May 2, 2009
Three weeks have passed already. It seems like yesterday I was driving my car down to Camp Cheerio, fighting fatigue from the big event the day before. My focus for so long was the wedding that after it was all said and done my mind actually started to compute how tired I really was.
Now with three weeks behind me here I definitely feel more comfortable. However, I, being the only Camp Cheerio rookie, have had quite the learning curve. After two days of training, the first group arrived, seventy 7th graders.
My experience working with groups in the past has been vast but the total quantity has been on the smaller size when it comes to the entire group size. I will freely admit that a group this size was a bit daunting. Well, I am very fortunate that I am a fast learner because the next week, the group was 140 people. This time, they were 5th graders.
That group was the start of a ten-day marathon. After three days, the bus pulled away and we started to get ready for a bike trip on the Outer Banks of North Carolina. Like I mentioned before, I am the only rookie here at Cheerio. With only a certain number of spots available for this bike trip I figured I wouldn’t make the cut. To my surprise, I was picked and we were off to meet our 42 9th graders in Kinston, NC.
This bike trip has been happening for the past 15 years or so. Many of the teachers of the students have been coming for years as well as many of the Cheerio staff. With the logistics of this trip running like clock work, my main job was to ride with a group of about 8 kids for three days. After a slight flat tire setback (about 2 hours) at the Wal-mart 30 minutes from Camp, we made it to our hotel before dinner.
4:30am the next morning we were up and moving to make it to the school to pick up the kids by 6am. In 45 minutes we had to load all of the bikes and then drive another two and a half hours to catch the ferry that would take us to the Outer Banks. This was the greatest stress of the trip. In years past the ferry left at 12:30pm. This year, the ferry left at 10:30am or 2:30pm. With 19 miles to bike that day, the 2:30pm time was not going to work.
We got to the ferry with time to spare and enjoyed the 2-hour ride. We served lunch on the bus, having the kids enter from the back and run through buffet style exiting from the front. Clever set up I thought.
The ferry reached Ocracoke, and the kids separated into groups. I was the sweeper that day so my group had to arrive at the final destination last. Not the most attractive reason to join a group on the first day. So I ended up with an interesting mix of people. I would call them the
default group in a lot of ways. A lot of the other groups were too large, so the overflow headed my way not always
willingly. I also had some people with health concerns that restricted the speed at which we could bike which caused a little tension. 9th grade boys have a lot of energy and a need for speed. On the 2nd day we had to bike 31 miles. I had to hold them back on several occasions, give a lecture here and there, but that just comes with job. However, we did get to stop and spend time at the ocean and tour the Cape Hatteras lighthouse.
I think out off all the days that we biked the last day was my favorite. It was the shortest day of them all, only 10 miles. There was one student who had ridden with in my group on the 1st day, but because of his battle with a severe illness, he was only able to ride about 8 miles. The second day, he didn’t ride with us at all but met us at the lighthouse and hiked up the 257 steps to the top with me. He really wanted to give biking another go on the last day. Originally, he was going to meet us about 4 miles from the end and then finish with us. He asked me how long I thought he rode on the first day and I told him. “Only two more miles that the first day. I will give it a try,” he said.
Within the first mile the rest of the group was pulling away fast. I had a teacher leading the pack so it didn’t bother me at all if the group separated. They were in good hands. I wanted him to go
at any pace that he could do for the distance we had to go. We stopped often for breaks sometimes at my suggestion sometimes at his. Mile by mile we kept going at a pace that was perfect to take in the view. My heart went out to him as I could see evidence of the physical struggle he was facing. I prayed for a nice tailwind to push him along. At one point, we stopped for a break and I could tell he was close to calling it quits. He didn’t. The tailwind that I asked for never came; the finish did. We made it to the end of the ride with groups still behind us.
The frustrations of the previous day no longer existed. It was hard to know what to feel at that point. Personally, I didn’t have to push myself on the ride. But I did get to witness the power of the human will. I couldn’t help but think about some of the struggles that I have faced in my life and how they don’t even begin to compare with what he is facing everyday…a humbling experience.
With the busses loaded, we started the long drive back to Camp. Arriving just before 10pm, we unloaded all the gear and went to bed. The next group was already there. A 7am wake-up call was like sleeping in but my energy tank was already running pretty low. Two days later this group of fifty 8th graders left. I was exhausted but as I had been experiencing during all my days at Camp Cheerio thus far, the days are long but at the end I am able to lay my head on my pillow and feel a sense of satisfaction.
May 26, 2009
