Camp Hero: Day 5

Today was the last day of Camp Hero. Even though we're sad, we are so glad to have made so many awesome new friends!

We started off the day by challenging ourselves to some relays, and then seeing if we could beat our stats from Monday. Everyone was able to do the same or better at the 40 yard dash, the shuttle run, and the vertical jump tester.

Monday's Circle-Up

Then, everybody worked together to put together 50 Taking Care of You! Support for Kids of Injured Heroes Kits for military kids who have had a parent return from deployment with a visible or invisible injury. Kids also had the opportunity to talk about what they enjoyed most at Camp Hero, and to play everybody's favorite game of circle catch with the medicine ball.

We had a great lunch of pizza, followed by Trevor Romain talking about things you can do to help others, as well as help yourself. We also learned a little about his own deployment experiences.

Then after some free journaling, everybody got the chance to write nice messages around their friends' pictures, write a note of thanks to a service member, and participate in one last thank you circle.

Because we had a special guest come out to take pictures today, we don't have those for you yet, but we'll get them up on the Picasa site as soon as we can! In the meantime, enjoy these pictures from the rest of the week.

We can't wait for next year's Camp Hero!

- CCMK

Camp Hero: Day 4

The 4th day of Camp Hero was a blast! Today, campers had the opportunity to climb a rock wall that looked short from afar, but very tall from up close...

Campers participated in different kinds of relays (skipping, jumping, chasing medicine balls - oh, my!) and other physical stations such as sandbag slams, step-ups, and ladder-running. Each group went one at a time to the rock wall, and almost all the campers were able to reach the top! As the rock wall fun continued, the groups off the wall made paracord bracelets, participated in the "fall back" exercise, and played charades.

After lunch, the Garrison Commander of Camp Mabry, Major Les Davis, came to talk with the campers about the challenges of reintegration, how they can help their parents, how they can help themselves, and answered some questions. We learned lots of things about what Major Davis experienced during deployment in Afghanistan, including harsh winters, enjoying care packages with handwritten letters, and missing Whataburger.

Campers then had a chance to free journal in their military youth journals created and provided by The Comfort Crew, and then made "vision boards" expressing a goal they had and creating a motivational collage around it.

Tomorrow is the last day of Camp Hero, and we'll be so sad to not see everyone each day! At least we have lots of pictures with which we can remember this great week!

Click here to see photos from Camp Hero

See everybody tomorrow!
- CCMK

Camp Hero: Day 3

Today was the third day of Camp Hero, and if it was hot, we didn't notice today because it was... (drumroll) slip 'n slide day!

Starting with a short warm up, we then broke up into our color teams and rotated through 5 different stations, including the slip 'n slide. A couple campers were hesitant at first, but eventually everyone went through at least once (most much more!), and the counselors even got in on the fun. The other stations were mainly workouts, including keeping a medicine ball from dropping, lunges, sandbag slams, and more, but there was also a station where each camper had to find at least 5 things they had in common with their other teammates.

After lunch, Baker Harrell from ACTIVE Life, a local nonprofit focused on health, nutrition and exercise, came by to help campers make some goals for ways they can inspire their entire family to live a healthier life.

Then we did some free journaling, both writing and drawing, followed by an exercise talking about how you feel in different situations, why, and how you can be comfortable with yourself in different places. After that, we played a game called "Who Am I?" where campers had to guess "who" they were (the name on the post-it on their backs) by asking a limited number of "yes" or "no" questions.

Click here to see photos from Camp Hero

See everybody tomorrow!- CCMK

Camp Hero: Day 2

We're happy to say the heat didn't scare off any campers and we were glad to see everyone's smiling faces again today!

We started off the day with a really fun workout from Jeff and his team at YourTrainer.com. We had some fun "down the line" activities, and then played dodgeball for the chance to crack an egg on Jeff's head (yes, a real one!).

After everybody had cleaned up, we had a special treat when Lene from Whole Kids Adventure Foundation came to give a cooking lesson. Drinking out of the actual coconut is the only way to drink coconut water! We also played word-association scrabble, and worked on social skills while untangling hand knots.

After lunch, we had Alissa Magrum from Colin's Hope, a water safety and drowning prevention organization, come and talk about ways to keep you and your friends safe around water.

In the afternoon, we continued the theme of emotional expression by talking about what different colors and lines can mean in art, and how drawing can be a great way to journal. Kids then drew themselves as superheroes, and then as an animal, really showing off their art skills!

Click here to see photos from Camp Hero

See everybody tomorrow!
- CCMK

Camp Hero: Day 1

Hey everybody!

Today was the first day of Camp Hero (whoop!), and we just wanted to keep you updated on what we were up to! We started the day off with some awesome warm-ups and then tested our physical skills. We'll be re-testing on Friday to see if there have been any improvements.

After that, we had a "human scavenger hunt" to see how much we could learn about our fellow campers. We learned who had never seen snow, who didn't like chocolate, and who spoke a foreign language. We then played a fun game of have you ever (and learned we have a few prank-callers in our midst...)

After lunch, award-winning author and Comfort Crew co-founder Trevor Romain came to talk. He talked about growing up in South Africa, some of the other work he's done, and then talked about journaling and how that can be a powerful tool to help during difficult times.

Click here to check out our photos from the day

See you tomorrow!
- CCMK