Embedded Files
Me during my first year of Camp outside the youngest bunk on the Gold Side.
Katie, who has been working full time at Camp Onas since 2021, was a camper at Camp Onas for seven summers. Something you might not know about her is that she exclusively attended Fourth Session for those seven years.
Any Senior Staff member could tell you about the flavors of the sessions at Camp Onas - each session has its own distinct personality. When campers come to First Session, they are fresh from school and they are used to the rule following, structure, and order that comes from being at school. Counselors are brimming with excitement and new ideas for activities, pitches, and Theme Weekend. Second and Third Session, counselors have found their groove and the summer hums along.
Second and Third Session never stood out to me, so I was surprised to learn - when I returned to work at Onas full-time - that the most popular sessions are Second and Third. It seems families prefer the way the mid-summer sessions fit into the cadence of their summer plans.
I was a Fourth Session Camper for seven years. Thanks to my June birthday, I was allowed an extra year of Camp at the age of a freshly turned 14. When I came back as a summer staff member, I worked Second Half, so my Fourth Session streak continued.
I loved being a Fourth Session camper. To me, it was the BEST session. You got to hear about all the Theme Weekends, counselors were seasoned holding their roles all summer, and looking to make everything a bit more fun and interesting the fourth time around.
My bunk my second to last year of Camp.
It became the rhythm of my summer, and a way to end the summer on an incredible high note. My mom would notice the confidence that I returned home with, teeming with stories, new friendships, new songs, and more. I liked thinking of it as the big finale of my summer - I liked having a summer full of experiences. By going to Onas at the end of the summer, I could also attend a day camp in my area that ran from June to July, and then close out the summer in the best way I could imagine.
Another part of why I liked Fourth Session was that I liked that my session was the last session of the summer. I liked being part of wrapping Camp Onas up for the summer – the closing campfire wasn’t just for Fourth Session, it was for all of Camp. I got to hear about everything that had already happened earlier in the summer - all the Theme Weekends, Theme Days, my counselors mentioning things that had happened earlier in the summer. I liked not leaving and having the fun continue without me – I guess it was FOMO (fear of missing out) although I wasn’t familiar with that term as a child.
Fourth Session also usually overlaps with the Perseid Meteor Shower. I saw my first shooting stars at Camp Onas, and it’s the only place that I’ve seen them. Last summer, I came back to Camp for a week of Fourth Session. I came to help close out the projects that Morgan (Intern) and George (Videographer) were working on. This was special, because of my lifelong connection to Fourth session, and how it felt to be at Onas during my favorite part of the summer. I saw outside on the hill between the Barn and Texas and watched the meteor shower, and I was thinking about how I had been seeing shooting stars at Camp Onas for nearly twenty years!
This was my CIT year and I was the one in the foil for this Star Wars sketch on the dining hall roof.
At camp during Fourth Session visitor Meeting for Worship in 2024
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