Teen helps with special programs at Camp Geneva

Sat, Jul 4, 2009    to del.icio.us

PARK TOWNSHIP — For the 14th year in a row, Amanda Meyer is spending a part of her summer on the grounds of Camp Geneva.

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From singing "Pharaoh Pharaoh" in Day Camp to flying off the "blob" as a Pines Camper, the 18-year-old Grand Haven resident has been a part of every program the camp offers.

"I've always really wanted to be on staff," Meyer said. "The atmosphere here is a big part because it sets this place apart. There are people here that really love God and they want to love on everyone else, too."

Meyer graduated from Grand Haven High School in 2008. She will be a sophomore at the University of Michigan in the fall.

Her mother, Karen Meehleder, was not surprised that Amanda was offered a job at the camp.

"She's been at Geneva every year since she was just a little squirt — that's just a part of who she is," Meehleder said. "I was really excited for her when she told me she got the job and I knew that she was going to do really well."

This summer, Meyer is working with kids going into grades 3-6 on the Shores side of Geneva's campsite. However, the past two weeks have been anything but a normal camp schedule for Meyer.

In response to the significant population of migrant children in the Holland area and the increasing number of children involved in the Spanish Immersion programs in Holland-area schools, Geneva's Day Camp coincided with Zeeland Christian's Spanish Immersion program, "El Puente." Meyer worked as a Day Camp counselor for the second week of campers, speaking solely in Spanish.

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"It was difficult because we had two kids who were entirely fluent in Spanish, and they came from migrant families," said Meyer, who is an international studies and Spanish major at U-M. "However, they were the ones that would always speak in English and we had to keep asking them to speak in Spanish. It was hard, but very rewarding."

Meyer and two other Camp Geneva staff members worked with 20 Spanish Immersion campers.

"At the end of the week, when we asked who we thought learned more Spanish — the counselor or the camper — all the counselors said that they did for sure," Meyer said. "It was just really beneficial to sit back and listen to the Bible stories being taught in Spanish and see the kids' reactions."

Meyer's third week as a counselor was not any easier. Camp Rainbow is a week of camp for children ages 9-11 from economically disadvantaged homes in West Michigan. The counselor ratios are lowered so each child has focused attention from a positive adult role model. The campers attend at no cost.

Meyer and another staff member spent their week in a cabin with six girl campers.

"We had a couple of criers in our midst, but I don't think we could have gotten any luckier in our cabin," she said. "They were a lot of fun to be around."

Meyer does all that she can to make every activity exciting for the campers — even when it's jumping into Lake Michigan at 7:30 a.m. for "polar-bearing."

"Because the water was so cold on Tuesday, we went 'shower-bearing' — which was pleasant," Meyer said. "On Wednesday though, we had all of our girls go into the lake. It was pretty refreshing, to say the least."

While campers take home a camp T-shirt and Bible studies, the counselors get to take something back with them as well.

"I think that we are always getting more out of this program than the campers because they are constantly teaching us things in the smallest of ways," Meyer said. "I come into each week knowing that campers are going to teach me just as much, if not more, than what I could ever help them with."

Although Meyer's mother said it was harder sending her daughter to college than sending her off to camp, she doesn't deny that she misses Amanda.

"It'd be fun to have her home and I do miss her a lot, but I'm happier for her that she is there because that is where her heart is and that is where she wants to be," Meehleder said.

With only six weeks of camp remaining, Meyer is hoping to make the most of every moment she has left there.

"I've always only stayed two weeks, so being here all the time is really cool because it is that loving atmosphere all the time — and I just feel so at home," she said. "It's going to stink going home at the end of the summer."