It is the final day of English in the Wild Summer Camp and it is time for the closing ceremony. The students file into the pep rally room rather quietly instead of with their usual yells and cheers. The music in the background is strong and triumphant yet the atmosphere is subdued. The campers talk quietly amongst themselves and with the teachers. There is happiness for finishing a job well, but a sadness of seeing the camp classes, English corners, games, and pep rallies come to an end. It is time to say good bye to people who were strangers 2 weeks ago but have now become good friends.
The camp director asks the students to give a class cheer. It takes awhile for the cheers to warm up but finally the room fills with the yells and cheers for each class. Then it is award time—awards for student participating and helping others in the class; awards for the volunteers who recruited the students and who helped all round the camp; and awards for the MVP (Most Valuable Player) for each class.
One of the neat things about this camp is that everyday a video is produced of all the previous day’s activities. Today was no exception. The students cheered as the saw showed portions of the skits, the games, as well as the mascot parade that took place yesterday. One of the most moving times of the ceremony were the pictures from all of the classes put together in a montage while the song Peng You (Chinese for “friend”) was being played.
At camp students earn camp “money” by speaking English. The camp money is then used to buy things from the camp store. The students write their names on the camp money, which is then used for a lucky draw. The most exciting bit was the last item of the draw, which was for an IPod. The tension built up. And, the winner was … Henry!
One more cheer from everybody and the ceremony ended. This year’s camp may be over but there will be another English Essentials Summer Camp next year.
