AJ stands for Andrew Jackson, our 7th president. His reputation for toughness earned him the nickname "Old Hickory." A hero of the War of 1812, Jackson has appeared on the $20 bill since 1928.

"I thought summer camp was pure fiction."
—CarterI was first introduced to summer camp through books and movies. I thought summer camp was pure fiction and a place that one went to in their imagination. I was wrong! I Was Wrong!



Last summer I went to a summer camp for the first time. It was an amazing experience for me. I met many new friends and also got to hang out with some of my classmates who went to the camp with me.

We did a lot of fun activities. Camp was, by far, the best week of my summer last year and as soon as it was over, I was ready to sign up for next year.
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Camp Gray

I first heard of Camp Gray from my friend who had been going there since he was very young. He goes every year with his cousin. Last year he invited some kids from our class to go with him.

When he invited me, I started to look at the camp on its Web site. It looked like fun! The comments were all positive about the camp. Positive Comments

One previous camper said he enjoyed his time and would be back again the next year. Another mentioned that all the campers were well cared for.    Close

I signed up online and looked forward to my week of camp, even though I was worried about being homesick.

Homesick? Not!Homesick? Not!

I hadn’t considered going to camp before, because I was worried about homesickness.

As I arrived at camp, I was nervous and had second thoughts about going: What if I didn’t make new friends?

What if I didn’t like my counselor?CloseOnce at camp, I never thought about homesickness again. I was busy with plenty of activities and loved my counselor. In a way, I had a family at the camp with the counselors, my cabin mates, and everyone else.

The counselors cared for me very much and made sure that I was having the most fun that I could at camp. For instance, my counselor would participate in a lot of my activities and laugh and tell us funny jokes.

I also wrote letters about camp to my family. My letters were always lengthy, as I had much to tell. 

Each day is a new adventure

Although we followed the same routine, each day at camp was packed with fun activities. We had ample free time, too.

On the first day of camp each camper picked two special activities to do daily.

Pick two!Pick Two

We picked two from a list of special activities that included:

• Canoeing
• Fishing
• Swimming
• Mountain biking
• Tower climbing

I chose fishing and mountain biking.

Each camper who chose fishing had a fishing pole and independently fished from shore. The fish were very active and I caught my fill. We practiced catch and release principals, so the next week’s campers could enjoy the fish too.

The mountain bikers went down the camp’s many bike paths. The terrain varied and went through rocks, mud, sand, and a ravine. Our group even took turns biking off jumps.
CloseHere was my camp schedule:

• 8:00 a.m. breakfast and cabin clean up
• 9:45 program areas and free time
• 12:30 p.m. lunch and siesta
• 2:15 swim, cabin timeCabin Time
  
  During cabin time, each cabin participated in an activity with their cabin mates. Two fun activities our cabin enjoyed were dodgeball and touch football. Close, choice timeChoice Time
  
  At choice time the counselors offer activities that campers can participate in—usually about five choices.
  
  The activities were similar to activities that we did during cabin time. For instance, we could play wall ball and many other gym activities like dodgeball and backetball.Close, and free timeFree Time
  
  During free time, each camper had the option of joining a giant “lightning” line at the basketball court or playing soccer, Frisbee, or hopscotch.
  
  We could also go to the camp store and buy a souvenir or play in the camp sandbox.Close
• 6:00 supper, evening program, and bedtime routine

We also got a lot of choices during the evening program, that also turned out to be a really great time...

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