Letters To FLC . . . to the Lions
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Letters To FLC . . . to the Lions |
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More Letters to FLC:
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Dear Lions of
Florida,
My name is Rafal Skarbon. Since I am fully aware that some
of you may not know me, let me introduce myself. I came to your camp for the
first time in summer 2000 as a Camp USA counselor. Back in Poland, where I
come from, I am a full time student majoring in cultural & linguistic
studies with elements of business & law. Having had enjoyed my summer at FLC
in 2000 great deal, I was offered a year-round program staff position. I
accepted it not without hesitation, back in my country I still had two more
years of studies left to get my M.A. degree, back in Poland I also had
everybody I cared about and everybody I loved. Yet I decided to take this
opportunity, and yes - I am glad I did.
That was a year ago. Now
as the fall comes near I am getting ready for my return home. I have nearly
completed my 12-month YMCA internship that enabled me to stay here, and as
it is time to go home, I would like to share a few things with you, Lions of
Florida.
Throughout this past year I have had a chance to work on
numerous projects at your camp. I helped with the big fundraiser we had last
fall, the Haunted Trail that proved to be an enormous success.
Unfortunately, I will not
be there
this year.
End of November brought the first session of the much-looked-for Christmas
Camp attended by many of our summer campers as well as few new ones. It is
absolutely impossible to explain in words the Christmas atmosphere your
staff created for their campers as well as the fun & excitement that came
with Christmas baking, singing carols in our Chapel or Christmas shopping at
Downtown Disney. For those staff members from oversees who were unable to go
home for Christmas it was - although a substitute - a really good one
indeed. Early in the spring, along with Lion Joe Ayers I coordinated our
annual Walk-A-Thon, then helped another staff member, Jason, to make our
Golf Tournament a fantastic one. Meanwhile, I got a chance to visit several
Lions clubs on behalf of the camp, attend a few Lions conferences as well as
go to non-Lion organizations to spread the word about camp in order to reach
out to new campers as well as obtain much needed funds & support.
I also did my very best in creating, developing and
maintaining your camp's web site, which I'd love you to visit in case you
have not recently. It is nothing compared to actual visiting your camp, but
I hope it gives you an idea & perhaps one day every single Lion of Florida
will visit their camp anyway. On our web site you - and our campers, staff,
friends & the public - can find a lot of useful information on camp as well
as Lions, there you can also shop in our Trading Post on-line, etc.
Along with this project came editing this very Camp Trails, the weekly newsletters all parents received at the end of each camping
session, as well as creating the PR promotional packages we use when dealing
with businesses.
General camp
maintenance has been another big time-consuming issue. We all have spent
numerous days making sure our 27-year old camp looked its best, current
repairs were taken care of, tons (no kidding, tons!) of leaves raked and
acres of grass regularly mowed. I can only assure you that every singe
member of staff has put at least as much effort & hard work into your camp
as I have, and that the year-round positions we have are hardly sufficient
if we want to further develop our programming, continue to be the best &
renew our ACA accreditation in 2004 with the perfect score again (last
August we received the hard-to-get 100% from the American Camping
Association).
This just past summer I had a privilege of
being the Aquatics Director & High Ropes Supervisor at your camp; this being
privilege not so much because of this proud title that comes with it, but
the opportunity to safely enable our special campers to participate in
activities they very often cannot participate in
anywhere else.
However, nothing of it would have been
possible without the help, support & supervision I received from the Camp
Administrator, Barb Cage. What she provides not only for our campers but
also her staff is beyond imagination, no wonder then, she is – in my opinion
– constantly under appreciated.
Thank you to all the Lions who - though
having very tight schedules – found time & means to support their own camp.
The only business they own in Florida, and what a great one, too.
Thank you &
goodbye.
-Rafal- |
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Florida Lions Camp 2819 Tiger Lake Road Lake Wales, FL 33898
863-696-1948
website managed by Kristen Frontera KFrontera@gmail.com |
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