Spring Break '13: Primetime Service Retreat

CWE365 is an urban extension of our secluded summer camp. Though students spend their summer camp terms in a unique and natural setting – a place on Beaver lake, a place with blobs, a place with a chow hall – the other months in which they interact with War Eagle are usually spent indoors. Gyms, classrooms, office space – these become Camp War Eagle, if only once a week, through the CWE365 program.

This past Spring Break we had a chance to integrate our year-round program with the facility that our students know and love. Camp War Eagle itself is a character in the testimony of our students, as much as any director or counselor, and our students seized the opportunity to reunite.

For only a weekend, we transported over a hundred middle school students back to camp, just under two-and-a-half months before the first summer session. Despite the unseasonal sunshine and warm weather, they came not just to play but to work.

We marked our second annual community service spring break with these middle school students, and they exceeded expectations. These students worked seven hours on a Saturday with different organizations and within Camp itself. Students renovated picnic sites at Hobbs State Park. Others built nature trails with Ozark Off-Road cyclists. Many cleared campsites, “I found a Coke can from 1993!” said one student, others recalling that working on the camp sites was “Awesome-sauce!” Others spread mulch and executed more jobs inside Camp boundaries. Their work was superb.

It wasn’t all work. Students were reunited with their old counselors, stayed in their old cabins and were put through the War Eagle ringer of camp competitions, including a Dodgeball tournament, a photo scavenger hunt, and the classic camp night game, Mission Impossible! “Mission Impossible is the best thing at camp and the best thing at Spring Break!” said Julie of Rogers. Sonia, also of Rogers, echoed the statement, “It was fun to sneak around in the dark… fun because I’ve known my cabin mates for a long time and that makes what they do funny.”

An even deeper aspect was stated in the theme of the weekend, “Recharge.” Throughout the retreat students had the chance to “recharge,” and refocus on Christ. “It was a great experience. I enjoyed learning about God and being able to enjoy camp again. The community service was a great way to bond and help the environment,” said Angel, of Springdale, who started attending Primetime consistently after coming to the Spring Break retreat. Sonia recounted one of her favorite memories of the weekend was “learning how to get back on track and continuing to learn about God.”

As a pre-teen or even teenager, community service can be abstract concept, disconnected from their daily lives. But for the students in the CWE365 program, their community is Camp. The kids that attend, the counselors that work and the place itself. And in this weekend, community service became a solid concept and necessary piece of life for students. Their dedication to serve others, apparent in  motivated effort, speaks volumes on their greater desire to meet the needs of Northwest Arkansas. In a time of rare freedom, our students chose to serve their community and work for the benefit of others.