keeping it real

I've been needing to blog. And really...this is what's going on around here. The annual pre-camp tornado has settled over the Piantine household. The kids keep saying that camp is closer than it feels because there's not enough stress in the house. Well let me tell you that just looking at these pictures gives me stress! Tony has been pretty sick for about two weeks, so he's pretty limited in what he can do. Once he finished the camper/counselor matchups (temporarily finished, because we all know how many last minute changes there are) he started on theme night clothes. Karol and the guys went to the storage unit. First they packed up the carnival into the small enclosed trailer (check!!) then they went through the theme meal things. They brought back about a dozen bins of clothes and accessories. We went through each bin, and since then, Tony's been making pirate and western costumes. In the pic below, you can see Little Tony's sewing area. He works at his chair, on an ironing board.

I'm hoping that this chaos is at it's worst, but time will tell. Til then, pray for our strength and sanity throughout camp preparations!

June 8, 2011

Last Saturday night, Camp Daniel and The Able Church hosted "Dance for Disabilities." Seven other local disability organizations helped sponsor the event, which was held at Bay Beach. The dance was free to the 300 attendees.
Between fast dance boogies, there were free refreshments for the guests to enjoy. The music played from 6 til 9 and many danced the entire evening! We all had fun....
even the mayor of Green Bay, whom stopped by with his family. They, along with many of the other dance attendees, took time during the day to visit the rides at Bay Beach. The day was toasty, but the breeze off the lake felt good.
We danced to many classics such as the YMCA, the Chicken Dance, Celebrate, and the Electric Slide.
Of course, this event took many many hours of planning and work to pull off. All of the Camp Daniel staff were involved. It's always fun when we all come together for one goal.
Many things have happened since I last blogged:
Karol went to a training class in Green Bay for continuing education, which is required for the adult family home.
Chrissy and Karol took a day to go to the food bank in Omro to get food for camp and for the food pantry at Camp Daniel.
We all pitched in to get the grounds ready for Emily Neitzer's Graduation party, which was the first public event on the grounds for this year. It's a job to get all of the spring cleaning done in the snack stand; plus, all of the grass cutting and landscaping.
John, Sue and Corrie Koch were here visiting over Memorial Day weekend. We got a chance to catch up with them and make plans for the summer while they were here. They also had opportunity to visit many friends in the area. It was a great visit.
On Memorial Day, we all participated in DePere's parade with a large group from Mega. The beautiful weather really brought people out; we handed out about 3,500 Mega brochures with tootsie rolls stapled on. Oh yea, that was a job. We had our "stapling party" two nights in a row to get all those done!
Of course, Tuesday is meeting day. That always takes us to lunchtime, and shortly after that, Jen, Marceaux and Molly are off to Able.
Which brings us up to the couple days before the D4D, as we call the Dance for Disability. Tony was still printing brochures, Jen was organizing decorations with her mom and Karol was making signage, plus too many other things to even mention!
Marceaux got Karol's golf cart put back together, plus he got the riding lawnmower up and cutting again, which was a good thing.
Sunday, we all went to church, then Tony, Jen, Marceaux, and Molly headed straight to MN for Bit O' Sun camp. Larry and Carolyn Campbell are hosting this camp for people with disabilities. They've been involved in camps for years, but this is their first time running one. They enlisted our staff to help with speaking, recreation, and other things at the camp. Our staff will be back Friday night.