A camp named Sioux

Hello all!

I know, I know, I know...Justin and I will not be receiving any awards for our lack of blogging.

Now, in Justin's defense he did blog while I was at Camp Sioux in North Dakota (an excellent blog post by the way and if you haven't read it you can check it out at Fathers Day thoughts by a wanna-be father.)

 So as mentioned above, I recently spent time overseeing the diabetes camp program in North Dakota. The camp's name is ADA Camp Sioux, and for those of you who might not know about it here is a little background.  Camp Sioux is a residential camp for kids ages 8-15 living with diabetes.  Most of the kids come from North Dakota, NW Minnesota and we even have campers sometimes from far away and exotic lands...like Montana. :)

This was my ninth year as Camp Director at Camp Sioux and if you want the textbook definition to what I do, it would be: To ensure that all campers have a safe and fun camping experience, start to gain independence from their families in their diabetes management and meet other children with diabetes. 

Now when I first met Justin and told him about my job he had this vision of me prancing around with a tye dye shirt on, burning incense and playing guitar...I will admit I have donned tye dye apparel, no incense burning - that could be a potential fire hazard and I WISH I knew how to play guitar but my lack of reading notes is made up in my loud, out of tune, belting of camp songs.  I have also been known to unclog toilets, dress up to distract homesick campers, come up with games like "Banana Olympics" or "Sasquatch Hunt" and DJ a dance or two!

For those of you that are Facebook friends with me you might recall this post after my return home from this year's venture:  Two weeks of the worst infestation of mosquitoes I have experienced (still have remnants of bites on my body including my face!), shower and sleep deprivation, sporting a constant aroma of bug spray and sun screen, rain, humidity, and wood ticks... and I would do it all again in a heartbeat!

And I would...I love camp.  It re-grounds you, it makes you appreciate the simple things in life, it shows you beauty in so many ways, at times it requires hard work but it also reminds you to laugh and to play, it requires you to listen carefully, it teaches and reinforces respect, trust and love and it is a support system like no other.

All these things I believe in, all these things I practice and all these things I hope to share with a son or daughter someday.

Happy Trails!
Becky