The Love-In
July 6, 2024
Far and away the highlight of the day was our impromptu gathering at the Council Fire last evening to say some goodbyes to boys who are leaving today. Well, it was not a random plan for Mike and Rob, who know intuitively that every boy matters to us, even those packing up to take off.
Holding up a handful of Kingswood pennants, blank white flag shapes with the camp logo, Mike gave a short history lesson. There was a time when these pennants were adorned with patches boys had earned in their various activities. More advanced achievements were noted by the patch being mounted on a white or gold piece of felt. Great idea, you might be thinking.
Mile allowed that at some point the whole endeavor got to be competitive and counselors did not always maintain accurate records. The result was bedlam. And, when we thought about it more philosophically, we came to the conclusion that “the fun is in the doing,” as Mike put it last night. No patch of any colored mounting can match the sheer satisfaction a boy gleans from simply trying as hard as he can.
You are smart folk and don’t need any more sermonizing on the matter. So, those blank pennants today are for autographs and many older campers attest to having several years’ renditions displayed on their bedroom walls.
From that point, it was easy to transition into the speechifying. After all, we are a people place first and foremost, as had been demonstrated on endeavors big and small all day long plus the full two weeks, to be fully accurate.
First counselors stood up to recognize their soon to be departing charges. Nice, but one notch above that in the satisfaction department is when boys who are staying on raise their hands to say nice things. The capper, though, comes when those who are leaving stand up and acknowledge counselors, cabinmates and friends who had contributed to their enjoyable stay at Kingswood.
“Will the whole camp please stand up,” remarked one such youngster who followed up with a one-word speech: “Thanks.”
Today is PEMI DAY, a series of games with our friends from a nearby boys’ camp. It is pouring rain as I write these words and the radar seems to indicate more is on the way. I don’t see how we can hope to get all the games in under these conditions. But, we need the rain and our sense of things tells us boys are tired after days on end of non-stop action. Besides, the program guys will think of something clever; they always do.