- My second year, (also the year I peed my pants in front of everybody) we were all playing cards in an empty cabin on the last night when this violent thunderstorm rolled in. Unlucky for us, we had open air cabins, so even though we were technically “inside,” we all got soaked. So we all just huddled together and waited for it to blow over. We woke up the next morning in a giant bundle of campers. I think I was using my friend Caroline’s butt as a pillow.

- Two words: MOTHER MOO.

- It seems as though every girl has their period at camp. I guess its true that “the cycles sync up” with the people you spend a lot of time around. Slightly awkward for the stake prez or any male within earshot of some personal conversations…

- My fourth year we TPed the camp director, and we were all nervous because we had never TPed at this level before. So we were all on edge, and then I happen to look up at the door and I see the camp director staring back at me. I screamed and so everyone else looked and saw her, screamed, ran, etc. But she started laughing and hugged us and told us it was so cool that we would even think to prank her. Favorite director EVER.

- My fifth year, when I was a JC, one of my friends heard that the first years were planning to TP us after dinner. So all the JCs finished dinner early and went to hide out in our cabin, lights out and totally silent. We were only there for a few minutes when we heard a bunch of 12 year old feet stomping up the hill. While they were TPing us we heard snippets of their gleeful conversation such as “Guys, we are SO bad!!!” and “Wait, why are we doing this again?” Once we felt we had given them enough time to adequately TP, we jump out of our cabin, thus scaring the living crap out of them, and chase them down. We caught them and escorted them back to our cabin to clean up what they had done. We get back only to discover that they had done the worst job ever and only two or three pieces of TP were lying on the ground. We still made them pick it up.

Best story of young womens’ camp: Young women in my ward spent the week throwing tampons at other campers, or hiding them in other camper’s tents.

EFY was a thousand times better-more organized and did a better job of planning good, clean fun for the youth without resorting to immature pranks.

Wow. I sound bitter.

Years later, after a large scale food poisoning mess one year we (the Stake YW Presidency) found a camp with real bathrooms and a great modern air conditioned kitchen and dining room. The girls still had tent sites. Since I had planned meals for years for a week long family reunion at Lake Powell I got put in charge of not making anyone sick with the food. Each unit was assigned to help and to clean up with 2 meals. My real work was the planning and shopping. The girls did all the work. It went well and I did it for 11 years. Twice I was pregnant, and one year I brought my nursing baby, and then I moved away. They offered me an assistant the second year, but she was so much trouble I never took one after that. The menus got better every year, both better food and less waste at both the midwestern camp and at Lake Powell. I passed on my notes to my successor, but she had a better idea, and girls got sick again. My greatest Girls’ Camp accomplishment was that in my 11 years, we had general sickness. I got the keys to the only air conditioned room, which after hours was occupied by only me and the Stake YW Presidency (where I only served that first year). Much as I enjoyed it, this is a light I keep firmly under a bushel in my new ward.

Lying is wrong, period. These “leaders” set a horrible example, unless God changed his mind and no longer hates liars or lying.

As a YW in AZ. I went to Camp LoMia every year and loved it.
The last year things went bad. My “secret sister” (everyone exchanged names) gave me a gift of candy every day of camp. On the 3rd night of camp, I woke in the middle of the night to find a creature with a rather long “rat like” tail sitting on my head, eating my candy. Oh, how I wished for a gift of stickers instead! It was completely gross.

More seriously, some girls came up with the prank of putting dye in the shower heads in the bathhouse. One of the leaders using the showers almost got face full of dye. It turned into a huge big deal.

At first the leaders put the girls with their wards and tried to get a confession. That didn’t work, so then all of us girls (well over a 100) all filed into the lodge where we were told the prank and how dangerous it was, and all the awful things that could have happened. We were asked to stand up if we knew anything about the prank. No one moved. Then we were asked to close our eyes and bow our heads. The prankers were asked to identify themselves, in this “private” way. No one confessed. The Camp Director was so upset this happened on her watch, she quit after camp. She had been the leader for years.

Lots of gossip and speculation about that unknown prankster.

As an adult leader, I have seen the girls need for priesthood divine interventions. I have come to the conclusion it is the girls who don’t have a good father figure at home who need constant male reasurrance.
I did have one young girl who was openly flirting with the priesthood leader. The poor guy was clueless and didn’t get it. I had to talk to him and explain what was happening. He was mortified and reported back after camp to the stake priesthood leaders the importance of making sure no male leader is left with a camper, etc. so no one’s reputation is tainted. (The girl involved had made false allegations of sexual abuse in the past)

By day 3 of camp, everyone’s emotions are running high, due to a lack of sleep, the heat, junk food and female hormones run amok (leaders and girls!)

Lastly, the BEST camp activity ever was a realistic first aid drill I set up, with the YCL girls as victims in staged accidents around camp. It was great fun to create bloody, gory wounds and see how the girls would deal with it. Every year there was at least one 1st yr. who would think it was real and start freaking out. I like to think of it as “Motherhood training 101″ . It toughens you up real quick.