Hannah Camp
Hannah Camp Counselors
For my senior project I worked with my fellow senior Marisa Rafter to pull of the largest Hannah Camp in ACLC history! Hannah Camp is a camping trip for new middle school learners that builds community and bonds that last a life time. It was started six years ago by ACLC Alumni Hannah Fletcher. Older learners in 11th and 12th grade were “counselors” and were led small groups of camper through daily activities and routines.
The trip took place over the course of three days and two nights in October (October 15th-17th) there were a total of 62 campers and 21 counselors an no less than 2 ACLC facilitators and 2 parent volunteers present.
Marisa and I had to complete a series of tasks in order to pull a stunt like this off. First we notified the community about Hannah approximately one month prior to the trip. We then had to book the campsite. Fortunately the campsite that has been used for the passed two years was available again this year. Both Marisa and I had been counselors at Hannah Camp last year and really like Hawk Ridge group campground in Chabot Regional Park. It had several picnic tables, spots for tents, a large field for games, numerous bathrooms, parking spots and access to several trail heads. Once the camp ground was booked we started notifying the community via announcements at our weekly community meetings, generating excitement amongst learners young and old.
Since our school recently became its own charter, we had to wrangle up over night field trip forms from a the California Charter School Association, which proved to be extremely difficult. Once we had obtained these forms we made numerous copies and notified the Seniors and Juniors that if they wanted to be a counselor at Hannah Camp they had to simply fill out a field trip form and turn it into us by a certain date. We contemplated making people write a short paragraph about why they should be a counselor but ultimately decided against it. The following week we released the the forms to the new middle school learners informing them that the trip would cost $10. The school had set aside several hundred dollars for the trip but with the amount of people we expect to attend these funds were not going to cover all of the costs. There for campers had to pay.
I began to organize drivers and Marisa made several spread sheets that really saved us in the end. These spread sheets included the trips menu, schedule, volunteer schedule, supplies needed, learners who had turned in forms, counselor lists etc. We wanted to split the campers in small groups with two counselors leading. These groups would do a number of things through out the trip and the counselors would be in charge or their campers well being. Once we had a menu I began to estimate the specific number of things that we would need. Veronica Hollister and myself actually did the shopping at Costco and made sure to remain under budget. We had amazing support from the community. So many people stepped forward to help drive, donate and volunteer. Their were several points in the planning process that I thought the entire thing would simply fall apart.
Miraculously it all worked itself out. The trip its self went spectacularly, there was plenty of food and the parent pot luck went way better than I expected. No one got seriously injured and only during the grueling five mile hike did I see discomfort amongst the campers. Both Marisa and I had whistles that we used to quiet the learners and developed a list of rules and boundaries that everyone was expected to adhere to. Over all it was an amazing trip. I could go into plenty more detail, but that would take several hours and as an almost second semester senior I find that my ever present case of seniroitus gets worse and worse.
Over all, including the 40 or so hours spent at Hawk Ridge, I would estimate that Marisa and I accumulated well over 100 hours of community service doing this project. I wouldn’t say that I expected it to be easy but I never expected that I would take so much effort to actually run Hannah Camp, their is a lot things that I didn’t realize went into the trip when I was counselor but when I co lead and organized it their were hundreds of details that could not be overlooked.
The trip took place over the course of three days and two nights in October (October 15th-17th) there were a total of 62 campers and 21 counselors an no less than 2 ACLC facilitators and 2 parent volunteers present.
Marisa and I had to complete a series of tasks in order to pull a stunt like this off. First we notified the community about Hannah approximately one month prior to the trip. We then had to book the campsite. Fortunately the campsite that has been used for the passed two years was available again this year. Both Marisa and I had been counselors at Hannah Camp last year and really like Hawk Ridge group campground in Chabot Regional Park. It had several picnic tables, spots for tents, a large field for games, numerous bathrooms, parking spots and access to several trail heads. Once the camp ground was booked we started notifying the community via announcements at our weekly community meetings, generating excitement amongst learners young and old.
Since our school recently became its own charter, we had to wrangle up over night field trip forms from a the California Charter School Association, which proved to be extremely difficult. Once we had obtained these forms we made numerous copies and notified the Seniors and Juniors that if they wanted to be a counselor at Hannah Camp they had to simply fill out a field trip form and turn it into us by a certain date. We contemplated making people write a short paragraph about why they should be a counselor but ultimately decided against it. The following week we released the the forms to the new middle school learners informing them that the trip would cost $10. The school had set aside several hundred dollars for the trip but with the amount of people we expect to attend these funds were not going to cover all of the costs. There for campers had to pay.
I began to organize drivers and Marisa made several spread sheets that really saved us in the end. These spread sheets included the trips menu, schedule, volunteer schedule, supplies needed, learners who had turned in forms, counselor lists etc. We wanted to split the campers in small groups with two counselors leading. These groups would do a number of things through out the trip and the counselors would be in charge or their campers well being. Once we had a menu I began to estimate the specific number of things that we would need. Veronica Hollister and myself actually did the shopping at Costco and made sure to remain under budget. We had amazing support from the community. So many people stepped forward to help drive, donate and volunteer. Their were several points in the planning process that I thought the entire thing would simply fall apart.
Miraculously it all worked itself out. The trip its self went spectacularly, there was plenty of food and the parent pot luck went way better than I expected. No one got seriously injured and only during the grueling five mile hike did I see discomfort amongst the campers. Both Marisa and I had whistles that we used to quiet the learners and developed a list of rules and boundaries that everyone was expected to adhere to. Over all it was an amazing trip. I could go into plenty more detail, but that would take several hours and as an almost second semester senior I find that my ever present case of seniroitus gets worse and worse.
Over all, including the 40 or so hours spent at Hawk Ridge, I would estimate that Marisa and I accumulated well over 100 hours of community service doing this project. I wouldn’t say that I expected it to be easy but I never expected that I would take so much effort to actually run Hannah Camp, their is a lot things that I didn’t realize went into the trip when I was counselor but when I co lead and organized it their were hundreds of details that could not be overlooked.
