A Day in the Life of a DMC Camper by Thor

All the campers are happily sleeping in their bunks in the morning, when we either get woken up by a counselor or fellow cabin mate. Next, we get up, clean our rooms, and make our beds. Then, we have about twenty or thirty minutes to hang out in the cabin and talk. Typically, we talk to our counselors or peers about what has been going on during Outdoor Pursuits or we just chat and joke around. After that, I usually hop on my bike and head down to breakfast. This week our cabin, The Surf Ninjas, are serving breakfast, so we have to be down there a little bit early. During breakfast the whole camp eats together, and we get announcements from Pete and sometimes MJ. Also, during this time campers offer jokes and counselors sometimes deliver some news. Overall, it is awesome.

After breakfast academics begin, and everyone's experience is a little different. Some campers might start off with tutoring or art, others might begin with study hall or writing.  Personally, my first class is art. Thus far, we have made boxes, and this week we are working on water colors. Tutoring is my second class. Most of time in tutoring I work on cursive writing, sounds, spelling, and reading fluency. I also arrange alphachips in alphabetical order, and each day I try to beat my record. After the second period we have a break for snack. After break I go to study hall, and I get the work done that my tutor assigns me. If I have time, I get to read during study hall if I have gotten all my work done. Logan and Max, two former campers turned study hall proctors, check the work in study hall to make sure that it is complete. Also, they give each camper's tutor a brief note describing how well we did. Fourth period I have writing class. During writing class we work on word use and sentence use. Also, we work on getting our ideas out on paper because that could be hard. It is a serious class. Finally, when fourth period ends we head to lunch. Lunch is fun because we get to joke and talk. After we have finished eating, Pete makes some announcements. Also, he asks each counselor to explain what campers need to bring to each Outdoor Pursuit. 

After a rest period for overnight campers and reading for day campers, we head off to Outdoor Pursuits. At DMC you can learn how to S.C.U.B.A., climb, ride horses, kayak, mountain bike, and explore and survive in wild Colorado. For the first two weeks I did mountain biking and wild Colorado. They are both very fun. In mountain biking we ride on trails and Pete helps everyone get better at riding and working their bikes. In wild Colorado we learn shelter and fire building. Sometimes, it is frustrating because it does not go as planned. We also learned about what plants are edible and what plants are toxic. After outdoor pursuits are over for the day, we head back to camp and rest up before dinner. Some nights we call our parents or go to the camper bank.

The evenings at DMC are pretty entertaining. At 6:00 PM we have dinner. At dinner we get to chat with each other and have a really great meal. We have an awesome chef named Tad who is very cool and very nice. After dinner Pete makes some announcements and counselors and campers discuss what happened during outdoor pursuits. Also, at this time, we are able to give out buddy beads. Buddy beads are a little gift that you give someone because they have gone out of their way to be extraordinary. For example, you could get a buddy bead because someone was really scared while rock climbing or jumping off a waterfall, and you gave the encouragement that they needed. After dinner every night we have an activity, such as capture the flag, soccer, buddy bead making, etc. We have a blast for an hour, and then come inside for dessert and nightly reading. Nightly reading is fun because you and your tutor can get really into your book. However, sometimes you can get a little sidetracked with an intense conversation about the book. Overall, night reading is actually pretty fun.

In general, this is a day in the life of a DMC camper. However, no two days are alike. The academic schedule might stay the same, but there are always different things to learn. Sometimes things can stressful and tough, especially academics, but a lot of campers know it is best that they try hard because education is important. In conclusion, that is an outline of what a day at DMC could look like.

By Thor

ADRENALINE

Yesterday, Tuesday, July 5, the Wild Colorado and Rock Climbing groups went to Adrenaline, which is a waterfall that you can cliff jump from north of Hermosa/Durango. It sounds scary, but it is not actually scary. The counselors thought that it was going to be cold, so they brought along wetsuits. However, no one really needed wetsuits because the water wasn’t that cold. It was about the same temperature as the Animas. I really liked it there, and I think that everyone else had a lot of fun. I would like to go back some day.

-       Sean G

Trip to Ouray

This past weekend campers and counselors loaded into the vans and headed north on 550, also known as the Million Dollar Highway. The destination was Ouray, a sleepy mountain village on the edge of the San Juan Mountains. After a few thunderheads cleared the area, campers and counselors alike enjoyed a soak in the hot springs and a stroll around town. At the end of the day everyone loaded up in the vans and headed back over the passes to camp.

Check out the view along the ride.

Fire Building in Wild Colorado

In Wild Colorado we learned how to build fires. First of all, we picked partners and gathered sticks. From there each group built their own fire, and Zane came around to give everyone a match. He gave us only one match because you may not have more than one match in the wilderness. Only two groups were able to make a fire with one match. It was the counselors and my group. Our next task was to cook an egg using orange peels and an egg. We had two tries at doing it. The first time ours cooked halfway, and then a stick landed on the egg while it was cooking. This made the egg tip over. The second time we cooked the egg on a flat rock, but we ended up dropping the egg in the fire. Next, Zane gave us dough to make bread. Every group got tinfoil and dough and put it in the fire. That task was not as hard as cooking the egg, and every group managed to get their bread cooked. After that, Zane wrapped crickets in the dough, and put them on a flat rock in the fire. Most people ate the crickets after they cooked. Afterwards, we ended up putting out the fires and headed over to Hermosa gas station. Our group got a treat because successfully built a fire. We headed back to camp satisfied. All, fire building was extremely fun.

- Steven Bailey

Oral Writing Class Dispatch - Friday, July 1, 2016

What is oral writing?  Well, this week we have focused on learning the two parts of a sentence and  the five sentence paragraph all without holding a pen or pencil or touching a keyboard. 

The picture below shows the three boys: Julio, Adam, and Cruz (from right to left) using a sentence frame with cards to depict the sentence, “She took a plane to the college.”  

Using this sentence building activity each student became proficient with identifying the subject word, the predicate word, and all the articles in a given sentence. Each student went on to compose his own simple and compound sentences using the cards and then speaking his sentence aloud while touching his cards one word at a time. Today, each student built a simple or compound sentence, depending on my prompt, and then dictated that sentence to an iPad using the Dragon Speak app.  

We are using the same multi-sensory oral approach for the composition of a five sentence paragraph. Each student receives five colored strips: green for topic sentence, three blues for each supporting sentence, and red for concluding sentence. Today I spoke a topic sentence and the boys each thought of three supporting sentences. For example, I said, “There are three ways I make money.” Each student then took a turn waving his blue strips one at a time as he said something like, “First, I can get paid for doing chores around my house. Second, sometimes a neighbor pays me for taking care of their pets. Finally, in the summer I can mow lawns.” Our DMC oral writing class may not be putting any pen to paper, but we sure are composing up a storm.

- Lauren Geraghty, DMC Tutor and Oral Writing Class Teacher