All done

Whew! Our Children's Writing Camp is all done- seriously! My camp co-worker, B.J., and I have agreed that four years is enough. We are turning the idea over to anyone who desires to pick up the torch.

It has been a wonderful journey. We have tried to present unusual ways to encourage the students to tap into their creativity. Because of my previous volunteer work I have also been able to tap into the minds of friends and people I know in the community to help us. I have found that when you just ask for a little bit of their time people are more than willing to volunteer.

This year we had four returning students, who made us feel we must be doing something right or they wouldn't keep coming back. It was great to see just how much they have matured since we started. If we were responsible for instilling a little bit of confidence in their makeup we were successful in our efforts.

Yesterday was our last day and we let the kids take over as instructors. We noticed that three of them have a talent that they are passionate about and they were each given fifteen minutes to share their knowledge. The first was, Jhoana, who loves to write poetry. She was a bit nervous, but she did a great job. We are very proud of this girl because her very first day of camp, three years ago, she wouldn't even read the things she wrote. The second student to share his passion was, Colin, who taught everyone how to draw cartoon characters. I was amazed at how confident he is now and how much he has grown over the last four years. The last student to share was, Joseph, whose passion is writing horror stories. He was the most amazing transformation of all because on his first day, last Monday, he was so shy he wouldn't even talk to anyone.

We ended our last day with Klondike ice cream bars and casual conversation about our past experiences. I felt a little sad when Jhoana said, "I don't want to leave."