The Great Plains ate up two long days as we traveled back to Michigan from Colorado. In years past we drove overnight, which our children and families still do, but now find that we need a break somewhere in Iowa. After the long 2-day trek we can’t think about driving and fast food and listening to books on tape. Home on the prairie never looked so good. Except for the garden’s no-good weeds. Hardly unpacked, we began to purge of garden invasives.
But then came the call: “I sure hope you guys can come and see the summer camp where I work before the season is over!” said granddaughter, Lindsay. “This is the last week and you’ve been invited to come on Wednesday for the annual barbeque.” So—after only 2 days, we started out for Big Bay, a small town on the Lake Superior shore in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. We had not been there for years and were amazed at its beauty even from a fast moving car.
Eight hours later we pull into the Bay Cliff Health Camp. Lindsay and her teen-aged friends, some in wheelchairs or walkers greeted us along with the other visitors. Miss Lindsay, as the campers call her, radiates enthusiasm for her work as teen coordinator and for each of the 150 kids who spend their summer here. All with physical challenges, they traverse the lanes and bumpy ground of the apple orchard where the picnic is underway. The huge campus is dotted with large and small white buildings with green trim, some dating back to the camp’s inception in 1932.
We want to take it all in: kids from preschool to 17 overcoming huge obstacles just to be here and then having the time of their lives. We go to the teen bond fire and join in making camp donuts and smores. In the morning we come back to observe the silent flag raising ceremony and share breakfast in the “Big house” with Chad, a male counselor, and his two kids, one named Morgan who was cheered for learning to feed himself this summer. We avoid a whizzing wheelchair on our way to see the laundry where kids periodically pick up clothes from bins marked with their size. We follow the gradual paved path to the shore of Lake Superior that campers must traverse so they can spend hours on the beach. Finally Lindsay walks us to the parking lot to say good-bye. There is her car, surrounded by tall grass, which has not been moved for over 8 weeks! As the return miles toward home evaporate, we marvel at the dedication of one college senior (and many more like her), who plans to become a pediatrician and continue to work with wonderful kids like those she has loved at Bay Cliff.
But then came the call: “I sure hope you guys can come and see the summer camp where I work before the season is over!” said granddaughter, Lindsay. “This is the last week and you’ve been invited to come on Wednesday for the annual barbeque.” So—after only 2 days, we started out for Big Bay, a small town on the Lake Superior shore in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. We had not been there for years and were amazed at its beauty even from a fast moving car.
Eight hours later we pull into the Bay Cliff Health Camp. Lindsay and her teen-aged friends, some in wheelchairs or walkers greeted us along with the other visitors. Miss Lindsay, as the campers call her, radiates enthusiasm for her work as teen coordinator and for each of the 150 kids who spend their summer here. All with physical challenges, they traverse the lanes and bumpy ground of the apple orchard where the picnic is underway. The huge campus is dotted with large and small white buildings with green trim, some dating back to the camp’s inception in 1932.
We want to take it all in: kids from preschool to 17 overcoming huge obstacles just to be here and then having the time of their lives. We go to the teen bond fire and join in making camp donuts and smores. In the morning we come back to observe the silent flag raising ceremony and share breakfast in the “Big house” with Chad, a male counselor, and his two kids, one named Morgan who was cheered for learning to feed himself this summer. We avoid a whizzing wheelchair on our way to see the laundry where kids periodically pick up clothes from bins marked with their size. We follow the gradual paved path to the shore of Lake Superior that campers must traverse so they can spend hours on the beach. Finally Lindsay walks us to the parking lot to say good-bye. There is her car, surrounded by tall grass, which has not been moved for over 8 weeks! As the return miles toward home evaporate, we marvel at the dedication of one college senior (and many more like her), who plans to become a pediatrician and continue to work with wonderful kids like those she has loved at Bay Cliff.
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