H is for happiness, may you always find happiness at Eberhart…
June 28, 2009It’s taken me a little while to gear up to reflecting about my four day weekend at YMCA Camp Eberhart. Eberhart is located on Corey Lake in Three Rivers, Michigan and was started in 1909. This past weekend was the 100th anniversary celebration and it was a celebration, indeed.
The weekend began when we picked up Christa, a former camper of mine, at Union Station. She flew in from Seattle and hitched a ride to camp with us. In deference to Eric, Christa and I resisted the urge to sing camp songs the whole way to the camp gate. Although Eric revealed he was ready with his ear phones should any such activity transpired (smart man).
Once we arrived, it was a whirl of hugs and smiles. It’d only been a few weeks since I’d been to camp as I was on the reunion planning committee (due to the omission of the word “no” from my vocabulary), so it wasn’t so much about walking around to see what’s changed. For me, it was all about finding people to reconnect with. It was kind of like an Easter egg hunt.
It was so fun to see Geoff because he was the entire reason I was at Eberhart. When I was in high school, I worked at the Bloomington YMCA with Geoff and he recommended me to the camp directors at the time. Geoff married Dana, who was the waterfront director my first summer at camp.
Many women (!) who were my campers nineteen years ago were there with their own kids and husbands. And there were many, many fellow counselors. In fact, there just a few people who couldn’t make it that I really wished were there.
I think my favorite moment at camp was the traditional last-night-of-camp initiation campfire. It was filled with the quiet moments of reflection, stories, songs, and ashes on the forehead. And the grand finale was a huge fireworks display while we all hung out on the island and made s’mores.
As always it was hard to leave on Sunday and going to work on Monday was almost unbearable. The only solace is that I’ll be headed back in just a few weeks to volunteer for a week.
It was a real slice of heaven.