Departure Day is a whirlwind of emotion, joy, tears, and activity. For those of us who have to drive or function safely on Departure Day morning, getting a good amount of sleep is important but seems in hindsight to leave little time for those last goodbyes. Even those campers who choose to stay up all or most of the night before don’t look like they have got all their goodbyes taken care of. Lots of shouting and laughing and tears falling like Raindrops in the Creek…
The frenzy of activity for everyone really ramps up with the very early (for camp!)wakeup call at 7:15am; I’ve been busy since 6am packing up and taking down my tent. Then it’s get everything in my truck and go help directing campers to put their luggage in the correct spot for airport, train, and Monroe Park pick-up. We get the U-Haul loaded as the busses pull up and start loading camper luggage underneath the busses. We sprint to the lodge for a quick Morning Meeting to say a formal goodbye to each other and to this wondrous place.
I’m off ahead of the busses with Staffer Ophelia and Heidi, a camper whose flight is too early for us to be comfortable the bus would get to the airport in time. We have a two hour drive. Plenty of time to grab a coffee at Dutch Brother’s on the way out of Winston and then reminisce about the people, events, and happenings from out two weeks together. Once our flyer is successfully dropped off at the airport, I run some staff errands and grab another coffee at one of my fave Eugene spots, The Wandering Goat.
After all campers are safely at their respective departure sites, the staff all reconvenes for our closing de-brief meeting. We take plenty of time to formally appreciate each other in the same way that advisee groups do in their closing meetings and that we did for the Jr. Staff at our last staff meeting at camp. A final farewell dinner caps the night before we all disperse to various places to sleep or start the constant departures of various staff. We get our hugs in now as we know everyone will leave at different times over the next day or so.
Here are some of my favorite moments from this amazing session:
J. Davis, Sr. Staff (2011- present), Driver