Re: A Scoutmaster's Paycheck
Judy Polak (jfpolak@NEWWAVE.NET)
Sat, 10 Jul 1999 08:35:11 -0500
Lydia's story about the "Den Mother's Day gift," hit home this morning, the
Saturday after another successful week of Cub Scout Day Camp for Mountain
Rifle District.
After a week as the "Water Witch," -- working the pool deck to make sure the
kids aren't too rambunctious, assisting the life guard staff as a lookout
(as Safe Swim Defense says!), and taking responsibility as a liason between
the day camp and the pool staff, one of the boys who had been in "trouble"
quite a bit during the week, asked me to watch him swim under water.
As one of a set of twins, I hadn't really learned to tell Brandon and Brian
apart during the week, but I did know that if I appeared in "their corner of
the pool" a lot of the horseplay would stop. Somehow, through the course of
the week and the horseplay, Brandon had taken time to observe the other kids
swimming underwater and decided to try it himself.
This is really amazing to me since at our day camp, 110 kids get to the pool
at the same time, for just the last hour of camp, and under the watchful
eyes of the state forest pool staff as well as lots of staff lookouts. With
that many kids in the pool, much more splashing is done than swimming!
Anyway, after watching Brandon perform several times, I decided to lose
glasses, whistle, watch and jump on in. We swam together for about 15
minutes, until it was time for the next buddy check.
At the end of camp, Brandon told me, "I had a great time this week -- and it
was so much fun swimming with you."
I guess that paid for my week in camp!
Judy Polak
Mountain Rifle District Day Camp Director (Week 1) and Water Witch (Week 2)
Buckskin Council, Charleston, W.Va.
