and scrapes, dispensing the daily medications for the kids, and emergencies. Thank goodness, there were none while we were there!

This shot doesn't do the scene justice. This is the amphitheater (already shown) on our first night at the camp. It was a crystal clear, cool night, with a full moon. The counselors put on a fun show for the kids.

Another shot of the well traveled road between the dining hall (behind the camera) and the cabins, way around the bend.

Our second day started out with earth sciences. The instructors were very knowledgeable and actually lived on the campus. I wish I had taken a shot of "Beardo", everyone's favorite instructor. He was very passionate about nature and explained it in understandable concepts to the kids.

In this exercise, the kids were asked to describe what they saw in each layer of a two foot excavation near one of the trails. They also took soil samples in different areas, then marked those locations with GPS.

The education building is where the students were taken for their indoor studies.

Some of the skits were finely tuned and went off without a hitch. Others, like our crew's, were created, rehearsed, and produced from scratch the hour before the show. Regardless of the time and effort put into them, all the kids had a ball.

When I was this age, I would have been terrified to stand up in front of 400 or so people and talk. But these kids didn't give it a second thought. They weren't even nervous. I was just amazed. This is a testament to how our schools are giving these boys and girls the self confidence they will need to be successful in life!

Friday morning, our last day, came awfully early. We were all up at 6:30 so the kids could shower, pack, and have all their bags on the curb by 7:30. Everyone went to breakfast and then the chaperones split up. Half went to load the bags and the other half watched the kids on their final activities.

As you can see, it was fairly chilly. We saw our breath in the air for the first time this year. But it turned out to be an absolutely perfect day. No wind (for the first time in three days), a cloudless, deep blue sky, and temperatures in the low 70's.

There was a lot of free time between the different activities. Our kids always headed for the basketball goal in the pavilion for a game or two of "knockout"

The tetherball poles scattered around the camp were also in high demand. You can see the rock climbing wall in the background.

We're off to our final activity of the camp on Friday morning. The challenge course and team building. We didn't get to do all of them, but the ones we did were a lot of fun.

This platform is actually balanced on a log. The idea was for the kids to figure out how to get it completely balanced for the amount of time it took to say "the pledge of allegiance". Everyone stepped onto the platform, but they could not get it balanced long enough. It turned out to be a trick. The instructor had told them to say "the pledge of allegiance", not "recite" it. They were trying to teach the skills of listening and thinking out of the box.

You cannot tell much from this picture, but I included it so it would remind me to talk about what they learned. This lesson was about listening to everyone's ideas on a tough question, then problem solving as a team. And the kids had some great ideas that would have eventually led to the answer if given enough time.

Another problem solving activity. What are the fewest steps the students, in total, will need to get across the rope course. This one also had to do with listening carefully to instructions, thinking out of the box, and leadership.

Along the leadership lines, it was interesting for me to watch those who really wanted the leadership role, those who didn't care one way or the other, and those who had it thrust upon them begrudgingly. I wondered to myself if those traits would remain with them through life. I guess time will tell.

Archery was hands down the most highly anticipated activity ... even beyond the water sports. We had to wait until the very end to do it, so our kids were ready.

The kids sat behind the archers on benches. This event was not taken lightly by the kids or the instructors. Although it is fun, you can also hurt yourself or someone else if you don't listen to instructions. Of course, all of our students did exactly as they were told and there were no incidents.

Every time I thought I had seen the entire camp, I turned a corner and saw more facilities. This is the baseball field (and very well groomed I might add).

Robert Gonzalez with his two sons. I was so fortunate to have Robert as my co-chaperone. He was so easy going and great with all the kids. Whenever something needed to be done, he was "on it". And he was also the one who kept us on schedule.

And finally, my son and me. My best memory of the entire camp was walking with him through the woods on that first cool, Autumn night with the full moon above us. I was holding his hand as we talked and walked towards the bonfire. That memory is now permanently etched into my mind.

I asked all of the boys at lunch on the last day of the trip if they would stay another day if given the chance. Every one of them said "Yes", but most said "Yes, as long as we don't have to do the learning part." :-)

If you are ever lucky enough to be given the opportunity to serve as a chaperone, jump on it! I won't lie ... it was exhausting for Robert and me. We were watching 12, high strung ten and eleven year old boys for three full days, round the clock. We were sleeping with them in a cabin no larger than a large family room on cots so small we could barely turn over on. But it is something Robert and I, and I'm sure our sons, will remember forever!

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