Lifetime Readiness Program (aka Disabled Summer Camp)

July 8th.

My alarm went off at 8am I got up and got dressed and  when Laurie and Urie (morning/lunch staff) came to wake people up -I was mostly up and ready and Urie (might be spelling names wrong) braided by hair.  Then after everyone was ready we went for breakfast -i got Fruit Loop cereal-when I got milk for it I accidently put chocolate milk in. I got fruit-Watermelon, Cantaloupe, Pineapple and a banana. I got yogurt, and OJ and Capp (coffee drink) and I think banana bread.    Roommate "friend" went to the hospital so didn't show up rest of camp. 

We then went across the hall from the Cafeteria and had a presentation about healthy relationships/boundaries by someone from the main PH programs.  We then went back to our rooms and waited for lunch.  We were called rooms one by room to come down to make our Grilled Cheese sandwiches. They asked me if I wanted juice (had to have pop last night because couldn't find jug) and if I wanted tomato soup.  I said yes to both and then i flipped my Grilled cheese sandwich on a little kitchen stovetop thing the camp has.  Then *I* had my lunch.   After we wash dishes we went to the bus to go to the lake.  a 38 minute bus ride.   Courtney was waiting for us (Again) at the bus stop for the lake.  We then went to the beach there all of us sat on picnic table and some people (including Courtney and Laurie) went down to put feet in lake. I wrote my trip journal and had a choc Granola bar.  After bathroom issue (bathrooms @ beach=closed) I put my feet in the lake sort of- the sand was hot hot hot! 

Afterwards we then went back to the bus and then waited for it  We then went back to the campus and our dorms.  Monique was getting the supper ready Tacos.  Like with Lunch called one room by one.   Had Taco with sour cream, chips and veggies.   Brandon* and Chris's room (later aka Wed, Jesse's and Chris's room) is across the room from my room.  So when I left my room to wait for elevators  I passed their room and saw Chris still eating his Tacos.    We then went to the bus stop and got on.  We got off at the corner street where my old bus would turn to go up to the campus back in my college days.  We crossed the street and when Courtney was talking about 4 people seeing Lilo and Stich we discovered we didn't have one "friend",  Shenika.  She was still on 1st bus not sure how that happened.  She's was close to the wheelchair friends-Kurtis and Jesse -so don't know how she didn't realize they got off.  So Courtney had to go and find her by bus.   So she didn't get to see a movie.     We got to the movies and Monique was in a bit of a flap, I wonder if it's because she never had to do something like that before dealing with passes (well Cineplex is new they normally go to Landmark cinema in past) and because of the whole "loosing someone" business. To make matters worse, the movie all the guys wanted to see was Jurassic park aka dino movie, and they found out it was an upcharge aka 3D the normal one wasn't until about 9pm or something and we had to leave around then for bus.  So everyone saw Lilo and Stich instead- Skye, another "friend",  wasn't too happy about that but he wasn't happy about anything expect maybe his service dog at the end of camp when his Mom brought the dog in for Celebration.   Was suppose to share popcorn but ended up with popcorn bag to self because of 2 other bags in my row.  Had sprite soda.  I had to use the washroom in the middle of the movie because there wasn't time to go at the campus or before the movie.  Because Monique wasn't prepared, we missed the first few minutes of the movie in the spaceship (and they told *us* to be prepared at the movies).  Went back to Campus afterwards and got ready for bed and I finish the journal and  after calling my Mom to ask what time I needed to set it for-for the morning.   And got into bed- i was in the bed for about 5mins before Martha, checked on me.  I wasn't too happy about that.  

* On Wed  night  Brandon and Jesse switched rooms because Chris apparently every single summer with the camp,  Chris goes into his roommate's bedroom and yell at them in the middle of the night. 

I will do the next 2 full days when I get up tomorrow after doing everything else tomorrow.

July 9th

Got  woken up at 5:30am and 6:30am by Martha.  She didn't realize that I had my own alarm until 6:30am.  So I got up and got dressed even though I was going to get up at 7:15am because it takes me only 15 mins to get ready.  After  I got dressed and put my water bottle in my backpack,  Martha did my hair and again apologized for walking me up. Then waited for Laurie to come at 8am.   Had Rice Krispes cereal, fruit-same as yesterday, yogurt, choc au pain,  OJ, choc milk and Cafe Latte. 

Afterwards we got the bus to the police station while we had a couple of presentations.  First presentations we had was about safety-ie if you're walking in a high traffic area be in a lighted area,  if you're home alone don't open the door to strangers.    Then a community services person who works with police-basically someone who does ALGEE  with victims of any crime but didn't have a power point   The same person also mentioned about Human Trafficking.  The last person to do a presentation and talk was another police officer talking about Scams.    Grandparent scam,  Amazon/Ebay/Netflix/email scams, etc.  Afterwards we went back to Campus and got ready for Camp Samac and had lunch.  I had a a turkey sandwich, chips and veggies.   We then waited for the bus- the bus supposedly never showed up, so we returned to our rooms, and then according to Kurtis, supposedly it got cancelled.    So i spent most of my time (after changing into swimsuit after I called my Mom) waiting to go downstairs to Community kitchen for BBQ we're suppose to have at Camp Samac in Trina's and Shenika's rooms and also wrote my journal in there.   We didn't have time to wash our dishes from our bins so we just piled them up on the trolley.   I had a hot dog, Potato Salad, and Marconic salad.  

We then got our stuff and before we left Courtney gave me the bag with the S'mores kit in it so i was responsible for getting it to Camp Samac.  We then left for the bus and that's when we found out we had been at the wrong bus stop earlier -needed to be 2 buses stops to the left.   We got on got to the Campgrounds paid and put our last remaining items on and take off shoes and went swimming.  I actually swam around a few times in the pool.   Then after a bit it started to rain so eventually we got out and waited for everyone else to get out- then left for the cabin w/o changing into street clothes. Was a bit of a hike   I guess I was expecting a cabin similar to what I used in Guiding when Brownies and Girl Guides went there- a cabin with a bathroom full of stalls.  Turns out that wasn't the case, and only one bathroom, no stalls, and only 1 big bedroom and 1 smallish room.  I went into the smallish room to change  and since I didn't close the door all the way Chris turned off the light off on me so I had to squawk about it.  It's kind of hard to go to the bathroom when I have a full swim suit on so i couldn't easily go to the bathroom when I was at the change rooms when waiting to go up to the cabin w/o having to change in the change rooms.   We then sat on folding chairs/one bench in the Cabin while waiting for rain to stop.  We almost had to go back to the campus and have microwave s'mores but didn't need too  After a student got the one marshmallow stick we had ready.. we had s'mores. I had the first one of the night and I actually (sort of) roast them.  Chris was the last friend beside the wheelchair friends to roast their marshmallows and he dropped the stick into the fire almost (luckily the stick was still hanging out a bit for the students to pick it up).   

At 9:45pm we started to head out of the campgrounds to get out -but since it's really dark in there I had to walk fast because everyone with lights on their phones  were walking a bit too fast for me to deal with.    We had to unlatch the gate to get out and then we got the bus back to campus.  Because it was so late getting to campus that Courtney said she and the students would do dishes while everyone else would get ready for bed. I called Mom again before i got ready and finished the journal. 

Next year I'm taking a flashlight!! 

July 10th -last full day

Martha woke us up at 7:35am-and i had my alarm set for 8am.  We had to be ready for the staff to be there at 8am. Martha did my hair again.   After Laurie showed up, it took forever for everyone to pay the staff about $20  $12 for the movies and $8  for Camp Samac.   Then when we went to breakfast we had to take all our stuff down with us we want.  I had cereal, yogurt, fruit-and had grapes this time,  OJ, Cafe Latte again and a croissant.   We then went to NEB'S  Kurtis, Jesse, Chris Trina, someone I forgot I think Chris, and I  were on one team and Brandon, Shenika, James and Troy and Skye(?) were on the other team.   I got 2 spares and I got 95points in total (was 5pin bowling).

We got back on the bus right outside of NEB's and then came to Willow to it's Willow Park-and I didn't know until then that Willow had a Willow Park.  We're suppose to have a baseball game against the Day program from Oliver.  We had a late lunch -for me Roast beef sandwich, and chips and Granola bar and juice box.  I had gotten my afternoon med out and when I took my water bottle out- I realized I had left my orange drink mix at NEB's. I was so sure I had put it back in my bag i guess not.     We didn't have time for baseball game so instead we had ball stations-throwing balls,  hitting balls and catching balls.   Didn't throw or catch very well but then I used a Tee and hit the ball very well.   

We then went back to the campus to get ready for that night-going to go to a Pub to have supper and Trivia night. We got 901A bus to another street to get another bus.  But the bus we were suppose to take to get to the other bus (4:25pm) we were behind schedule for.  So i was starting to be a bit anxious. 

And then I think the bus was early that we needed to get from the other street to get to Bollock's so had to wait for another bus to get there so Courtney had to call the pub to make sure we still had a reservation when we got there  When we got there after we did a (bad) job of walking through the parking lot- when we went into the Trivia room, we found out the "indoor dinning patio" was not accessible for the 2 wheelchair friends.  So the Pub staff had to take a table from some where and put it on the floor for them.  I'm a bit confused with the menu-all the other pasta on the menu put the one i had, said they came with garlic toast but it never said that for the Cajun pasta.    it's not until I got it I found out it also came with garlic toast.  I ate it and drank my ice tea and then when we played Trivia -could do some things but not all of them- we paid for our bills.  I had to ask a student to help me with my cash counting it out, and then counting how much money I needed to pay the bill $24.00    I then  counted the change I had in my wallet for a tip.  I then found out when putting the receipt into the back of my wallet and found more change back there.  We had to leave early to get bus back to another street to get bus back to campus. 

When we meet outside of the pub Courtney said we "had to make sure we're in single file across the parking lot"  I joked about us pretending to be back in school.   We got the bus back to the main street and got left off before the traffic lights.   We then went to the next bus and went back to campus.   I called Mom and asked her if I could skip a shower so I could pack most of my kit tonight.  During the conversation, I got 2 interruptions-one by a student, because she was returning our dishes and the other was by Courtney to introduced me to Joseph that night's overnight staff.    Mom said that's my choice.  So i needed some help in packing my suitcase. So a student showed me how to pack.  After the student left i folded up all my clothes in the laundry bag so I could have  a bit more room.  I then packed most of my kit expect for last minute items.  So my bags were mostly packed for the next morning. 

*So because of the camp i sometimes had to go out the backdoor so i 'm starting to overcome my phobia  of the bus back doors that I had because of being stuck in the bus back doors when I want to college (the same college the camp at). 

July 11th.

Alarm went off at 8am. i got dressed, packed my remaining items in my luggage and backpack. When waiting for Urive to do my hair,   after checking and double checking i had everything I took my luggage to  the staff room. Urive then did my hair-she had been busy packing the room that was suppose to be my roommate's that was only there the first night. The plan was suppose to be have an early lunch, get our suitcases  and then go to DQ but somehow the lunch items came down late.   But anyway at breakfast I had mostly the same stuff I had the rest of the week  expect for no banana (none there) and no cereal, and a Cafe Mocha-was not avaible the other days.    I kept repeating (maybe a bit too bossy) that we're going to have an early lunch.    

We then went to the community kitchen area and then we just hang out there.  After i dried off the picnic table outside for me to sit and also the table itself to sit and write my journal.   After I did that i went into the shade and did karaoke with some other people.  I did one song the F.R.I.E.N.D.S. theme song of "i Will Be There For you".   Then the people outside went inside because the other people left who were in there.   We were using Brandon's phone and we had a bit of difficulty trying to find the other song I want when it was my turn  again  eventually we did- Que Sera, sera

Then we made our pizzas and Laurie BBQ them on the BBQ.  I was the first one eating but because we're behind schedule (again) we had to get going quickly to catch the bus for DQ only had 20mins there.  I was first in line for the DQ and I got a  small Oreo Blizzard.  Paid for it and then got it and ate it.  I started to be a bit desperate to go to the bathroom and we had to ask for assistant because the doors weren't opened for people to use.    But I quickly went and we then headed to the bus stop and got back to campus. **   Laurie had gotten our luggage down when we're out.

We then waited for our family to come for the celebration.  Everyone (but Trina's mom) showed up on time, and they showed a slideshow of what we did that week-I could only see myself in one picture but Mom said she's could see me in all of the pictures.  Then the students  Abby, Anana and S  came up and present certificates to the campers about what they have done.  For me my Certificate says 
 "To (Name)  for overcoming fears and hurdles  whether the back door of the bus or packing her suitcase".  I also got my worksheet in 2 parts that we had gotten at the start of camp and on what was the back they added that "Played the role of Timekeeper, navigator and made sure everyone had a smooth journey"   not exactly sure what that means  but I think it might meant I tried to think of our "Wheelchair friends" and go out the accessible door?  After some cake, I came home and started this thread.  And get got up on everything. 

*I keep forgetting  to mention because we didn't include servettes on our shopping list, I been putting several in my pockets at breakfast.  

**because of loosing Shenika on the first full day,  the rest of the week people were suppose to sit/make sure their roommates got off.  I didn't have a roommate so in the morning I made sure Abby got off, and in the afternoon I made sure Monique got off. 

It was nice reading up on your summer camp. I am glad you enjoyed it, thank's for taking us along on your experiences. 🌻