Árdís - 01.01.1954, Side 48

46
ÁRDÍS
What Camp Means To Me
Delivered. at the Convention of the Lutheran Women’s League
At Selkirk, Manitoba, May 29th, 1954.
By JOAN ERICKSON
Madame Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen:
I take a great deal of pleasure in having been given the oppor-
tunity to attend your session tonight and thank you for the kind
invitation to speak to you on the subject, “What my trips to Sunrise
Camp have done for me.” This is a rare privilege as I am one of the
more fortunate campers who has attended our camp both as a
camper and a leader. Throughout all my stay there were countless
ways in which the camp helped me.
Many of you here tonight are from the original group of
founders. You witnessed the growth of the camp from its original
idea to its present state of completion. You must have a wonderful
feeling of accomplishment. You have so much of which you can be
proud. In my short address tonight, I will endeavor to give you
a picture of what your accomplishments and endeavors have meant
to me and many others during these past few years.
Camp life is a means of moulding character, of bettering and
improving it. Each one of us, as we journey on through the difficult
days of adolescence, have many little faults which require correc-
tion in order to ensure a happy and secure life, not only during our
stay at camp but in our every-day living.
Two of our most common faults are selfishness and the impulse
to disobey. There are others, but I feel that these are the most
common and the ones we must correct first. When these are cor-
rected any other adjustments become almost automatic. To be a
success at camp, each of us must learn to overcome these traits as
soon as possible. The days can be very long and very lonely. There
are many campers usually, and what would the situation be if each
one had to be first all the time and everyone refused to follow and
obey the leaders.
We campers were taught responsibility and given small duties
to fulfil such as caring for our clothes, seeing that they were hung