Texas Toast: Kid, You'll Move Mountains

What a wonderful and busy couple of weeks this has been! The further into the summer we get, the more us interns are struggling to find free time & “me” time! Alas, here I am, in the abandoned third floor of our house. Let me fill you in on my summer thus far!

Hugging it out: P.Mound!

After a week of training and bonding with my co-interns, P.Mound (my team) had a successful Week One at day camp, themed “Goal’d Rush.” We ran into a few road bumps, but glided pretty easily since our team works together so well. Week Two was a hectic one, as we were roping in new kids each day, and some of our kids were gone for the mornings at summer school. Getting into the same routine each day was helpful, but being flexible was even more helpful! Our kids loved learning about Dr. Seuss throughout last week, and some even know a few rhymes by heart now! I really enjoyed turning “Oh, The Places You’ll Go!” into a bible lesson for our first and second graders (though it was inspiring even to a college student!). After wrapping up plans for Week Three over the weekend, we blinked, and this week was over.

Arts & Crafts Seuss Style - This is "Izzy Bizzy!"

Week Three

Working with our young campers from South Dallas, we knew that we wanted to dedicate an entire week to Career Exploration, so that is what we did during our third week of summer camp. Growing up, I always remembered having a fireman visit class, and police officers would stop by, too. We would learn about doctors, lawyers, teachers, even the president of America. For this week, we tried to reach out of the box as best as we could when we explored different careers. On the first day, we introduced the topic and explained what careers we, the interns, were pursuing. The second day, we had two police officers and a sergeant (all three are women who grew up in the area!) come in and talk to the kids. The next day, my teammate Destiny’s mom came in to present about her job as a lab technician. She even drew “blood” from a fake arm! Finally, a personal trainer (he grew up in the very same neighborhood as these kids – Pleasant Grove!) came in on Thursday to teach the kids about his job. I have never seen these kids work so hard to exercise, without complaining! This last one was the most exciting for me because Ade, the trainer, offered his services for another time during the summer. He explained that he runs a program called Rockstar Fitness, and they hold a week of camp for troubled youth. We are all so excited to see him again!

Part of Ade's personal training session with the kids!

Reasons this week flew by:

My wonderful, encouraging, beautiful, enlightening, helpful, optimistic, and good-hearted teammates!

The P.Mound Team bonding event on Monday:

$4.50 for two games of bowling!
We even let the mountain biker tag along.

Going to “The Spot” and seeing the city of Dallas as a skyline

The guest speaker police officers that came to camp on Tuesday

An alternative worship service led by our amazing summer staff on Tuesday night:

We were blindfolded for most of the service and forced to use our other senses
We were reminded of our own disabilities and the ways we get around them

Getting over being sick on Tuesday!

Attending a “Home Visit” and meeting the family of three of our campers on Wednesday!

Though they all seem tired and less-than-enthusiastic for our songs and games when we try to wake them up every morning, these kids only wanted to play the same games and sing the same songs for the entire two hours we visited!
We saw baby pictures : )
We were reminded of our old age: “What year were you born Ricky?” “2005!”

Going to “The Spot” AGAIN and hanging out with some crazy friends

This spot consists of a glassy pond, grassy areas, awesome trees, a gorgeous skyline, soon-to-be memories, and several large, marble cow statues. One can only guess how four college interns handled themselves calm, cool, and collectedly, when given several large, marble cow statues to play on.

Having Ade lead half of our Afternoon Enrichment, and the middle school campers lead the other half!

This is a rarity, people.

Visiting other sites during their Family Fun Nights on Thursday!

Family Fun Night is a night planned by the interns for the families of the campers that occurs twice a summer.
P.Mound was lucky enough to have a donated carnival come in for our night last week, so we visited two other sites’ Fun Nights last night.