A summer of wonder.

Ten campers who had yet to manage a group cooperative effort were functioning well together, Scott was not playing the role of bully; Mike had set aside his pose as group clown; Nell wasn't raising his voice; and Brian ... well, I thought I actually detected a smile on Brian's face. I stood and watched, my mouth agape.

The group had discovered a large patch of ice. They spent more than half an hour sliding, slipping, skidding, stumbling, and smiling. I was reminded one again of the unpredictable nature of Trail Blazers.

I did not apply to Trail Blazer Camps expecting such experiences. I was simply looking to spend my summer in a camp setting. As a child, I had rejected all of my parents' attempts to send me to camp. Over the years, I had even developed a form of prejudice against any camp or camp-related activities. In the spring of 1995, I decided to overcome this prejudice. Trail Blazers, with its outdoor living and focus on nature, seemed like the perfect opportunity. Those ten weeks, however, proved to be a more seminal experience than I could have ever imagined.

That summer I lived in the woods with two other counselors and nine eight-to-ten-year-old boys. Rashid, a nine year old from New Jersey, came to camp in August for the last three-week session of the summer. Rashid lived with his mother and his brothers in a run-down apartment building. At night Rashid's mother would keep him inside because drug dealers inhabited the corridors.

Rashid and I grew up in different places and though I had read the textbook version, I did not really understand his life. Rashid referred to all small, furry woodland creatures as rats - chipmunks, rabbits, mice, and squirrels were all rats. He both despised and feared them. Rashid was afraid of the water. At times, he could be convinced to enter the shallow, roped-off sections of the lake, which he referred to as the swimming pool; the non-roped-off areas were a lake - unpredictable and menacing.

While setting the table in the dining hall, Rashid confused the placement of the silverware - spoons, knives, forks, and napkins would all sit in one pile where the plate belonged. He explained that his family did not have many sit-down dinners, so this routine, which I could have performed with my eyes closed, was confusing to him. Most misunderstandings or difficulties Rashid and I encountered that summer were due to cultural differences. We overcame these differences through a mutual appreciation of and living experience within nature. Meanwhile, he taught me about a way of life, his way of life, that I hadn't known existed.

I, in return, introduced him and the other campers to new concepts, ideas, and traditions. I became an educator, listening and absorbing all I could from my campers and then enriching their lives as much as possible. Through this process, Rashid and I began truly to communicate. I tried to help him understand his frustrations and anger and to develop strategies and alternatives. My most vivid memory of dialogue between Rashid and me was through a series of notes he wrote to the Tooth Fairy. Each night Rashid would write: "Dear Tooth Fairy, Please give me a big picture. I have a tooth about to come out. Please fulfill my wishes. Thank you. Sincerely, Rashid." I would write responses in red glitter and place them under his pillow. When Rashid's tooth did fall out, he woke to find his big picture hanging in the center of camp.

By the end of the summer, Rashid had jumped in the lake and was identifying chipmunks and squirrels in the bushes. On a scroll for the next group of Homesteaders, Rashid wrote, "Make sure you do all of your chores, especially cleaning the latrine. Have a good night's sleep and remember to write the Tooth Fairy. Try to have fun while you're still a kid."

Henry David Thoreau wrote in Walden, "I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I come to die, discover that I had not lived."

I, too, went in to the woods to learn. I wanted to understand what it was that drew so many people to the outdoors every summer - to camp. I saw the experience through the eyes of children who lived in a different world than I. I had seen patches of ice as dangerous, threatening, obstacles in my path. These campers found a playground. One without violence, noise, and congestion.

Through Trail Blazers, Rashid and I could believe in the essential facts of life - for me the power of humans to influence one another and for Rashid a slippery playground shorn of fear and filled with wonder.