Happy New Years everyone! Gather around for Part 2 of our saga, where the evil Darth Vader (aka my boss) is trying to destroy the Rebel Alliance on the ice planet, Hoth…
Sometime early during the spring semester of senior year, I got a call from the person that was going to be my boss for the upcoming summer. As I mentioned in the previous post, the two youth camps at the lake (Redwood and Tulequoia) were going to merge under the control of one youth camp. The person who ran Redwood, who was a role model for me as I grew up at Sequoia Lake, was going to take over Family Camp operation, and my new boss, S (I’ll be nice and leave her name anonymous), was going to take over Youth Camp operation. I had no previous interactions with S, so I tried to remain as neutral as possible during her call. It was one of the more awkward interviews that I have ever had—I don’t believe she ever explicitly said that it was going to be a job interview. But we talked about camp, about my experiences at the lake, what we thought camp was going to look like. But she never really came off as being completely sincere and she didn’t seem to have a purpose for our conversation… She said that she thought she would have a position for me, but she never really mentioned what it could be. It seemed likely I would be a “unit leader” over the summer, which entailed supervising counselors and their cabins, leading that group of counselors on activities and an overnight hike, and making sure that the camp program ran smoothly. This was a position that I held the previous summer. While I was happy and grateful that it seemed like I might get the same position, there was always an ambition to try to climb the ranks a bit more while my time at the lake was likely drawing to a close (this was a pre-Oregon decision, however, so I didn’t know that my life would soon be consumed with grad school. I digress).
There were a couple of other close camp friends/family members that I knew would also succeed if they were placed in leadership and counselor roles. My friends, Cali and Pebbles, deserved to be on the directing staff: Cali had been a unit leader with me the previous summer at Redwood (and had spent more time at the lake that I had) and Pebbles was older than I am but had (somewhat unfairly) not advanced being a counselor (which was something that she deserved as well, cause she was amazing at all camp-related activities). Additionally, there were other friends that had served as counselors the previous summer at Redwood that deserved to remain counselors as well. Nachooo!, Swatch, Bat, Smalls, Redcorn, and Elmo had performed wonderfully. Additionally, my brother (Beamer) was finally at the age where he could become a counselor (have to be 18), something that he had looked forward to for more than a few years. With all of this potential, I was under the impression that we would have good representation at youth camp, which at this point in time was supposed to be both at TQ and Redwood*.
*I am realizing that I forgot this part of the story—everyone was under the impression that there was going to be two youth camps, TQ and Redwood! Everything was going to be under the umbrella control of S and TQ…
And initially it seemed like the leadership positions were going according to my idea of what it should look like. Over Spring Break, Cali and Pebbles were asked to go on a planning retreat with the presumptive TQ staff to talk about what ideas of camp would look like for the upcoming summer. People had filled out and submitted applications; the general consensus was that everybody was excited for summer.
But there some troubling signs. I got a call from Pebbles and Cali, who were frustrated with how the retreat had gone. TQ and Redwood had different ideas of what camp should look like, and that had caused some ripples for Pebbles and Cali, who felt that their ideas or beliefs weren’t valued or accepted. TQ, for instance, had a strong foundation within a feminist/equality sort of approach, where kids were not to be singled out at all, competition was seen as harmful rather than helpful for developing an individual’s growth, etc. I’m not saying these aren’t bad, it’s just that I don’t agree with them fully. Competition, and learning how to win as well as lose gracefully, are critical skills in life. Without experiencing failure, how are children supposed to deal with it when there are greater challenges and later failures to be had later in life (a different post for a different time)? Cali and Pebbles felt the same way I do towards these ideas. But rather than acknowledging these things in a collaborative, productive manner, Cali and Pebbles felt their ideas were disregarded. It didn’t help that some of the TQ staff did not seem to reach out to either of them as well. Our way of camp, it seemed to Cali and Pebbles, had no place at the lake.
After I got the call from Cali and Pebbles, everything kind of snowballed. Well qualified counselors, such as Nachooo! and Swatch were not being given an interview. Pebbles and Cali were not given clear positions for what they were going to be doing for the summer. Over the Memorial Day weekend, a traditional “opening” weekend at Sequoia Lake, where volunteers come to help set up the five camps at the lake (e.g. clean out cabins, sweep, remove debris from trails, set up dining halls, etc.), the Redwood volunteers had not been contacted and only TQ was opened. (This was particularly egregious, as it only involved simple calls from S to pre-determined Redwood volunteers to tell them to come up over the weekend—looking back on this, we should have seen bad things coming).
And then the hammer fell. 10 days before camp Cali called me. S had fired Cali before camp even started, claiming there would not be enough enrollment for two camps over the summer. Additionally, this meant that Redwood was not going to be opened at all over the summer. A quick call to Pebbles also verified that she did not have a position over the summer as well. Talking with Cali, it was clear that there was to be very little representation on the TQ staff: myself, my brother, and Elmo, a female counselor. Bat, a friend who I have a high opinion of, left her counselor position at TQ because she felt betrayed by S. Like Bat, the remainder of our friends were contacting Evan for work at Family Camp, even if it meant cleaning toilets and doing maintenance work. Our friends, some of whom depend on the lake for an income as summer employment, were scrambling, panicked, and hurt. Evan apparently was pissed, as his co-worker was dumping some of the most loyal and true individuals without giving a second thought about it. And Redwood, our home for the previous summer, was being cast off as the black sheep of the lake.
I felt hurt and betrayed as well, much as my camp family was feeling. Any of the old prejudices about TQ that I had tried to bury as a way to this new transition at the lake, were re-appearing. I didn’t know the people at TQ, but I knew that I hated this woman. I consider myself loyal, and this backstabbing made me angry at everything that she was going to stand for, despite only talking to her once. I actually ended up calling her to verify that I still had a position, even though I had received an offer sheet. My brother, too, had been given an offer sheet. Needless to say, my brother and I were distrustful. S said that we had jobs at the lake if we wanted them and that she wanted to have us participate at the lake. She also said that she was sad that she had to end things with Cali and Pebbles and any others that may have been depending on a position. I told her that I was unsure of whether or not I wanted to be up at the lake, and that if I were to work at Sequoia Lake that I was leaning towards working with Evan (if that was going to be possible, because he was helping everybody else who had been screwed to find a job).
But everyone that I talked with said that should at least give camp a shot, especially my dad and Evan. Dad made the point that the lake is still the lake and kids are still kids—they still need to have an awesome time at the lake. Evan was encouraging as well, but he did say that he could talk to his bosses to see if anything could be made available to me. I still needed to show up to the lake though, and that I may as well go to the leadership staff training. I decided to go—I needed to do something for the summer and I still loved Sequoia Lake as well. But I resolved with my brother that we were going to do our best to represent.
At this point I should mention that youth camp staff in the past have been vocally, subtly subversive of people that we don’t like or don’t appear to have our backs. Back in the day, family and youth camp were led by an abomination named Steve. Steve seemed to give all of his attention to family camp and seemed to mess everything up at youth camp (changing everything, working under the notion that he knew best, when in fact he didn’t have any youth camp experience—he also was screwing family camp, we just didn’t know it). Anyways, the youth camp staff at the time named their subversive operation “Friends For Christ,” with the codename as “Fuck Family Camp.” Everyone decorated clothing apparel with “F.F.C.” and talked about their excitement for Friends For Christ.
Colin and I decided that we weren’t going to take’s S’s injustices sitting down that summer. S couldn’t screw us or are friends and get away with it. With these frustrations, we developed Operation Fuck Shit Up, aka F.S.U. or Florida State University, and Operation S’s a Vagina, aka SAV, later renamed to Save a Bear when S figured out what SAV meant. Colin and I were going to kick some ass and have a summer-long battle against S. I just had to make it through staff training for my reinforcement (read: Colin) to arrive.
