OJdidit wrote:
My boys are 2 years apart in age. The School District in which they were taught has 5 grade schools which blend into a single Junior HS. The tradition started by the Principals was to blend the kids into a 3 day camping trip just before the end of the school year to introduce the kids to each other as they would now be blended into the same Junior and Senior HS for the next 6 years. This was intended to be an ice breaker for the kids to help them avoid the intimidation of the first day of school.
The trip is held at a large YMCA Camp on a lake about 30 miles away. There are cabins of various sizes, large enough to accommodate all the kids, Principals and chaperones. The kids were mixed up and separated into two camps for friendly competitions and activities such as archery, fishing, lake studies, tree identification, canoeing, etc. I volunteered as a chaperone to teach fishing which meant 10 groups of kids each day, each group got to fish for an hour then move on to the next activity. I was lucky as I got to meet a lot of the kids the boys will be in school with. My “class” was conducted on a floating pier in a bay on the NW side of the lake. I had met with the Principal of my kid's particular grade school and she proudly told me she bought me 70 dozen night crawlers for the trip. I was shocked, but excited until I asked how many fish they caught the previous year? “THREE!“ she proudly exclaimed. I tried my best not to laugh , but I prepared her for a huge donation to the camp of the leftover crawlers. Another Dad and I got to work together for our “class”. He would set them up with the pitiful equipment there was to use…some rods had broken or no reels on them so they were setup as short cane poles. I worked the pier, spacing the kids out and advising them where to try. Those who knew what they were doing I left alone and those who needed help got my attention. The kids caught yellow perch, crappies, bluegills, sunfish and LM bass. One girl in particular, on the 2nd day, had never fished, was afraid of the water and really wanted nothing to do with it, but I told her the only way to get credit for the activity was to give it a try for at least 5 minutes. I walked her out and stood next to her and told her to let her chunk of night crawler down next to a lily pad…she did and a 3# LM darn near ripped the rod out of her hands. No room to run, lousy equipment to use, but we got that fish in for a few pics and let it go to get harassed by the next classes as word spread immediately about what she caught as her first fish. She backed that one up with an 11” crappie a few minutes later. She easily caught the 2 largest fish of the 180 which were caught by the kids that weekend. She was “hooked”. I ran into her a few years ago as she was waitressing at a restaurant we frequent and she told me she still loves to fish.
Son #2’s class did not have the same success when it was their turn 2 years later. The camp put the floating pier about 30yds down the shoreline in an area choked with weeds and we made the best of it and caught only about 50 fish with that group.
I was so impressed with the District for doing this for the kids and blessed to have been able to take part. I was lucky as I volunteered to drive the sleeping bags and luggage up with my pickup and didn’t have to ride on the bus with all those screaming kids 😉
My boys are 2 years apart in age. The School Dist... (
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I love this story, OJ.