Both Southern Cross Kids Camps were AMAZING!!! The books a huge success, the buddies and staff thrilled with how they made their life at camp so much easier and left them feeling thrilled to gift the children with stunning books..
The first week was quite stressful as we had multiple technical problems with the computers and printers and I spent most of my time at them trying to either resolve the situation or proof the ever growing numbers of pictures.......The books were brilliant, the buddies loved how easy they were to create and i was relieved that my attention was able to stay on the photography side of things. At the Church were the parents and carers gathered to pick up the kids and hear a little concert, I saw many children proudly showing their parents how they had in fact climbed a 10m climbing wall, used a drill to create a wooden car or plane, dressed up as princesses for a spot of high tea or ridden the infamous tea cups at the birthday gala day, all of the stress of the week seemed to evaporate away at their pride.
The second week was as perfect as any of us could hope for, better for me as my two youngest were there as Cousins. I can't articulate the feeling of overwhelming pride I had in their 150% commitment and focus on the children we had in our care. The campers were a beautiful group of children, mostly homeless due to marital abuse and some due to financial difficulty, with only a few behavioural problem kids, so it was easy to pour love out onto them as they were like sponges ready to soak it up, forget their troubled realities and simply be kids. Thankfully, being assigned a photographer, i had the opportunity to be with them on all of their activities and I captured the first day the initial scared and tremulous looks when the arrived and continued with them daily to see them all open up and by Wednesday, huge smiles, triumphant high fives and faces bursting with pride and excitement filled the photos on my camera.
It was truly an awesome and privileged thing to experience being there to hear there excited giggles, their triumphant war cry when they over came obstacles they thought impossible, watch them discover the delight of simply playing and being children and best of all, watching them receive their books in an almost reverent way at the end of the week. I cant share their faces with you, but ALL were gazing in awe at the faces that shone back at them, the memories of their week captured in gorgeous keepsakes that you all helped create.
The combination of the children's reaction and the buddies overwhelming relief & gratefulness that the books they could give would be so very easy to make and yet be so incredibly beautiful had me wanting to email you all through the weeks to share with you the absolute success of our combined LO creations.
So THANKS AGAIN!!!! I can now say with utmost authority, YOU really made a difference, in a huge engine that is SCKC, as individuals, in all our different ways we came together to ensure 47 Children & their families or carers had the most amazingly memorable SCKC Camp!!!
Below are some picture collages of both camps buddies making the books and a collage of one of the weeks children's receiving theirs. I hope that in the future we can continue to work together to ensure we can impact more and more of these most deserving children, making sure they have days of sunshine to light up their entire year. I know that three SCKC converts now live in my house and we are already planning ideas for next years camps!!
Jules x
