Working as a team

July 29, 2012

Working as a Team

As you know, one of the major focus' of our camp programs, is the goal of working together as a team. There are so many reasons why. The kids learn they are not the center of the universe, that others have needs too, that sometimes we have to hear others opinions or do things that others want to do, they learn that it is fun to do things with others, and they learn to depend on others besides their family members. The biggest result to teamwork we like to teach our campers, is that there are some things you cannot do by yourself, and it is OK to ask for help, or express the feeling that you might NEED help. This is a hard concept for many of us to learn. Because this is such a central focus, these team building opportunities present themselves, organically, ALL the time. We always try to take note of a good learning opportunity and take the time to let it play out and then talk about what it meant or how it felt. It is never fun to feel like you have to depend on another, especially for many of our campers who are very independent, very intelligent, and very used to being in control; and they like that feeling. Putting them in situations where they might fail, or they might not know what to do, or they might not be able to get to where they need to be, without help, can be incredibly intimidating and frustrating for these guys. But, because it happens so frequently, because they get a tremendous amount of support-in the moment and after-to debrief, because they start to see theirs and others strengths and weaknesses, and they start to see the benefit in a team; our campers slowly let go of their rigidity and their need to always be in control. This is a long process, but it is always rewarded in the end, when campers start living these principles in every aspect of their lives. We are so blessed to see this happening every day.