Celebration Dinner - Teens Shared What They Have Learned as Volunteers in Summer Camp

The summer camp was successfully concluded near the end of August!

This year we made history as the teens officially and capably assumed the leadership and running of the camp for the later half of the camp while I was away.






The fun time and fond memories of the summer camp were still fresh on our minds and we were glad that we had the opportunity to serve the Waterloo community again.

At the end of our Children's Summer Camp, we usually hold a Celebration/ Thank You dinner for our volunteers.







This year was no exception. Since I flew to Japan before the end of our summer camp, we decided to have that celebratory dinner upon my return to Canada.

Celebrated we did!!!    We had a reunion of all the camp volunteers including two parents who gave a lot of assistance to us. Jean, one of the three leaders who looked after the camp while I was away, made the arrangement of booking a restaurant and inviting all the volunteers for a dinner in Waterloo on the first Saturday in September.

The teens were happy to see each other again catching up with the friends they have made

We had a delicious dinner at a all you could eat buffet Sushi restaurant and the teens had a blast ordering their favorite dishes.

I always feel that if we want to see our teens returning to volunteer in the next VBS, we need to make sure they have learned something in the camp as well as recognizing their contributions as volunteers.

After the teens finished eating all they wanted from the Sushi bar, the BBQ and desserts, we gave out a small token of our appreciation to each of them and asked them about what they had learned from their volunteer experience.

Thomas shared what he learned from volunteersing

Thomas's hand shot up and answered immediately without hesitation.

" I  learned three things:

a.  Not to make hasty decision. At the beginning, I thought of quitting because we got no pay. But I was so glad that I stuck with it because I really enjoyed working with the kids and the camp experience.

b. I was not working too hard sometime and I was playing games with my cell phone and other volunteers were also doing the same thing. R. T. was very upset and she gave us a big talk. I had never seen her being so upset before. I learned that we cannot get distracted and play with our cells because the children's safety depended on us. We have to watch them all the time.

Thomas working with one of the campers

c. We have to teach kids being independent and let them do things and take responsibility for themselves. I wished I came to this camp when I was younger so that I could learn to do things on my own and be more independent."

Wow!!! I was absolutely blown away by what Thomas said. Other volunteers talked about what they had learned as well, But what Thomas said stood out for me because he was a brand new volunteer coming  from nowhere. Nobody knew him. He came because he heard about our camp and needed his 40 hour volunteer hours for his secondary school graduation diploma.

I was happy to hear from the young people what they learned from the summer camp. This made my volunteer work with them all worthwhile.

R.T.
Director - TECA
Toronto Education &
Communications Associates
Celebrating with Youth Leaders
Waterloo, Ontario
Sept. 7, 2013