It's been a busy last couple of weeks at Grit with Colby and I getting Grit University kicked off with returning Grit U intern from last summer, Kevin Butler, and first year intern Christian Cosper. Between getting prepared for the first week of camp and selling corporate sponsorships, it has been a fast paced three week span. We kicked off our first week of Grit Camp the week of May 29th and hosted 54 campers along with our counselor staff of 16 high school and college age counselors. Our movie theme for the week was 'True Spirit' - the true story of a 16 year old Australian girl who sails across the ocean for over 200 days. Her story of grit and determination is incredible. We also had a chance to hear from Steven Gold - a local dad with kids attending camp- who swam at Yale in college and recently sold his extremely successful mental health company. The day after he spoke, he swam in a masters swim tournament and placed 1st in the 1 mile swim for his age group and 2nd in the 2 mile swim. He's still got it!
For me personally, the kick off of camp is truly exhausting but is definitely one of the most rewarding experiences of my life. With the 6 am workouts with the interns, helping facilitate activities at camp and organizing the day to day logistics, coming home to prep for the next day, working on the domain business for many hours in the afternoon and evenings, coming home to contractors that have been working on our house the past couple months, helping steer the ship for Grit U, and then the usual dad, husband, and dog duties, there really isn't a second of the day that isn't accounted for. However, being able to work alongside Jen each day, having Stone as a counselor and Max and Charles as campers, being able to help lead and mentor the interns and counselors, and also getting to be active and playing sports and games most of the day, it is interesting how all of those factors provide the fuel to help energize me each day to fulfill my purpose. To see these kids excited to be at camp, being active and having fun all day, learning new sports, building confidence, reciting back the Grit Creed, and learning our poem for the week ('A New Day'), it is a joy to know that we all are helping shape the lives of these young people.
Be sure to check out our video re-cap from the first week of camp, and stay tuned for more updates from Grit Camp!