Camp Hardknock

Marianne McCann and I were talking during a lull in SL9B and she told me she was getting ready to go away for a sleepover camp soon. Every summer 100 SL kids pay 1000L to attend Camp HardKnock, a  camp in Second Life where there are activities 24/7.  As Marianne put it , “That is *the* best SL kid event out there. They've been doing this since 2007.  That is some of the best Lindens I can ever spend in SL.” 

Immediately I wanted to visit. The SL kids have lots of fun everyday in Second Life, but this is the first time I heard of camp other than the boy scout camp. I learned there is a summer session and a winter session.  Jill Caldera, Gattz Gilman & Quincy Dyrssen are the camp directors. Right away I wanted to visit since I love to see the SL kids in action. When I first arrived, the children were sleeping in their cabins. I visited with Miss Jill who explained that they would be having activities later in the day. Of course  Linden Lab decided to restart the sims at that time so I had to leave, promising to be back again. 

Next time I visited, I found several kids playing Greedy. One brought me to the Events board so I could see all the activities for each day. The board was filled with many. I  went to visit the cabins where they slept. Each cabin had it’s own flag with its own logo. I learned that most of the kids make and decorate their own bunks. Nancy Chatterbox shared her cabin with me, and showed me the logo she had created as well as the sweet bunk she made. 

Several of the kids told me how much fun they had all day long and how much fun it was to try avoiding going to the showers and to bed. That seemed to be the favorite activity. Nancy told me, “Miss Jill and Mister Gattz and Miss Quincy and Miss Kendra, them all put lotsa time into camp to make it lots of fun for us and all the other counselers too, them all werks hard. This is my 4th time at camp." 

I had time to attend two events that were going on. One was a water balloon fight. Each kid grabbed a water balloon and got ready. I sat to watch but also grabbed a balloon. So dumb! Right away I was an easy target for balloon, but fought back! Some sneaky kid crawled around behind me and saved herself behind hay bales set out, but I was in the line of fire. All had a great time. 

I also went to the beach to check out the shell collecting. Everyone had a bucket full of shells they found and they did not go to waste. Most kids took their shells to the picnic tables outside the mess hall where Miss Kendal was waiting with a great craft. She gave everyone a frame to decorate with the shells and all settled down to do it. 

That is just a sample of the activities going on in the camp. The events board is full of things to do all day long. I looked at some of the other events listed on the board... cabin fights ..trivia..story telling..water activities. The kids will be walking the relay track this weekend. I look forward to visiting the winter camp to see how that goes! 

Gemma Cleanslate

Take a look at one of the kid's past visit: