More than the sum of our parts

Though I may be stating the obvious, the camp staff was always greater than the sum of its parts. As a camper, your view of the staff was myopic at best. You knew your counsellor, and the counsellor in your buddy cabin. You knew the counsellors that were in charge of the departments, and if you were lucky you could remember their names after a day or two.

As I grew older, I became more aware of the staff, and the administration, but it really did not become clear to me what a wonderful collection of people it took to make Fort Scott run, until I became a staff member. I really cannot count being a CIT. Although it was a job, and we did have assignments, it was still pretty much like being a camper.

As I spent more time on the staff, I also realized that certain persons within the staff shaped who we were, and gave the staff its own personality. I am talking about people like Tom Beiting, well really, the whole Beiting family. And there was Steve Sincheck, and of course Cathy. Who could forget the trio of Dale Siegal, Mike Strong and Bob Hunnenfeld (spelling?). Those three spent many afternoons teaching me lessons in humilty on the volleyball court. There are dozens of others, but the person that I wanted to talk about today was John Farmer.

I will come right out and say that I admired John Farmer a great deal. He was one of those people that never seemed seemed to get rattled or flustered, and we all know that there were plenty of things that could do that for you at camp. John always seemed to have a kind word for any kid, and his smile would cheer you up, even on a pretty lousy day. He was just an all around nice guy.

Two things that really stick out in my mind about John but were very telling. I think it was during staff orientation, and we had broken up into small groups and were filling out surveys. We were asked questions about our favorite place to go on vacation, favorite food, etc. Then we were asked about our favorite book. I only remember one answer, and it was John's. He said his was the Bible. I think that gave real insight into what made John what he was.

The second incident was on cabin walk. As I recall, and as was usual, the first night there was always one really rowdy cabin. The common response among the less experienced counsellors was to kick the door in and try to intimidate a some order into the campers. And we had tried that a couple of times. On the third time, John told us to just stay put and he walked down and talked to the kids. It worked. He didnt raise his voice, didnt kick the door, he was just John.

I think we all could take a lesson from that, and be a little kinder to each other.

Bob