What Danbee Campers Taught Us About Resilience

The challenge in front of us isn’t that our world has been turned upside down; the challenge is how we choose to respond to that reality.  A tall order to ask a group of campers aged 7- 15 that were only looking to go to camp in 2020.

As with all setbacks at Danbee we choose to see the glass as half full. We have the power to control how we respond to things that are beyond our control.  We believe deeply that adversity doesn’t build character, it reveals it.  And boy did it reveal itself!

The collective character that Danbee girls demonstrated under pressure has been nothing short of astounding. Our girls are focused on what is to come rather than what we missed. Danbee girls chose to remember just how special their summer home is to all of us.  And perhaps most importantly, Danbee girls are building resilience. By no fault of their own, girls were challenged to deal with a combination of strong emotions including but not limited to:

• Disappointment
• Loss
• Lack of control
• Fear
• Anxiety

Girls began to learn that even though set-backs can be difficult, they are often temporary and can be managed. They persevered, adjusted and refocused their coping strategies to psychologically manage all that was thrown their way.

Our mission at Danbee is to help foster a belief in each girl, that she is powerful, smart, kind and part of a bigger community.  So many campers reached out to us concerned about how we were coping with the decision to cancel camp.

In fact, we received letters, gifts and emails that showed kindness and concern for all of us at Danbee when camp was cancelled. When we were in the final stages of making our decision about summer 2020 we were most worried about how everyone was going to take the news that camp was postponed to 2021. We quickly learned that our Danbee girls were more worried about how we were coping with the decision to not open. If that isn’t empathy than we don’t know what it is!

Going forward our campers will have new set of emotions to organize and master:

• Gratitude
• Relief
• Happiness
• Predictability
• Connection

This renewed perspective on life was borne out of fire but will be stronger as a result. Life will surely throw them curves but now they are ready and able to face these challenges head on. End result – Girls better prepared to face adversity, full of resilience, grit and perseverance when faced with challenges. They gain a new worldview that Celebrates Empowerment, Resilience and Grit in other words A Danbee Girl.

The lesson the girls taught us was to value what you have, not what you temporarily lost. All of us can move forward with the knowledge that Danbee will be back next summer, even better than before. That each of us, in our own way, persevered through tough times together.

Connections are what camp is all about. Danbee is not about the buildings or the fields, it is about the people. We can’t think of a better collection of humans that we would rather move forward with. Whatever the future brings it will be born of resilience, toughness, understanding and love.