CCPS’s Humble Warriors

Last week, we kicked off the summer in the best way possible – with Carroll County Public School’s Humble Warriors Camp. This camp for fifteen rising 6th grade girls was led by the amazing Stephanie Dale. Earlier this year, each of CCPS’s Title I school principals and guidance counselors hand-selected 5 girls whose natural strengths would be augmented by an empowering camp experience. After meeting together over zoom for the month prior to camp, everyone finally was face-to-face last Monday morning at ThorpeWood’s Homestead Barn.

The week took everyone through a variety of themes: ‘worry & anxiety,’ ‘acceptance,’ ‘be, do, have’, ‘strength,’ and ‘gratitude.’ Each day’s yoga session, led by Missy Shock of Rapha Holistic Wellness, was anchored in the day’s theme and acted as a prelude to the activities to come. The week spanned so many wonderful moments and activities – here are just some of the highlights, categorized by the days’ themes.

Day 1: Worry and Anxiety

After reading our farm story, The Worry Stone (check it out here), the girls took a hike down our Coffee Hollow trail to a great section of Bussard Branch. Here, they hunted for their perfect worry stone. After taking time to play and explore in the stream, we all hiked back and the girls spent the afternoon painting their worry stones. Some of these painted rocks were hidden around the property for future visitors to find. Others were kept as worry stones – something you can keep in your pocket to hold and rub when anxiety sets in.

Day 2: Acceptance

This rainy day centered around accepting yourself for who you are. The complicated emotions and thoughts that go along with this topic could be sorted out by journaling, so the girls set to work making their own personalized journals. These became beautiful art projects covered in photos of themselves, their families, and their pets. The girls were so comfortable sprawled out on their yoga mats in the homestead barn. It was a joy to see this space become their home.

Day 3: Be, Do, Have

Day three was all about setting goals. Who do you want to BE? What do you want to DO? And what do you want to HAVE? The ladies constructed vision boards to answer these questions with cut-out images from magazines. The overwhelming number of folks who wanted to be teachers speaks well of Stephanie Dale, their teacher for the week! This forward-thinking day also included a visit from Bill Eckles, CCPS’s Supervisor of Career and Technical Education, who gave a talk in our Pine Cathedral.

Day 4: Strength

On their second to last day, the girls explored strength. Part of this day was to meet some strong animals – our horses! The girls engaged in some art therapy by painting the horses. Using both paintbrushes and their bare hands, they decorated our animals beautifully. Everyone was so delighted to connect with our animals and work as a team to make some beautiful living art!

Day 5: Gratitude

The final day of camp was all about looking around you, being grateful for what you have. As part of this day, the girls had some options. Either they could go for a hike to the stream to take in and enjoy the natural setting in a hands-on way, or head over to the pond to document the surrounding beauty on canvas. Both groups had such fun enjoying each other and our farm on their final day of camp.

We are so grateful to have hosted and helped out with this camp experience for these amazing girls! We expect to make this a yearly tradition in partnership with Stephanie Dale of CCPS.