by Jennifer Zhan, senior editor

None of junior Katie Gray’s campers know her name.

“As counselors, we’re supposed to keep our real names secret,” Gray said. “When I’m at Camp Howdy, I’m not Katie anymore. Everything from my socks to backpack to hat lets you know that I’m Rainbow.”

But before the week-long day camp knew her by this colorful alias, Gray was just another camper. After proving she could navigate trails, tie knots, put up tents, and sing loudly in her sixth grade graduation test and spending a few summers as a staff aide, Gray became a counselor. This year, she was in charge of her own unit of twelve girls.

“So I’m responsible for picking up supplies that a ‘Woodland Fairy’ leaves the kids each day. I help set up camp in the mornings. I’m with my campers during the song circle, on the trails, and at games,” Gray said. “I also take them to the programs, where guest speakers come to teach them how to make crafts or something else to do with the theme that year.”

She said she was surprised by how much she enjoyed spending time with a group of younger kids, although she admitted that the age difference between her and her fourth grade campers did lead to a couple awkward situations.

“There’s this one song that goes, ‘Once a Girl Scout went to camp, she saw a spider in her bed. And she said, ‘You have to go away, my leader said no two bodies in one bed.’ One of my girls asked me, ‘What does that mean? Why not?’” Gray said. “I was just like…well, the leader said so. And then I walked away hurriedly.”

Every year, the activities at the Girl Scout camp help her build courage for different kinds of nerve-racking situations.

“It takes a lot of confidence to sing really loudly on the trails, or to perform in skits in front of everybody in the song circle,” Gray said. “But you find out you’re not going to be looked at strangely, and you’ll have fun if you just let go.”

According to Gray, the tradition that requires the most confidence by far is the annual exchanging of ‘swaps’ at the end of the week.  The ‘special whatchamacallits affectionately pinned somewhere,’ made with anything from shrinky-dinks to laminated paper to beads, typically correlate to the counselor’s nickname.

“You trade with people you don’t know. You just walk up and say, ‘Here, take this.’ And you take theirs and pin it somewhere,” Gray said. “It’s definitely a really direct way to get to know people.”

Several counselors her age are now her close friends, and she expects that won’t change anytime soon.

“Once you graduate high school, you normally come back [the next summer,]” Gray said. “Many of the aides that I had when I was little are our adult leaders now.”

Gray predicts that she will follow in their footsteps in the future.

“It’s hard to explain [why I keep coming back,]” Gray said. “The best way to put it? It’s Camp Howdy.”