POOLING ENERGY

The first large group of youth with adult leaders arrived at our camp to occupy the cabins, enjoy the facilities and see if the plumbing was up to the challenge.

 After DH and I had spent hours chipping out the old caulking, pressure washing and working over the plumbing…

 …and spending even more hours in the hot sun applying a new coat of paint, and then losing sleep while it filled with water; we had a real personal interest in the camp pool.

We got up early, cleaned and checked it one more time before it was made available for a large group of swimmers.

 That afternoon the campers were divided into teams, given boxes, wrapping plastic, and duct tape and told to build boats.

 When the boats were ready they lined up three at a time to put their designs to the test.

 Four members of each team got into their craft to ride across the sort distance of the pool.

 A lot of the boats made it with very little problem.

 The second trial was to fill the boats with as many as possible and try to make it back to the other side.

 There were all kinds of boat designs.  Some were sea worthy and carried their passengers well.

 Some didn’t even make it away from shore before collapsing.

 When the boats and boaters had all been soaked and sunk, the pool became the site of a giant water fight.

 Adult leaders joined the youth in the water, or were thrown in.

 The weather was perfect and the campers were outstanding.  When everybody was out of the water, assignments were made to clean up the debris.  Aside from a few bits of cardboard in the filter, the pool survived the episode with flying colors.