By Evi

Two weekends ago, Leadership 2013 hosted the first retreat of the camp season. As the several PDs and staff chopped, stirred, and cooked away in the kitchen, this year’s Leadership (Lship) team worked together in various team-building activities, presented their rather creative and innovative co-ads, and sang through the night to encourage each other in their most difficult program. And though I was in the kitchen most of the time, I couldn’t help but feel the excitement and energy of the group as they laughed and bonded throughout the weekend.Some highlights:

-The co-ads!  From an engaging power-point to an actual storybook, from songs to spoken word, from a craft Tiramisu to actual taco’s, this year’s Lship group decided to mixed things up a little bit this year with fun and very creative co-ads.

-“Mao”  A card game that utterly bewilders and confuses the first-time player.

-Songs. Lship likes to sing this year. A lot. Oh, and some of them rock the piano.

-Diversity. In one of the programs I got to witness that weekend, Leadership members wrote “books” about their lives, detailing chapters, “dedicated to” page, and synopsis.  It was a wonderful way to showcase the diverse background of each member, and it’s extremely heartwarming to see a group of seemingly very different people all work together toward one common cause: UniCamp.

In all, this retreat made me even more excited for this camp season, knowing that we are in very, very capable hands. Well, that was the staff perspective, let’s see what Sparx, a Lship member, thought of retreat!

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Retreat (n.) 1. A quiet and secluded place in which one can rest and relax. 2. A weekend of extreme bonding that is anything but quiet, where memories are made and laughter is prevalent: Lship retreat was incredible.

On the last weekend of January, twenty-eight enthusiastic Leadership members joined the two “pretty diva” Classic Camp Program Directors for a weekend of songs, games, planning meetings and presentations. It was an opportunity for this year’s Leadership to spend time together before being split into their respective sessions, ultimately creating a unified Leadership across all seven weeks of camp.

Spending a weekend together under one roof, participating in team building activities, digging in to piles of delicious Hawaiian food generously prepared by kitchen staff, and staying up into the early morning hours to play extra rounds of “Mao” and “Catan”, made bonding inevitable. I think I can speak for my fellow Lship members when I say that we are more than just a team- we are a family. And though we will all soon be divided into our sessions, it is evident that we will remain supportive and close the whole camp season through.

MWL,

Sparx

 

What are your favorite memories of Lship retreats?