By Sarah, Volunteer
As an extreme extrovert and with 10+ years experience volunteering at other camps, I was super excited to volunteer at Camp Rainbow Gold. I met many Sibling Camp volunteers throughout my five years living in Boise and they always encouraged me to volunteer. I finally had availability in the summer of 2024 to take them up on their offer, and Camp was awesome.
To prepare for Camp, I bought a bunch of tulle, feathers, and beads to match my cabin theme of Phoenix; you know, like the super cool bird that Dumbledore has in the Harry Potter movies that bursts into flames. Thankfully, we had some preparation time before the campers arrived so my co-counselors could help me make tutus and feather hair pieces to achieve our look.
On the day of the campers’ arrival, my cabin counselors and I put on our tutus, hair feathers, a bird mask, and giant feather fan. Then, we took off to meet our campers! Having the teen cabin, we received some very hesitant looks about our outfits and energy. As the day went on the girls gradually came out of their shells and I started to get to know their confident funny personalities. They introduced me to nine ball (my new favorite game), told hilarious stories from their previous Camp experiences, and we talked about goals for their future. It was so amazing to get to know each and every one of them. The best part about Camp is that everyone feels free to be themselves and be a kid again, even the volunteers.
At night in our bunks, I learned there was a tradition to read bedtime stories. After we settled down from our big laughing fits, storytelling, and bracelet making, my co-counselor would read us Alice in Wonderland as we drifted off to sleep. Each night it got harder and harder to settle, as our girls were more and more excited to spend time together. I smile now just thinking about all the memories and friendships the campers and volunteers were making. Which brings me to my favorite memory.
So it takes a lot to embarrass me, and the Phoenix campers succeeded. While we were in line for food in front of everybody, I had informed one of our Phoenix girls to fix something on her shirt. She thanked me, called me a girl’s girl, and then said “all hail Sarah” while bowing down with her arms raised, as a joking way to show her gratitude, and sure enough her cabin mates quickly joined in. I laughingly told them stop, saying that it probably looked weird to have my campers bowing down to me. They could read all over my face, that dressing up as a bird doesn’t embarrass me, but appearing like I was having my campers “hail” to me as if I was Queen of Camp Rainbow Gold, did. Therefore, it quickly became the funniest thing for the whole week. The Phoenix girls would start the chant at dinners, and almost the whole camp would join in. The young little fairy girls would come out of nowhere and bow to me chanting “all hail Sarah”. The leadership team jokingly questioned me and I reassured them that I do not in fact require my campers to chant. I laugh out loud now remembering how funny this was.
Overall, my experience at Sibling Camp was so amazing that I have already blocked out the dates for next year, and signed up for Fall Family Camp. Camp Rainbow Gold is an amazing group of campers, families, and volunteers. I am so lucky to have been able to become part of the CRG family.