The Audrey

EACH CAMPFIRE LIGHTS ANEW

Last week I had the pleasure of working with a couple hundred middle schoolers at an environmental education camp in Wisconsin called Upham Woods. Most of the students had never camped, many of them had never even seen “the woods” or a river.

In addition to spreading the gospel that caring about the environment is cool, we stayed in cabins, ate three meals a day in the cafeteria and helped lead classes that ranged from canoeing to outward bound. Full court press. It was wonderful.

This comes just weeks after Summit at Sea, and I had a looming feeling that this camp experience was going to have some symbolic parallel. Just like my guru @effigyfarm told me, I needed about a month to process the whole Summit experience, and it was the perfect ending.

We have so much to learn from kids.

Super camp nuggets:

• Lose the too cool blues (ego sounds so aggressive; just pull up your pants, take off your hat at meals, and smile)

• Sign up for classes that none of your friends are in

• Spend your day giving positive affirmation to peers and showing gratitude to leaders

• Start each meal with 5 shout outs - ONE CLAP! - and treat your tablemates like family

• Sing - loudly - and stick out your tongue and butt when you do it

• Invest in HappyGrams 

• Leave camp better than the way you found it

We ended camp with a candlelight ceremony where each student shared what Upham meant to them and sang this song:

Each campfire lights anew / The flame of friendship true / The joy we’ve had of knowing you / Will last our whole life through / And as the embers die away / We wish that we might ever stay / But since we cannot have our way / We’ll come again some other day.

To all of my fellow Summiteers, thank you for the incredible experience that we shared. That short song sums up exactly how I feel about all of you and our adventure at sea.

I’m bringing my camp nuggets as my bible for next year’s Summit. Along with a promise book that the Garyvee crew dreamed up.

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Upham Woods recently kicked off a legacy campaign to support the camp’s renovation and continued operation. Read more in the Madison ISTHMUS.