Andrew Liptak

It’s the last week of camp this week. It’s been scary at how fast things are moving, and it’s saddening when people will be parting ways. There’s some people that I’ll never see again in my life, and people whom I won’t remember in a couple years, which scares me as well. When I was at Carbon Leaf, I ran into a guy who’d been at camp three or four years ago, and I couldn’t for the life of me remember him at all. Oh well.

We had to let another staff member go a couple days ago, after a couple of things that happened. Can’t and won’t talk about it, but it wasn’t a terrible surprise when it did happen. Probably booting a camper or two as well in the next week. We’ve got our second group here, Operation Purple Camp (More on that in a minute) and we’ve got some new staff to give us a hand. Chuck, a member of the Vermont National Guard, is in my village. Really cool guy, works well with the kids and really knows what he’s doing, as well as gave me some help with a class.

Operation Purple Camp is a specialty camp, along with Champ Camp, and are the only groups in which we have girls on camp. This one’s for children who’s parents have been deployed in the current war on terror. Regardless of political ideology, the needs for kids who have parents in the military are great and it’s a real challenge for them at times, with someone away from home for huge periods of time when they really need a parent. The camp’s got some goals to teach kids how to cope and deal with the stress. Hopefully it’ll work.