One part of the camp that I struggled with planning was the service project component. It was important to me that each day, the kids took time out of the other activities we were doing to discuss needs in the community (and world) and do something about it. This is just an important value to instill in children and an awareness we, as adults, have a responsibility to grow in the kids we hang around. Thinking daily service projects that elementary kids could get excited about with relatively few supplies and without leaving the building proved to be challenging.
One of the projects that I actually thought would turn out pretty lame was cleaning used stuffed animals to donate to children in need. I planned for us to clean the toys and then write notes to go with them. After tying bows onto them and attaching the notes, a church member took them to All God's Children Camp, a camp for children with incarcerated parents. This turned into one of my favorite moments of camp. The notes became stories that the campers wrote about the different animals. The stories reflected our conversation about the children would be receiving them. The campers talked about what those children might like to hear in a story and how they could help make those kids happy.
My favorite story?
"There once was a little leopard. He was sad and lonely because he lost his family. Then he found you! Now he is always happy and smiley! Take good care of him, he needs you!"
The story made me pretty happy and smiley, too!
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