We've successfully complete our first week of summer camps. The staff stumbled to their cars yesterday afternoon and disappeared - only to be recalled once again Monday to start the whole thing again. This week we add an extra camp day. We have an overnight camp on Monday, then an Ultimate Camp starting on Wednesday and ending Saturday. Let it never be said grass grows under the feet of a Space Center staff or volunteer.
We realize work brings reward. Our reward for these long summer hours is the financial means to operate for another year from our summer camp earnings. There is also the joy we feel deep inside from running our missions. It is rewarding to watch a simulator full of campers respond to your work with applause, laughter, and the occasional scream. It is, at least for me, the best job in the world and I want to thank my staff and volunteers for coming along for the ride and helping me make this all possible. We have done a truly amazing thing!
This last week's campers were truly amazing. Everyone agrees the EdVenture Camp ending Saturday was one of the best ever. If you were on that camp as a staff, volunteer or camper - WELL DONE! I'd love to see everyone of those campers back again. They were kind to each other, respectful to the staff and appreciative of our hard work. If only all our camps this summer were as good. I'm keeping my fingers crossed and hoping with every fiber of my being that our temptress Fortuna finds her summer's entertainment in Greece or Spain (as if they need any more bad luck with their economies).
This is Tori. Tori is being congratulated for receiving her one year pin from none other than yours truly. Tori is one of our outstanding young volunteers with a great attitude. The Flight Directors and Supervisors have nothing but good to say about Tori.
This is Mr. Daymont congratulating young Jordan Smith on the occasion of his receiving his Phoneix Pin. Jordan is one of those volunteers who never stops talking. He talks and talks and talks and talks - almost non-stop.
"I can never get a word in edgewise," Mr. Daymont confided to me just last week. "What do I do? You've got to help me. He knows something about everything. I bring up a subject I'm sure he is ignorant about and OFF HE GOES throwing out facts, figures, prose, poetry and dialog."
I promised Mr. Daymont I'd figure out a way to contain Jordan's abundant, vocal, and demonstrative enthusiasm. I could be rich if his energy could be bottled and sold as an elixir for diminished attentiveness.
(of course, many of you who know Jordan are scratching your heads and saying, "There Mr. Williamson goes again.....).
Bracken, Jon and a slew of staff and volunteers did a couple test missions of the Voyager's new summer story, Much Ado About Horace. The fist test mission was told last Saturday to the Park City iWorlds staff. That night the part of Dweeb was played by none other than Bradyn Lystrup pictured above. Horace was played by Bracken's young cousin. Since then, this new mission has been told three other times and was very well received by our last EdVenture Campers.
Picture above are four of the Space Center's most awesome and vivacious volunteers enjoying a wee bit of down time on one of Tyler Gardner's new luxury benches found only at the Space Center in Central School's lobby. I was happy to pay the bench fee as a treat for their hard work. Left to right..
Caitlynn, Erin, Samantha and Marissa.
I noticed something strange about this quartet. Did you spot it? I appears they are all color blind. I'm also wondering if there is a condition called Pattern Blindness?
I refer you to the photograph above. Do you see the reason for my concern? Is this the kind of volunteer we want at the Space Center? Volunteers with mother's who will let them leave home with mismatched socks and shoes? What is the story here? Are we seeing proof that this new generation of Americans are truly so hopelessly lost and uneducated that they can't even dress themselves properly? Is this country going to the dogs?
I can only hope my horror at the photo above may be the result of my advanced age. Could it be that Mr. Williamson isn't "with it" any more. Could it be that I'm so far gone that I don't know what is fashionable these days?
In my day on the prairies of South Dakota, girls would never dress in such an UnChristianlike way. The Lutherans would never tolerate it. Social ostracism would be the result, for the young ladies and possibly their families. Of course, that was in my day on a planet far far away from Utah. Perhaps I need to get with the times and become more accepting of the latest fads. Hey, if I can tolerate long hair, shorts that look more like skirts and skin tight jeans on boys, than I can learn to accept mismatched socks and shoes on girls.
"Groovy," is what I've got to say about that.
And Now, A Few Things from the Imginarium
There is a lot to this cartoon. The subject is math, but I see it could also work for Flight Directing.
The formula to running a Space Center mission flows along, completely understandable, until you reach that point at the beginning of the mission when a miracle happens and the magic begins.
My Flight Directors know just what I'm talking about.
This is one high tech and efficient way to stop cheating soon to be implemented at your friendly neighborhood school. Yes, here in the Imaginarium we find the most creative ways to accomplish our goals and objectives. Cheap and easy is the name of the game.
Where are you on the spectrum in regards to your goals?
A lesson learned by many of us.
Funny how many wet pant legs I saw at the Space Center right after that movie.
I end this post with something truly amazing. Great imagination and creativity - both qualities greatly admired at the Space Center. Enjoy.......
