It's On Like Donkey Kong

Memorial Day weekend always is the beginning of the end for the PMOEC spring season. The Adirondack Scholarship group comes to Pok-O over the weekend and hosts a fundraiser that jointly benefits summer camp and the outdoor ed center. Its a great gathering of the old camp family and the new PMOEC crew and, collectively, we all look forward to the future vision for Pok-O. This year was a record setting year with the group bringing in over $9000 for the beneficiaries. Thank you to all of the volunteers and organizers of this wonderful event. PMOEC came back to work the Monday of the holiday weekend and spent the day learning about the local history of the Champlain Valley through the historical reenactments at Fort Ticonderoga. As people who do our fair share of reenactments ourselves, it was a great learning experience for our staff. And now, the final push is underway. We have a long-standing client from Canada onsite right now and will have groups here every day through Friday the 8th. Yesterday I celebrated my 37th birthday with pigpen construction, hiking and an Underground Railroad simulation. If you have to work a 13 hour workday on your birthday, you couldn't ask for more. Next week will be our busiest of the spring so I'm not sure I'll have time to post. I'm sure all of you will be hungry for more PMOEC lore, so I'll try and make time. Until then...

Eye of the Storm

There is an eerie calm at Pok-O these days. Only 15 kids are onsite right now and a day group with a great history with us will be arriving later this morning. The staff has hit their stride for the spring and the weather has done nothing but agree with us for the past few days. As I write this, I worry that I am jinxing it and the skies will part, dumping thunder and lightning and buckets of rain on us as a penalty for my comfort. Nonetheless, the grass is on its spring schedule, we are out of work project days, the kitchen has been moved form the Pok-O Queen to Robinson Hall in lower camp and we are focusing solely on groups, groups, groups- with the exception of next week's SEAD day which will be recounted with humorous detail in next week's blog post. I am feeling an little underwhelmed with myself as I look at the small amount of space filled of this available block, but no news is no news. Until next week...

It Continues to Spring (or Sprung?)

Thunderstorms came. Yesterday, another notch on the post of "what defines spring" was violently slashed as lightning dotted the turbulent skies in the middle of the afternoon. As we began our afternoon activities, we heard the first rumblings and quickly acted switching one group's class and altering three others. Of course, this is not a unique situation (have you ever been in the North Country in May?) and being prepared for severe weather is part of our M.O. But, just like the first two-inch snowfall in November gets everyone anxious enough to go out and buy-up all the milk and bread in the North Country, the first spring storm literally gets my hair on end. By the end of the afternoon, the clouds had parted and the sun began to quickly dry out the fields. BY early-evening the immediate forecast looked solid and we were able to get the students up Bare Mountain to watch another beautiful sunset. Last Saturday we had the second annual yard sale and it was a great success. THe weather was amazing and the signs that Abby created were noticeable and persuasive. All day long we had a steady stream of customers; true yard salers looking for the ultimate deal mixed with locals just out on a beautiful day. Also on Saturday we welcomed two new interns, Molly and Daniel. We have expanded the internship program for the first time in a while and are happy to welcome Molly back into the Pok-O family and welcome Daniel for the first time. They have already made contributions and will be a valuable resource for the rest of the month. Enjoy the warm temperatures and we'll talk next week. Until then...

YARD SALE!!!!

Its our last week of work project days for the spring season. Starting Monday we have day and overnight groups every weekday for the remainder of the season- and some weekends! But this week, we are focusing on animals and cleaning and preparing for the rest of the season. There are a couple of notable occurrences that you should know about if you want to keep up on those happenings that truly give you an eye into that which is PMOEC. First, today a handful of Instructors went to Seton Academy to recreate some of the programming that they had originally designed for the "Shine On!" Conference in Plattsburgh in late April. Although our mission creates a vision of our center being rooted in the outdoors, our ability to talk to students and reach then through debrief sessions crosses all kinds of borders. Thus, the staff members went to Seton to perform some skits pertaining to topics that encompass the struggles of being a twee-aged student. Tomorrow, we will once again take our show on the road- this time to Corinth New York. A long time supporter of PMOEC is a teacher at the High School in Corinth and whenever the students need to build teambuilding skills, we are called into service. Lastly, on Saturday we have our second annual yard sale. I just unloaded the most recent carload of goods donated for this wonderful event and you have to come over to see what we've got. Until then...

Nature- It's All Around Me

This past week was our busiest of the early season at PMOEC and, thus, I was able to spend more time with kids then I normally do. While the kids were the focus, there was no denying the beauty of spring creeping into our acreage. Walking up to the sensory course, the students and I marveled at the multitude of deer tracks along the side of Reber Rd. We talked about the way to identify these distinctive prints and the kids found more and more. In the forest we saw evidence of over-zealous plants. It was clear that some of the trillium had come up in the week of 80-degree temperatures early in March only to be thwarted by the nights of snow and frost that followed. Other, more shy plants that hadn't been comfortable enough to show their leaves at the first sign of warm temperatures are now standing proud and true. I spotted my first fiddleheads and learned that the translation to French is nearly direct, where they call them violin heads. This of course was an 'aha moment' for me, realizing that the word fiddle refers to the instrument, not the action that it appears the plant is performing as it unfurls upward. Red Efts are everywhere, derailing all of our class introductions because nothing is more interesting than a bright orange salamander walking across a dark asphalt road. This week we have another wonderful group down from Canada and are continuing to watch the leaves on the trees thicken the forest, changing the look of all of our picturesque views at PMOEC. Don't forget that on Saturday the 12th we are going to have our second annual PMOEC Yard Sale. We have a plethora of items; from housewares to clothes to sporting goods to I don't know what. All proceeds will help to ensure that we are able to continue to share wonderful spring moments with groups for years to come. Until next week...