Life is full of surprises, as campers at the South Oakland’s YMCA’s day camp discovered last week. As part of their opening week theme, “The Great Wide Open,” Discovery campers (ages 5-6) wrote notes about camp, attached them to balloons, and let the balloons float away to “great wide open” spaces unknown. Each note had the Y address with a request for anyone who found the notes to write back, and the children speculated about where their messages might end up.
They got a big surprise last week, when a letter with a New York City return address arrived at the Y. Inside was a note from a woman who had, on her way to work, seen a balloon sent off by camp counselor Miss Autumn. She stopped, retrieved it, read the note, and wrote back. Her note said:
“Miss Autumn, Found caught on a branch on the way to work in New York City. Hope all the kids have a good time at camp.”
The kids were thrilled to get a note back, and were even more surprised when they saw how far away New York is from Michigan.
Campers got to learn about geography, communication, and maybe even most importantly, that life is full of good people and wonderful surprises.
