Sisters Offer Summer Camps for Girls
Huddled together in pairs in the Mount St. Francis Center (MSFC) Dining Room were sisters and their “BFF”: Best Franciscan Friends.
As part of the Best Franciscan Friends” camp, 4th and 5th grade students spent June 7-9 at MSFC learning about the sisters and St. Francis.
“I think camp provides a great opportunity for kids to be exposed to sisters and Franciscan values,” said Charism Team member Julie Tebbe, who oversaw the camp.
Campers had “BFF time” where they met and talked with their assigned sister and participated in activities together.
“To watch them sharing laughter and stories was most meaningful. The kids looked forward to that every day of camp,” said Julie.
Sister Ruth Fagan also enjoyed the conversations she had with her BFF.
“I think it was a good thing that we met with them and sat with them,” said Sister Ruth. “We got to find out the young have a lot of ingenuity and promise and hopefully they think the same thing of us.”
The camp’s overall theme of “Diving into God’s Creation,” included different activities for each day centered around the sisters’ mission: Wednesday was “Divin’ into Mother Earth,” Thursday was “Divin’ into Brother Sun,” and Friday was “Divin’ into Sister Water.” Campers participated in a nature scavenger hunt and also acted out the story of St. Francis meeting the wolf.
“I enjoyed the play about St. Francis because you worked together to do many things,” said BFF Camper Lydia.
A second camp called “Surfing the C’s” for girls in 6th, 7th, and 8th grades was held June 14-15. Surfin’ the C’s focuses on the 4 C’s of Leadership: compassion, courage, confidence and Christian and is based on the film, “Soul Surfer.”
“In Surfin’ the C’s camp we focused on servant leadership–what it means to serve and be served,” said Julie.
Surfing the C’s campers also participated in a range of activities including singing at the Eucharistic liturgy at Clare House and serving beverages to the sisters at lunch.
Both camps brought a lot of joy and laughter to all involved.
“The energy of the kids and the investment of the sisters was awesome,” said Julie.
Photo: Sister Ruth Fagan with her BFF Miranda. Miranda is holding her “Flat Francis” which was created at BFF Camp. Photo by Mary Fischer.
