On Monday, June 27, three days after my oldest child, TJ, completed his kindergarten year, I dropped him off at Congers Park for Pitch by Pitch Baseball Camp. I was nervous. My son and his best friend, Sam, with whom we had planned these weeks, were the youngest by far—in fact, the other kids were towering over these two little ones like skyscrapers.
That day when I returned to pick TJ up, Sam’s mother and I approached the head of the camp like two nervous hens, pecking: “You have to watch our boys, they are the littlest. Did you make sure someone took them to the potty? Will someone be with them during the day?”
And it continued until a father walked up to save the camp director and said, “Moms, relax, your boys are fine!” And they were.
After two weeks at camp, I was impressed by what our boys had learned; not only had they become better baseball players, better athletes, more agile, more adept, more skilled, but also they had learned some valuable life lessons. They walked with amazing confidence, could socialize with older campers, treated others as they wanted to be treated and—most importantly—stopped picking on each other as they were known to do.
The directors of the camp had leadership skills and sportsmanship I'd like TJ to emulate. They guided their campers through the day with ease and laughter. There was no bullying from the older campers to the others; they were all teammates supporting and encouraging each other.