Scotty Jackson serves as the Executive Director for Camp Seymour and Camp Lake Helena. He shares his thoughts on the importance of showing up for our community in difficult times.
Showing up.
Life is not about the number of times we get knocked down, but the number of times we get back up (not sure who I’m quoting there. Smashmouth?) The last two years were harder than we could have possibly imagined. Furloughs, pivots, ten versions of backup plans, quarantines, and cleaning ourselves and everything we touched, hit us like a ton of bricks. We were getting knocked down daily. It was harder and harder to go down to my empty office and “show up” to work.
By showing up, I don’t mean just being there, answering calls, and knocking off some items on my to-do list (which was evolving daily, too), but be present, listen to what folks are going through and try to help and make life better, for others.
Family camp, in 2020, was a way to show up. Families needed to get out of their homes, do something positive, and have some fun together. Even the opportunities to interact with our staff were valuable, as folks hadn’t had adult conversations and kids had very little contact with positive adults outside of their families. They rode the ziplines, paddle canoes, shot arrows, and just enjoyed beautiful sunsets over the cove, together. It was a way to feel normal for a couple of days.
Day Camp at Camp Lake Helena was a way for us to show up. At that point in time, it was mostly children of essential workers and the folks that needed to report to work in person but were desperately in need of care for their kids that came to camp. Our day camp team created magical moments that helped kids get through the trauma they were all experiencing from disrupted lives. They could run, play, and occasionally even take a mask off to jump in the lake and be a kid.
Seymour Scholars was a way to show up. Peninsula School District needed us. The kids needed us. These were kids falling through the cracks, with bad or no internet at home, absent parents that needed to return to work, or questionable housing situations. We showed up with caring staff that wanted to help, warm meals, transportation to help get them here, and just providing a safe place where they could feel like they belong.
Opening our doors to Y-members in the fall was showing up. We gave them a chance to get outside and get some exercise, do something positive with the family and just have some fun outdoors.
We showed up for Summer 2021 as we brought modified overnight camp back to Camp Seymour. We were packed at the new modified numbers and you could feel how much kids needed to be together and outdoors. An amazing team put the kids' needs ahead of their own and gave 110% to ensure every child got the attention they desperately needed and were given opportunities to try new things, meet new people, and learn to be kind to everyone, as you never know what they are going through.
We showed up for schools and client groups as Outdoor Environmental Education and Groups services returned to camp. Our dedicated naturalist team showed up for Tacoma School District when they needed us to support the ELO programs by helping to run after-school programming, all in an effort to help schools provide the essential social-emotional healing that the kids all needed.
We show up behind the scenes for all of these programs, learning to navigate new systems, work with new staff, care for our facilities, and work with our volunteers.
Sometimes we are rewarded for showing up. We work extremely hard for something as simple as a comment from a teacher or a camper, a kind word from a school administrator or a foster mom, parents that thank us for making scholarship happen, or even a staff member that appreciates our efforts to keep them working and making an impact.
Sometimes there is no reward for showing up. We’re just doing it because it’s what we do. We’re people of character, that care about others and our communities and have solid work ethics, and honestly, just don’t know how to do it without a ton of heart.
We can take some pride that years from now, folks will look back at COVID and remember that the folks at the Y showed up for our community because it’s what we do.