It is crazy how quickly things that seem strange become normal. Don’t believe me? Think back to February or early March of this year. Back then, seeing people wear masks in a store or schools moving online for months seemed completely impossible. Now, these “weird” things have become our new reality, at least for the time being. I naturally wash my hands as soon as I get home from the grocery store. I give strangers a wide gap when passing them in an aisle or on a sidewalk. Social distancing has become normal to us.
Because of the ongoing pandemic, camp is going to look different this year. Instead of the typical Monday through Friday format, all of our activities are going to be packed into a single day. The fifteen boys, all of them returning campers, will arrive early next Saturday morning and stay until dusk. It’s going to be a fun-filled, amazing day.
As we prepare for camp, I’ve been struck by how similar everything is. Sure, we aren’t prepping to host the boys overnight. There’s only a few meals to be served, and no one will have to do laundry. Still, we need coaches, birthday gifts, and massive quantities of Gatorade. All the pieces are there, modified into a one-day schedule. Camp is shifting to accommodate the current situation, but there are some parts of Run Home that are so fundamental to who we are that they will never change.
The idea of a new normal is something Run Home Camps tries to instill in our campers every year. Every kid’s life seems normal to him, no matter how others that grew up differently may see it. It may be normal for him to never stay in one school long enough to join the baseball team or act as a parent to younger siblings. When they come to camp, we are able to show the boys a new kind of normal that they may not be as familiar with. At camp, encouraging each other is normal. Three healthy meals a day (plus snacks!) are normal. Parties and celebrations and fun activities are normal. Every camper being treated like they’re the most important kid in the world is normal.
If you don’t think that a week, let alone a single day, of this new normal can really make a difference, think back to how the strange becomes typical for you. My guess is that there have been things in your life that you thought impossible until you experienced them for yourself. That’s the idea of camp. We’re showing the boys that kindness is possible, that a loving family environment is possible. The normal they’ve grown up with isn’t the only kind of normal there is.
Nine of our campers this year are twelve year olds. This one-day extravaganza will be their last Run Home Camp. Our wish for them is that they take what they like about camp into the world with them as they get older, that it gives them hope. Now that they know what’s possible, there’s a good chance their definition of normal has begun to shift.
