Silliness at Camp Orkila

Campfires at Camp Orkila

     There was plenty of laughing at Camp Orkila! The Campfires each night gave us an opportunity to just enjoy each others company. 

The Challenges

The Challenges

      The philosophy at Camp Orkila is that each person must choose their own personal challenge level. The counselors helped the students to understand what they might feel in their body that indicates that they had reached their threshold and pushed themselves to their ultimate challenge level. At the zip line, some students experienced suiting up and climbing to the top of the tower as their threshold, others found new ways to hold their body as they flew through the air. Challenges presented themselves outside of the designated challenge activities. Overcoming homesickness, connecting with friends, or managing fears of pond creatures. Orkila provided great opportunities for students to stare down their own individual challenges and work through them. 

Camp Orkila Learning in Nature

Camp Orkila: Learning in the Natural World

     My favorite part of Camp Orkila was the wonder that was brought about by being surrounded by nature. There were geckos, snakes, fish, crabs, tube worms, starfish,  plankton, jellyfish, goslings, etc...One group even found what they think may be a new species. 

       The students watched the creature suck in the insides of the green worm. Stay tuned for their own reflection of what happened. 

   Click here for a video of some of our students on an exploration of adaptations that allow tidal creatures to survive in their habitats.

Mt. Hood Climb Service Day

Mt. Hood Climb Service Day

     The work of Mt. Hood Climb service day started well before the day itself. The Dudicorns were responsible for informing the OES community about Project Second Wind, a food drive to benefit Neighborhood House. This year we had the kids nominate their peers to talk to particular age groups about our food drive. This involved speeches, an informational movie created in Technology, and posters to advertise and collect donations. 

     On the day of Mt. Hood Climb Service, the physical work began. Students spread out across the campus to collect the donations, then sorted the food into categories. Once the food was sorted, it was repacked into a waiting by our magical student packing ninjas. We then drove with the donations to the Food Pantry, delivered and sorted the food once again, onto the Food Pantry shelves.  After all of this work, we learned that we had collected 1, 895 lbs of food. It was a satisfying and exhausting day captured beautifully by Enzo Smith in his reflective poem.

Mt. Hood Climb Service Day

Enzo

We trudged around the school,

Met together,

We sorted food,

Expired,

Expired,

Perfect,

Boxes of beans,

Boxes of pasta,

Desserts, snacks, canned fruit,

Delicious things that I so want,

But that I can’t have.

Carried boxes as heavy as a pail of rocks,

The sound plays in my head a thousand times,

Clink, clink, clink,

Carried paper bags almost as heavy,

The noise still playing,

Put into a cart to be carried to a bus,

I hear the rip of a bag,

Food goes everywhere,

Like the leaves in the fall,

Blowing in the wind.

Loaded food into the bus,

Vroom vroom goes the engine of the bus

I feel every bump in the road

Crash,

The food falls to the floor of the bus,

Finally, we get to neighborhood house,

Carry boxes again to the top of a hill,

49 pounds it weighed,

After it was weighed,

Off to another room to be sorted yet another time.

So much food just past one thousand,

Almost two.

Celebrate for all the food we brought,

Now we go off back to school.

Go to the chapel to get some drink,

Surprised by an Oreo just for me,

The taste exploded in my mouth like a firecracker,

The cold sweet lemon berry juice,

Falls into my dry mouth waiting to be swallowed.

The day is done.

Waiting for another year of food to come around.

Immigration Day

      Whew! What a day. The students were taken through a variety of possible immigration experiences that were possible historically as well as today. For some, there was waiting. Filling out forms. More waiting. Medical exams. Waiting. For others there were decisions. The quota of immigrant slots was filled. What decision would you make now? Would you pay a smuggler to get you into the United States? Students also experienced what it might be like to spend time in a refugee camp before being vetted and invited into the United States. When they had finally entered the country, the students had to go to school or sign up for English classes. They had to navigate housing, grocery stores, and work.  The feast culminated the day and provided students a chance to reflect and share their experiences.