Rush to the River - Girls Camp 2011

I have been working in the Young Women program since March. I was overwhelmed, to say the least, at accepting the calling. I was so new to the ward, knew almost nobody, and hadn't been involved in the Young Women program since I was a young woman myself. Ahhh...

The first major events that we planned and carried out were fundraisers for girls camp. Girls camp...?!? I was nervous and excited for it the first time it was brought up. As the first weeks in this calling passed I looked forward more and more to girls camp as a unique opportunity to get to know the girls. It ended up being a great experience.

We ended up doing a river rafting trip down the Colorado river. There was a lot that had to take place in order for us to pull that off. We worked like crazy and things came together. We met at the church at 5:30am on Thursday 28 July to load cars before we headed down to Moab. I had Tiauna W., Chantell C., Tori G., and Arissa W., in my car. I really enjoyed the drive down. We chatted, the girls made friendship bracelets, got stuck in traffic, made a few potty/stretch your legs breaks, and arrived at the World Wide Rafting warehouses by 10am.

From there everyone changed, transferred bags to the rafting trailer that would be meeting us at the camp sites each night, and loaded up the big, white bus that took us about an hour up river. It was going to take us two and a half days to make it back down the river.

There was a good feeling about the girls. The bishopric and one dad were also with us. They were a lot of fun and seemed to really enjoy the experience. I know the girls enjoyed getting to know them better. Throwing the bishop into the river (or trying and failing over and over) is a great way to get to know him better. And all the bishopric loved plotting and planning attacks. Bro. Dahmer would get the Beehives in on a plan and then call out "Beehives SWARM!!" and they would attack.

I was continually impressed with how the girls worked together. There were 3 rafts, two "wet" rafts that were blue and one yellow "dry" raft. There were also 3 duckies that were constantly in use. Two girls could fit in each one. When we arrived at camp both evenings the trailer had to be unloaded and tents set up. Then there were camp crafts or activities.


I think one of the best realities of camp was that we were all together the whole time...and we enjoyed each other. Each of the advisers has talked with their classes about how they felt about camp. By all accounts, that is what the girls enjoyed, too.

Some of my favorite things were watching the girls chat as they braided each others hair, conversations with girls while on the dry boat and during meals, the girls concern for my comfort and when they would ask about being pregnant, watching them set up and take down their tents together, and the hugs at the end. There is a thing or two I would add if I could, but all in all I sure loved being with these girls and getting to know them. I'm so grateful to be able to work with them.