It's time to say goodbye

Hello readers,

It is with true sorrow that I write the last blog post of this camp season. Is it too cliche to say that I can't figure out how time has moved so fast? I feel like I talk about this all the time, but I just don't understand how 7 weeks just flew by like this.

Last night was "The Wiz"! For those of you who were able to make it here for the show, I hope you loved it, and for those of you who weren't able to make it, I can assure you that it was a phenomenal production. Working with the 20 campers on the show was a true gift, and the performance they gave last night couldn't have created a more perfect end to the summer. Perhaps most moving was the last song of the show, "Home" performed by Alexa D. playing Dorothy. Some of the lyrics of the song, here, moved both the audience and performers to tears:

When I think of home I think of a place where there's love overflowing I wish I was home I wish I was back there with the things I been knowing Maybe there's a chance for me to go back there Now that I have some direction It would sure be nice to be back home Where there's love and affection And just maybe I can convince time to slow up Giving me enough time in my life to grow up Time be my friend, let me start again

Before the show started, backstage, Alexa told me she didn't know how she was going to make it through the song. "It's too much!" she said, "I'm singing about going home, as in my own home, but Ballibay is a home to me, too, and now I have to leave it!" Well, that was enough to make me cry. It also made me realize how correct Alexa is. Yes, Ballibay is a summer camp, but to many it is more than that: it is a home, albeit a home-away-from home.

Thank you to all those who read this summer, and thank you even more for sharing your wonderful campers with me and the rest of the staff. We are forever grateful.

See you next summer,
Elizabeth C.
Ballibay Blogger

Back to back successes

Hello readers!

As I write to you, the last of the Farm Arts III and Rock Farm III campers have left camp to return home for the remainder of the summer. The tone around campus is bittersweet for both staff and campers. Obviously, campers are mourning the departure of their cabin-mates and new (or old!) friends. As a counselor, I also find myself very sad about the Farm and Rock campers leaving. Yes, true, I do have a week left here in which I'll be working quite intensely with my cast of "The Wiz" (who, in case you were wondering, are still completely fantastic!), but I also felt that I got to know the Farm and Rock campers more than ever this summer, and camp just doesn't seem the same without them all here. Perhaps it was because I sat at a meal table with two Rock Intensive campers, Ezra A. and Dante S., who constantly made me laugh, and really taught me a lot about how hard they worked this session for their phenomenal Band Night. I can't even tell you how incredibly proud I was to watch them make amazing music last night.

Additionally, as the title of this post suggests, Band Night followed our Music and Dance Concert on Thursday evening. It was beautiful. The dances were intriguing and thought-provoking, the choral and instrumental music pieces sounded wonderful, and the musical theater scenes made the audience laugh and sing along. It was a truly enjoyable show.

Congratulations to campers and staff involved in both productions!

More soon,
Elizabeth C.
Ballibay Blogger

The ultimate pick-me-up...

...is what a morning at Camp Ballibay is like!

Hello readers!

Good morning to you half-way through the second week of this session. When I woke up this morning, I rolled over and looked at the camp calendar on my wall and literally felt my mouth hanging open. How is it possible that I've been here over 5 weeks, completed 3 out of 4 shows, and that this last session is a third of the way done? It simply doesn't seem as though all that has been achieved truly has happened! The way that time passes here, it's easy to feel as though time is literally slipping away from you -- which can easily bring a person down (after all, it's depressing to realize the summer is coming to a close!)

The good thing is that at Ballibay, it's impossible to ever feel truly down in the dumps. Every single aspect of the camp and the camp's programs work against feeling low. Yesterday before dinner, I felt sad because I realized that camp was really nearing it's end and that the whole summer was nearly over. And then, as I walked down to the dining hall, I heard music coming from the porch outside of the building. It was an impromptu rock band performance to serenade us before we ate. It was a fun moment that got everyone to dance and clap along. Just another reminder of why every moment at Ballibay is the ultimate pick-me-up.

More soon,
Elizabeth C.
Ballibay Blogger