Monday, June 15, 2015:
Saint Charles Borromeo Youth Ministry officially arrived to Camp Savio Monday, June 15th, at 2:15 p.m. Devin Carrell and David Williams were very excited to start their first experience at Camp Savio. When we arrived, we were met with excitement by the Savio Shepherds who ran to our car, greeted us and took the boy's bags to their room in St. Leo's Hall.
After moving into their dorm room for the week, they had the opportunity for free time to play games such as Gaga Ball and Giant Games (Jenga, Kerplunk, Ring toss, & Pick up Sticks) as they enjoyed their snocones and popcorn. At 4:00 p.m., they attended their first session where they played games, learned the rules, and met their host and musician for the week, Jon Givens and Ben Allen, as well as the Savio Shepherds: the college students who lead their small groups for the week.
Dinner on Monday night was "family style," each parish sits at a table and they are served at the table, similar to a restaurant, to give the parish time to sit and enjoy each other's company. This was one of David's highlights of the day. Since our parish group is small, (3 people), we have joined up with a couple of other small parishes for our family dinner and "parish pow wows."
Following dinner, we had another session to introduce the week and the theme "Inspire{d}, with music by Ben and a talk by Jon. After the session, they met their small group leaders and the other middle schoolers in their group. Their group name is "Picture of a Cross" or "Crooss" after there was a mispelling of the word "Cross" on their poster.
There is a competition this week to win the Camp Savio trophy. It is a trophy made up of different parts of camp over the past 5 years, and the winner from this week and last week's team names will be engraved on the trophy. They win points for things like "Random Acts of Kindness," which they are nominated by chaperones and staff members and by winning competitions, such as the messy obstacle course that followed their first small group meeting.
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The messy obstacle course consisted of a mud pit, a paintball course, a fashion show, surfboard and more, all while trying to keep their shepherd/group leader protected from things such as water, mud, paint, chocolate syrup and more... After the obstacle course we had our first "parish pow wow." A parish pow wow, is where we meet each night to talk about the day and how we can relate it to our parish, specifically. Lastly, we had Mass at 10:00 p.m., after Father Gabe returned from the Diocesan Baseball game. It was a really powerful Mass and the teens got into the music.
It was a great first day of camp, all the campers were very excited and ready to dive right into camp. I cannot wait to see what this week brings! You can tune in every night to experience Camp Savio live at www.campsavio.com, under the "Live Stream." Sessions begins at 7 p.m. and run for about an hour.
~ Jen DeCoster, Director of Youth Ministry