Today was a long, but great first day! We woke up bright and early with good spirits and smiles on our faces! We loaded into two buses and headed off to UTech! We quickly got all of our venues set up and camper bags ready and anxiously awaited the campers! Once the first bus arrived we lined up to greet them with our JASY Hand Bridge (see below)!
We had a great time welcoming the campers and getting all of the deserving children ready for a great week! Soon it was time for camp to begin! As we said our JASY Camp Cheer you could feel the excitement of the volunteers and the campers. Once we had finished we sent campers and volunteers off to Swimming, Olympic Village, Caribbean Games, and Football.
After three different periods we stopped for a great lunch! It was nice to break bread with our fellow brothers and sisters of Jamaica. Smiles ranged through the crowd as many of the campers enjoyed a healthy and nutritious meal! After one more period of fun and laughter we started our big Opening Ceremonies Production! Many members of the community, like Father Grenier, joined us to kick off JASY camp, which meant a lot to both campers and volunteers. Kind words were spoken and a marching band got the campers out of their seats and parading around our facilities. Many of us said afterwards that this was the best start to camp we had ever had!
Robert Glenning talked to us a little bit about his first day of JASY Camp! “It is so much more fun than I thought it would be going into this mission trip. The joy of seeing someone’s face light up as you offer them opportunities that they don’t normally have access to is second to none. It is absolutely amazing here!”
We also caught up with Kim Gibson and spoke with her about her first day at camp. “It was interesting to see what teenagers in Jamaica were like, as well as what JASY camp was like. The girls who I lead were intermingling within minutes of arriving at JASY camp. Many of which had never met each other before. If you were to have this in America, it would take days for teenagers to reach this level of comfort with each other and make these kinds of bonds! This experience is unlike any other.”
We are all so excited to be with these campers for a whole week and can’t wait to share what happens tomorrow!