When you spend 10 years at Camp Takodah, you get a jacket, a ceremony honoring you time there, and a boat load of hand crafted and gifts and cards. I got mine in 2003. Picture above is just part of my collection. The tissue paper/ pony bead/ balloon hat was sadly lost years ago without photographic archiving. What remained was (clockwise):
- a duct tape wallet with the CT logo on it
- a photo with my co-leader that year, Mary Taylor, which she hand painted
- a plastic necklace
- a book about friendship- which, in hindsight, may have been a birthday gift
- a light saber made out of fimo
- a pet rock
- more light sabers- these one made from pipe cleaners.
Not pictured are a handful of other gifts that were either already thrown out years ago or that I could let go of. Included in that latter group was a Top Ten list of memories my friend Steph wrote for me on, you guessed it, a light saber.
The girls in my cabin also wrote an performed this song for me, set to the tune of "I Think We're Alone Now".
This was a great group of girls to work with. They are now super impressive adults with hip office jobs, inner city teaching positions, and one is even roaming Africa with the Peace Corps. When I met them, they were fresh out of 9th grade. I continued to work with them as they went through our leadership training program. It is part of the reason I eventually landed the Leadership Development Director position, arguably the best job on our staff. Yup, I pretty much just found an awesome group of kids and rode their coat tails to the top.
Close-up on the necklace. The letters are worn away, but it used to say, "Hey Friend", which was my catch phrase for this and a few other summers. While I would never admit it at the time, there were a few years when I was trying to be a trend setter. "Hey friend" caught on much better than the year I insisted on wearing my hair in braids with a bandanna around my head. Apparently, only Willy Nelson can pull that off.
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