My Selfish Reasons for Being a Camp Hale Counselor

by Kasey Blume, After School Program Site Coordinator and Camp Hale Counselor

I'll be the first to admit, I probably go to Camp Hale for some pretty selfish reasons.

Sure, living with 8 teenage girls is enough to make me rethink having children. My idea of a new piercing is definitely not getting a fishing hook in the eyelid. Of course, battling with spiders the size of my hand is not the ideal after the morning bugle.

Absolutely, trying to organize 18 people and a night’s worth of stuff into Big Red and some tin cans can be a little mind-boggling. And yes, trying to get those same 8 girls up a mountain can be no small feat.

But within those moments, lay the reasons why I go to camp.

It’s those late night, after lights out conversations with my 8 young ladies that I’ll never forget. It’s in that moment a child catches her first fish, on her first cast of her first ever fishing pole. It’s running to the showers with a broom because you heard someone scream bloody murder, only to get there and hear “Don’t worry Miss Kasey, I took care of it.”

It’s in that moment that you are on Squam Lake, singing at the top of your lungs from the bottom of your soul hearing your girls echo you back. It’s hearing 18 people laugh and talk their way through a seven-hour, two-peak hike.

It’s in the Camp Hale family that will forever be by my side. I go to Camp Hale for the mountains, lakes, sunrise swims, sunsets, friendships, games, Brown Bag Challenges (not really), late night fires and laughter, fishing, running, songs, and peace.

I go for the kids, but really, I go for me.