Tomorrow we leave for our summer YL trip, including the 15 hour (hopefully not longer!) bus ride. Here are a couple things I bring in addition to the normal stuff I bring as a leader:
Bus Ride
- All of the camp forms (of course)
- Blank camp forms (just in case)
- Pens for camp forms
- An “inverter” for the bus (plug it in a car socket and then you can plug a normal 120V plug into it)
- Bags, tape, markers, etc. to collect electronics
- A head lamp for late night spot checking for various things on the bus
- DVDs of fun animated movies
At Camp
- Pocket spiral notebooks for all of our leader to take notes in leader meetings
- More pens for the notebooks
- Extra of everything that campers need, since the leaders will give their stuff to the kids
- If possible, money for a tab for leaders to do one-on-ones
- Video camera (my phone) to video individual kids after say-so for a 30-60 second clip to show committee and donors
I bet I’m forgetting several things, but hopefully this got you thinking of a few things. I’d love for you to comment here of things that you bring too.
PS… One sentence soapbox moment? Please do not bring a camera and/or video and just be at camp to be the video/camera person, if you lead in a club and are at camp, then LEAD while at camp… be involved in the middle of every activity, lead by example. Done with soapbox 🙂
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One thought on “Camp Blitz (2 of 5): What I Bring As A Trip Leader To Camp”
Here’s a few items I’d add that I always encourage my leaders to bring:
watch, alarm clock, plenty of sunscreen to share, bug spray to share, snacks to keep hidden until late week when kids have eaten all their own stuff and go on a rampage looking for food late at night. When you bust out cookies and snacks you are easily a hero.