[Sunset over Queens Creek]
Mitchell 4H camp is situated in Swansboro N.C. on Queens Creek. It is a small camp compared to Mishemokwa but it was where I spent the best summer of my life. Mitchell is the only water based camp run by NC4H , its' speciality camp is Marine Ecology and Sailing, this is for children aged 13-16 years. Regular junior camp is for kids 9-12.
There are 8 cabins on the camp 4 male, 4 female. A recreation hall, craft building, staff house/office, two bathhouses, laundry for the staff and a dining hall. Plus the pool, workshop and boat house. Those are the only buildings on the camp. The only other structures of any importance were the pier and the ropes course. When I first arrived at the camp I was surprised to see how small it was as I had spent the previous week at one of the other 4H camps for staff training. I will admit that to begin with I didn't think I was going to have a good summer but I was proved so wrong.
The staff were the best, the Director was so good to work for that you didn't resent doing things when he asked you and 99.999% of the kids were the best you could hope to work with.
One of the kids here has become my "little Brother" .At first I terrified him because I and another counsellor would take hats off people who were wearing them during flag ceremony. I did this on the second day to him. Later in the week he came to my free choice activity and we just hit it off, he was the little brother I'd never had. On the final day of camp Matt came over to me while I was carrying one of my campers luggage to the bus, when I put the case down he threw his arms around my shoulders and told me he was really going to miss me and I was his best friend. There were things like this written about in the 4H handouts they had given us in London but I thought it was all hype. When it happens to you it is something that hits you so hard, that you could have that effect on someones life in so short a time [each session is sunday to friday]. That they would be so sad to leave you. That week was the best week of the best summer of my life. (Not one of the 140+ campers gave us any trouble, that was the only week of the 3 years I have been to Mitchell that we took the entire camp over to Bear Island [Hammocks Beach State Park] to camp out there for the night.) On the Friday morning as the buses were pulling away up the dirt road towards Swansboro the whole staff just stood around watching them. Usually it was a rush to get things tidy so that we could start our time off, not this week, I don't think anybody really wanted that week to be over [ I know I didn't].
There were two other campers this year that have become like family to me. Once again they are campers who were not assigned to my cabin group. I got to know Greg and Eric because they got into trouble with me. Their girlfriends had been calling another camper names, I had told them off about it but I heard one of them say something when they thought I couldn't hear them. Lets just say all four of them lost free choice that day. When they had done a few laps of the field I sat and talked with them for about 30 mins and it was really good. The way I see it, you don't talk down to campers, you treat them just as you would want to be treated. Talk to them as you would to someone who was not quite your equal but something very close. That way you are more likely to gain their respect than if you are always treating them like little kids.
When I finished at Mitchell that summer I had managed to get a place on the Au Pair in America Programme . I moved to Piedmont C.A. for a year. As I had been given their address and phone number I decided to phone to speak to them., well I phoned and spoke to their father Jeff. I quote " I don't know what you did to my sons but they came back from camp better people" Jeff invited me to stay with them if I was passing through N.C. on my way home. The rest is history, I have stayed with them every year I've been to the States since. Including Thanksgiving in 1994.
I missed camp for four years [the first summer I missed was weird, I was in California but was depressed because I wasn't at camp! don't figure] then returned in 1996. I was able to do this because my university allowed me to use camp as a placement for my degree. Even though I made some really good friends that summer I didn't enjoy it as much as '92. My three closest friends that Summer were Jacq [aka Woman], Mercie and Tom, I missed them so much when camp was over. This summer we had some "fun" at camp, Hurricane Bertha hit camp, we had to cancel a week and a half of camp to get it fit to continue for the rest of the season. The following summer I went back, so did Jacq, Mercie, Erik, Jay, Nick, Adrienne, Nolan and Mark. A number of my campers from '96 also came back that summer, it was good to see them again.
Enough rambling, go look at the photos
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