During the First World War, over twenty young men from St. Anthony Idaho died on a single day. Each year the Camp Loll Staff stops at their memorial to pay our respects and to consider how we might best reverence their sacrifice, and that of many heroes.
Our cargo van went down to the axle in the mud just as we started up the Calf Creek. We started digging and unloading the U-Haul.
Everything had to be carried up the hill by hand, or stashed in the trees.
Bill and Marty were on hand to haul the big stuff in Bill's truck.
With Bill's help we pulled the truck out of the hole. We filled in the hole and got all the load to the top of the hill. The last of the crew was in Camp by 6:00; dinner was waiting.
The weekend was filled with hooking up systems and oreinting the staff. It was Monday before we got back to the road. We found it in very ruff shape. We decided we had better see if we could fix it. It looked like too big a job.
The deep ruts seemed to run on forever.
However, our crew got right to work.
The road base was hard, and the shovels limited.
We moved off our road down onto the Grassy Lake road. We are not the only ones making a mess down here. We set to making it right.
Paul Parker, Camp Loll Staff Advisor, lent a hand here, as he does with all we do.
I call Quinn The Finisher.
We worked back about a mile down the road - to the last big mess east of Calf Creek.
No doubt the road will need a lot more work before the summer is over, but we now know we can do it.
Back to the memorial in St. Anthony. When faced with difficult tasks, all one need do is think back on the sacrifice of those who have gone before and know that we are capable of dealing with hard things, for our own success and in the service of others.
You know, sometimes while you are doing jobs like this, one might be tempted to think, I wish this were easier, and I wish this were done.
ReplyDeleteOne of the amazing things about camp is that the harder you have to work together, the dirtier, tireder, sorer you get with one another working towards that common cause, the greater the unity of the staff and the more wonderful the summer.
I envy your staff this year, it looks like it will be wonderful. One of my favorite quotes from a movie (slightly modified to fit), is this, when told that what they are doing is hard the main character responds, "Of course its hard, its supposed to be hard, if it wasn't hard, everyone would do it."
I'll never forget the amazing years I spent doing it, and still to this day wish the 'real world' took the summer off for the actual important things, like Scout Camp.
Dan,
ReplyDeleteThank you for your comment. I will share it with the crew at dinner tonight.