First Impressions
by Antonia Betaudier - Bank of America Student Leader    

       It’s 9am and the sixth graders have just finished their morning warm-up. Ms. Mitchell will inevitably ask the campers, as she does everyday, what they did yesterday to show caring. Caring was one of last week’s character traits, however, Ms. Mitchell thinks it important to concentrate on this particular lesson.

       “Always do unto others as you would have them do unto you,” she says, “It’s the Golden Rule.”

       Walk into any one of the classrooms and you will see the Golden Rule put into action. The campers’ good Samaritanism can be rewarded in the form of WAVE tickets given to kids who got caught doing something good. After collecting WAVE tickets throughout the week, campers can either redeem the tickets for prizes at the WAVE store or save collected tickets for the next week to earn bigger prizes. This is the My Place bartering system where the little acts of kindness can add up into physical rewards.

       Beyond just providing campers with the academic and the financial tools to succeed, though, the host of teachers, coaches, and volunteers working at My Place will agree that the best parts about camp are the intangibles- the “Good Morning, Ms. Antonia” that you didn’t know that you desperately needed; the sound of carefree feet hitting the pavement while playing double-dutch; the puzzled look a 3^rd grader will give you when you try to explain that there’s a completely different world out there with different customs, languages, colors, tastes and sounds; the way that same child’s eyes enlarge when you tell them that this world is waiting for them to conquer it.

       For 8 weeks, My Place camp belongs to the campers. It is truly their place where the circumstances and the complications of the outside world stop and the kids are allowed to just be kids.