By Dylan McDonough
The sky was beautiful as the sun shone through the trees at Camp Roger. I was very excited for this month’s theme of “Conservationists”. We learned about saving water, animal habitats and electricity. While waiting for others to arrive many of us slid down an ice slide that formed overnight.
Julia, one of the counselors, taught us about saving water for the first adventure. She took a pitcher of water representing all the water in the world. She then took a tablespoon out showing the water available to us. Lastly half got dumped out representing the drinking water available to humans!
We went outside to do water tasks, not called games. That was our inside joke throughout this adventure. These are the water tasks that were important to me: There were bowling pins set up in different places that we had to knock down with Frisbees. Each time we missed, our group lost a line of water from a measuring cup. I hit one of the pins right in the middle! The last one was squeezing everyone onto a tarp that kept folding smaller and smaller. Finally, the Blazing Bobcats figured out that our bodies don’t have to be squeezed on as well! In the end we learned that we have to work together to conserve water.
After a good snack with Asher and Avery, Hannah led the Blazing Bobcats inside a cabin to learn about animal habitats, specifically bird habitats. There was bird seed, empty plastic bottles and dried macaroni on one bunk bed. Hannah picked three contestants and handed them tools which were either a small cup, needle nose pliers or regular pliers. These tools acted like bird beaks. The contestants couldn’t use their hands but only the tools to move their cup of macaroni from one place to another. Thirty seconds later, the cup had definitely moved the most macaroni. I’m glad God gave each bird the right beak for its food.
After the challenge, we split into two groups to make birdfeeders out of empty bottles, string and bird seed. When our group was done, it looked fabulous. I got to keep it! For the last thing, we gathered nest supplies like leaves, moss, and more for birds so that they only have to go to one place for nest supplies. This was my favorite event.
At lunch I sat with Asher, Avery, Calvin and Daniel. We listened to Dr. Seuss books read by Mr. Doug. Some of them were really funny like Too Many Daves. I love that author.
Sarah was the leader for the last adventure with us. She talked about how we should have human ‘need’ instead of human ‘greed’. We discussed The Lorax by Dr. Seuss and how the man cut down all the trees for money. That is human greed. Sarah lives on a busy street where people throw out garbage into her lawn. Then her kids had to deal with it. If we were a bit like conservationists and waited to throw away our trash, we could help people like her. After that everyone headed down to the lake. Well, Asher and I rolled down. It was very tricky dodging trees in the snow while being tossed around. One time my boot popped off leaving me stranded on the snowy hill. Luckily Avery came to my rescue. Our group stopped near a ditch where a business building across the street from Camp Roger was being built. We learned that if we build more cities and roads, animals’ habitats will be pushed away and they won’t be able to communicate. If animals can’t talk, they can’t breed.
For the last part we went to the volleyball pit to experience saving electricity. The teacher handed us each pool noodles and a foam circle (called a hamburger) balanced on the back of our hands. The object was to knock off the other person’s hamburger. It was hard. So we tried pairing up with one kid holding the hamburger and the other kid sword fighting. This was easier. It showed that saving electricity in a community is not as hard.
Everyone met back in the Algoma Cabin to find the Flaming Foxes holding whiteboards with an object written on it. The main whiteboard had dates from “1-5 months” to “100,000 years”. We had to guess how long the object took to deteriorate. I guessed that leather shoes tack 25-40 years to deteriorate and I was right! Glass takes 100,000 years to compost. This why we shouldn’t throw away everything.
I usually don’t like conserving things, but practicing at Camp Roger was a lot of fun, especially with Asher and Avery. I will now conserve water, animal habitats and electricity more often.
