For what I believe was the first time in Run Home Camps history, it was truly a rainy day. It rained off and on from early morning until midafternoon. That didn’t stop the boys from having a great time, though. They hardly seemed to notice that they were getting soaked from water instead of sweat.
Tuesday at camp kicks off with team roster announcements. The kids were looking forward to finding out whether they’re on red or blue this year, but they were really excited to receive their hat, jersey, socks, and baseball pants. They look the part of real ball players now. Today was also picture day, which we squeaked in between rain showers. Each boy gets a picture in his uniform with his coach, the head coach, and the camp grandparents. They get an album with these and other photos of themselves to take home at the end of the week.
While the boys have their photo albums to remember camp by, the field has something a little different to remember them. Today each camper got to add a board with his name and handprint to the home run fence. One of my favorite parts of this is when returners show the rookies their boards from past years. It’s fun to look back at the old teams and think about how far the boys have come, both in baseball and as people.
Speaking of that, the kids crushed it today. After lots of hitting instruction throughout the morning, they were ready to put it into practice. Everywhere I looked, boys were cracking off baseballs like they were born doing it. Everyone improved as they used what they’ve learned over the past two days. We even had a red versus blue wiffleball game, complete with some awesome hits and crazy catches.
I can hardly believe that the boys have only been here two days. Camp feels timeless sometimes; we exist in a totally different reality than the rest of the world for the week. By Tuesday, the campers are starting to feel more comfortable and really show off their personalities. Whether I’m laughing at something crazy one of the boys just said or throwing a football around with a few of them, I love getting to spend time with each boy and seeing them interact with each other and other staff. Even though Tuesday starts red versus blue, the united purple team is still the strongest at camp.
