14 Aug Cynthia Barboza, Camp Tall Tree intern, Week 1

Hi everyone! My name is Cynthia Barboza and I’m spending my internship this summer in Howell Michigan at Camp Tall Tree. I’m only going to spend a week here so this will be my first and last post.Camp Tall Tree is an overnight camp for children with autism. I’m an intern and a camp counselor here and will be staying in one of the cabins with a couple other counselors helping out.

Friday/Saturday- On both Friday and Saturday the staff meet and settled in. We spent the majority of those two days training and preparing to work with children and teenagers who are not neurotypical.We spent time working at different stations learning techniques to help calm the campers in the likely event that a meltdown would happen. A huge skill that was taught was WAIT (Why Am I Talking). This allows the camper to process the information given to them in order to make the correct decision for them. This may also help you when a camper gets frustrated and the lack of verbal communication helps them calm down. Saturday was the last day with just staff and we had an event called the Meltdown Carnival. The Meltdown Carnival was an educational reenactment of certain situations that we might encounter as the week went on. In real time we would try to help the “campers” having meltdowns and use the tools we learned to calm them down. If a mistake was made it would be discussed and examples of how to solve it would be given. 

Sunday- Sunday was the day that all of the campers would be dropped off and our camp experience would begin.We started off the day with a huge staff meeting, giving us a pep talk and letting us know what to expect on the first day. The four counselors and I began to decorate and revamp our cabin. Our camp cabins name was Dragons and we all gave ourselves creative and funny names for the week. My camp name was Chippy.Once our camp was setup we went outside to excitedly wait for our campers. Our group were girls aged 9-14. My goal for this day was to observe my campers adjusting to a new environment and how they dealt with it and our responses.All of my campers transitioned very smoothly and I luckily had a great group of girls. Apon her arrival we did have a camper who became aggressive and violent towards her peers and parents and sadly we had to send her home. It rained the rest of the day and we spent it indoors getting to know our group of girls.

Monday-Monday was a very interesting day for us Dragon Councilors.We had gone outside very late in the night to have a councilor debrief. One councilor had opened the door to check on the campers and unfortunately smelled feces while entering the cabin. We had a non- verbal camper accidentally go 1 and 2 on her bed and we quickly showered her off and threw the mattress outside. Although this type of situation wasn’t something I was expecting while attending this internship this was definitely an experience I’ll never forget.For the majority of the week I was unofficially assigned to help one of our girls who couldn’t dress herself and was non- verbal. One of my main tasks of the week was to communicate with her and make sure all her needs were met. The rest of the day had gone much smoother, we watched a movie and went to the lake afterwards.

Tuesday/ Wednesday-Tuesday was perfect weather to do the activity’s that were scheduled. First we went to archery and the girls did amazing. Working with children on the spectrum I had realized that using visuals when switching activities is a very affective way of letting the campers know what’s going on next and helping them completely understand.Repetition is also a very key tool to use. A lot of the time I had the girls ask me about ten times a day what the schedule looked like and around what time was a certain task going to happen  and if they could see it with there own eyes.Repeating over and over again ultimately soothed there anxieties and made switching activities a lot calmer.Wednesday we had done tie dye, fishing and gone to see the animal rescue center called Wild Wonders. Of course like any other child some girls enjoyed certain tasks more than others but the real challenge was trying to get them excited and to try to get them to calm down when there was an activity they didn’t enjoy as much. 

Thursday/ Friday-Thursday was a jam packed filled day we started off with Rock climbing and friendship bracelet making. Originally friendship bracelets were not on the table but when we realized that half of the girls didn’t want to do rock climbing we had thread on us and we got to it. They had a great time and eventually almost all of them decided to try climbing the wall. Thursday was our last full day together and being together 24/7 made the friendships between the girls so strong. Every event done,there was a small group of cheerleaders helping there friends achieve tasks that weren’t so easy for every camper. Friday was the last day the campers were going to be at camp. We had helped them gather there things and get home safely.

I would love to take a second to thank all of the Camp Tall Tree staff and there amazing help they had given me along the way. Especially Dust Bunny my camp leader who took care of the day two with kids situation.I would also love to thank Sarah Holbrooke and pinhead staff for giving me this incredible opportunity. I couldn’t have done this without you guys and thanks to you all this experience has confirmed my career choice of going into child psychology.This was a life changing experience that I’ll never forget.