Comments on: My own ugly slash beautiful truth about Girls Camp

By: Jan

Jan — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 00:00:35 +0000

You may not need to go next time, especially if she did well this time.

I’m YW president and we just got back of 5 days of ward YW camp. One of the girls, a just 13 year old, with Asperger’s went. Her mother had just suddenly died 5 weeks before camp…but she had been looking forward to having a week off and seeing how her daughter did at camp. We had a small group of girls and 3 YW leaders so plenty of leadership.

The YW did great – got on everyone’s nerves at times because she repeated herself a lot but we all know her disability. She learned tons of new stuff (e.g., she didn’t know how to turn a flash light on) and had fun too. Prior to this, she had only been away from home for a 1-night sleepover about 2 months ago.

We got to know and admire her so much more. It was hot and buggy and a “stretch” for all of us, but especially this girl as she was so out of her element and comfort zone yet still was game for everything.

I told her that her mom was looking down on her at camp all amazed and proud of what she was doing.

By: Laura

Laura — Sun, 12 Jul 2009 18:27:57 +0000

I love girls camp, and I am sorry that your daughter did not have the best time. It was such a testimony building experience. Hopefully your daughter will go next year and have a better time.

By: Pam

Pam — Sun, 12 Jul 2009 00:37:35 +0000

I loved your comments and your sense of humor. I too think it is okay to not be excited about it. I agree that it is a great experience for them and am grateful for the program. You must be a wonderful mom to spend the time with her at camp.

By: Mytha

Mytha — Sat, 11 Jul 2009 02:14:58 +0000

Oooh, just the thought of having to spend a week at girls’ camp with my Asperger’s daughter is enough to make me want to go inactive! You would have had to drug me and throw me in the back of a van to get me to camp when I was a kid, and now that we live in a much hotter, more humid, and buggier place I’m even less enthusiastic about the idea. But I’m pretty sure my daughter wouldn’t want to go anyway. She has friends at school, but none at church.

By: AspieMom

AspieMom — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 21:12:49 +0000

My Asperger’s Syndrom daughter is now 20 and attending college. She did not do all the years of girl’s camp, but loved it when she did go. My husband pitched a tent at a neighboring campground her first year. He was close just in case she needed him. She didn’t. She did great. All the leadership knew of her situation and took her under their wings. BLESS THEM! Anyway, it DOES get better, each year she will amaze you with her new abilities.

By: a thought

a thought — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 04:11:05 +0000

interesting. it’s funny as in my stake I had offered to help on one of the stake youth events (in which volunteers were requested) but was turned down due to the fact I’m a single sis. I have a grad degree in a health care field and had offered to work w/a teen w/special needs and that was also denied.
I hope next time your stake considers seeking volunteers. Believe it or not, there are some of us who sit home lonely in the summer and seek opportunites to help and to serve and to try to do our tiny part to help those in your type of situation.
Oh well!

By: backandthen

backandthen — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 09:59:54 +0000

“As for camp, that is just not fun to me ast all. I bet if you took a blind survey of girls who went to camp, maybe 20 % would say it was worth it.”
In the Us it is probably the case but in Europe YW camp is one of the few occasion teenage girls can have fun without having to wonder if once again they are going to have to stand for something they have been taught or believe in. It is one of the few moment during the year when they can relax and have simple fun without fearing peer pressure. It is one of the few times when they can have spiritual experience on their own without their parents being involved or around.
Some of my best memories as a teenager are from YW camps and I know it is the same for my sisters.
This year my youngest sister is quiet displeased because the camp will be only 3 days instead of 5 but she will get to go to the first EFY in France.
I can picture everything that has been said but you all need to remember that the church is not just American anymore and that the youth programs are a great source of strength for those outside the US.

By: Russell Arben Fox

Russell Arben Fox — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 13:47:16 +0000

I got back from Girls Camp yesterday; it was the first of what I expect to be years of spending a week of my summers going to support my daughters. There were things I definitely didn’t enjoy about the week. (The idiot “prank” rules would be high on the list.) But my overriding feeling about the experience is astonishment–I am astonished at how much I bought into it.

I am, basically, a cynical and sarcastic smart-ass and doubter, and there are relatively few things associated with the more prevalent doctrines and operations of the church that I would claim to have a strong testimony of or even much affection for. But by the last day of camp, which ended with a game that recreated Lehi’s dream, the girls following PVC pipe through a thick grove of trees blindfolded, with “tempters” and distractions all around, the sincerity and emotional fervor which the YW leaders–and, really, the girls themselves–invested in the occasion simply overwhelmed me. It was just a silly game, just another program (but then, I think just about everything in the church, or in any church, is really nothing more or less than another program, for better or worse, once you get down to the heart of it), yet I wept when my daughter made it to the end of the walk still holding on, and I found myself groaning in disappointment and anger when I saw girls that I knew being tricked into letting go of the pipe (some of the “tempters” were damn good at their assignment…) and having to sit out for a while before being taken back to the beginning and starting again.

Peer-pressure spirituality? Mass-tears-induced manipulative emotionality? Yeah, sure, there was some of that; probably a lot of that, actually. But just the same, I’m not so certain that you can–or should–always distinguish all of that from the genuine article. My daughter bore her testimony at the end of camp, which is something she’s never done before. And it was a good one too–smart and simple and well-intended. Artificial or not, Girls Camp is one program that seemed to work for us. We’ll definitely be going back; I hope we’ll return with the same feelings next year.

By: annegb

annegb — Sat, 20 Jun 2009 19:48:24 +0000

Lately I have wondered if I have Asperger’s, seriously, because things that seem perfectly reasonable and apparent to me, to say, don’t go over well with other people and I’ve always hated social things and noises and crowds. If I do have it, for the sake of the parents with kids who have it, it’s not as lonely as you’d assume. It feels honest to me. Not inconsiderate to others but more like a freedom to be who I am. When I was a child and didn’t fit in for a variety of reasons or even now when social situations leave me bewildered I don’t feel as bad as “normal” people might feel. I feel more a bit confused then I go do my thing.

As for camp, that is just not fun to me ast all. I bet if you took a blind survey of girls who went to camp, maybe 20 % would say it was worth it.

By: Kristine

Kristine — Sat, 20 Jun 2009 05:34:14 +0000

huh. Kinda like this: http://lds.org/conference/talk/display/0,5232,23-1-1032-34,00.html