Hey Folks! This is Spencer making
my blogging debut, and I thought a nice thing to do would be to explain in
simple terms what on earth we are trying to accomplish in Detroit right now. We have not explained our summer project
in detail because we have not had the details until now, and actually we still
do not have all of them. I suppose one way to look at our general lack of
information is that it will make things that much more exciting when we finally
figure them out. It also adds this cool layer of suspense to everything we do,
as in “will anyone show up to our camp, I really hope this works out”. Fun,
right?
I was a late addition to the team, only signing on to the
project in May, a little more than a month ago. Gabe and Chad had asked me if I
wanted to work with primarily black children in Detroit at “a camp”. I have
worked at summer camp before, I enjoy working with children (especially
primarily black ones), and quite frankly I need to make some money because I
graduate in December. So I said yes, not knowing that “a camp” was something
that we would be starting from scratch between the four of us.
So
what exactly have we done? And what are we trying to do? We are working
tirelessly (except before meals; working on an empty stomach is a no-go) to create
a full day-camp curriculum and schedule that will give our campers an
experience they have not had before. We are running our camp at an incredible
school called Cornerstone Schools Association that we have already referred to in our blog several times. Here is a link to the school that will tell you a lot more about it than I can.The summer camp was
school President/CEO Ms. Ernestine Sanders’ idea, and we have the privilege of
using school grounds and resources to make the camp as incredible as
possible.
Thus
far we have created an entire curriculum for our summer day camp and for a weeklong
basketball camp as well. We have
been doing things that we have never done before, like making budget reports,
meeting agendas, and even legal tender for our applications. Our
self-sufficiency, as well as the chance of being sued, has never been higher. We have been advertising throughout the
greater Detroit area to recruit elementary and middle school campers, and we
even have radio ads playing in the area.
Look at this meeting agenda, this is the most professional thing I have ever done. Somebody show my mother so she can see how grown up I am.
Gabe made this whole budget report himself. Raise your hand if you are impressed!
We
have science lessons (to blow stuff up), art and music lessons (to make the
kids do Jewish circle dances), and yard games (to make the kids too tired to get into mischief). We are even taking the kids to the Wright African American
History Museum and the Detroit Science Center. Heck, some people might even suggest that we are including
legitimate education in our camp. Our day camp will start on July 14th
and will run in weeklong segments until August 8th, which is 4 weeks
for those of you at home who are too lazy to do the math (shame on you). We are
also starting our after school basketball camp today, June 23rd.
Above: Cornerstone Camp Directors Timothy Shackleton and Chad Knox enjoy a beautiful view of Downtown Detroit.
How
many kids will show for camp? We can tell you when they get here. How will our
counselors (we are not the counselors, we are the DIRECTORS, largely due to our
maturity and responsibility) fare with all the children? We do not know because
they have not been hired yet. Long story short, we have a lot of questions,
important questions, waiting to be answered. So we ask you, our delightful
audience, to continually pray for us as we do the work set before us each day
in faith. The questions we have, God holds the answer to. It is not our job to
worry about what God controls and we do not. Therefore pray for us to keep our
faith in God’s plan for this camp. We are working hard and
giving our time and energy into this camp, and yet our vision for the camp may
never come to be. Our camp may be the coolest, fastest growing thing in
Detroit, and that would be great. But it could also only bring in 20
unenthusiastic children who are only there because their mothers dragged them
to camp. We only desire a Godly perspective to see the success of our camp, not
a monetary or worldly one. Whatever happens this camp is in God’s hands, not
ours, and I find that inexpressibly comforting.
Spencer Dupee
Director, Basketball Camp Coordinator, and Chief Editor at Cornerstone Camps
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