Bloomington High School South, The Gothic, 2016, Page 14

Description:	t____i ^___ __p^_l.O.T.S.Leadership oriented seniors trained for theirBradford Woods experience by attending theLeadership Opportunities Through Servicetraining camp.-__7^___D________-Some Bloomington South seniors could not waitto return to fifth grade. And it wasnt for a wish ofsimpler times. No, the draw for these students isBradford Woods.A rite of passage for MCCSC fifth graders,Bradford Woods also allows seniors to mentorand lead the younger students. Seniorsinterviewed for a leader position in theLeadership Opportunities Through Service (LOTS)camp, and those chosen were required to spendtwo days at the site for a leadership training.The first day consisted of getting to knowthe grounds and what to do in certain situationswith the kids. It was very informative on what toexpect during the actual camp, senior SophiaHoffman said. The leaders learned how tomanage and fill their time for the three-day, two-night camp. Hoffman was most excited to get tobrainstorm game ideas and to recreate theexperience of how the camp had been in her day.As a Binford Elementary alumni and experiencedBradford woods camper, Hoffman said, it didntfeel like the camp had changed since I wentthere in fifth grade. Like Hoffman, the otherseniors previous experiences at LOTS made thepreparation for their new roles easier. After all,for most leaders, this was not their first rodeo.Senior Meghan Smith, however, did notattend Bradford Woods her fifth grade year. Thecamp was difficult [for me] because everyoneseemed to know where everything was already,Smith said. Smith, an experienced campcounselor entering her seventh year of campcounseling, felt comfortable with the basictraining information. The camp First Aid andsupervision training was helpful for Smith butlearning the lay of the land was just as valuable. <%but she [I] benefited most from learning thelocations of things and the layout of the campitself. In addition to working with fifth graders,Smith looked forward to meeting fellow seniorsfrom both Bloomington High School North andSouth who were assigned to the sameelementary school.Although the leadership training was allabout fun and games, there was still much workto be done. Senior Olivia Reece admitted thecamp was tough. It was a lot - to learneverything we had to in order to successfully pullit off, Reece said. Proving to be more difficultthan expected were the camp songs. SeniorSophia Puzzello found them difficult. I am notreally a confident person in that sense, Puzzellosaid. Im a little shy starting things in biggroups.The group of leaders left Bradford Woodsenergized and ready to mentor their groups. Ingetting prepared, Puzzello had just one takeaway: just be prepared for three days withoutwifi.-ARIANNE KELLEY«fc,.S_:LCLcc
Source:	http://cdm17129.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/ref/collection/hs-bloomsouth/id/9650
Collection:	Bloomington High School South

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