When I was in elementary school, I used to go to the niftiest day camp. It was one of the only places where I felt like I could truly play – whether I was dancing the hula, singing camp songs, making rainbow-colored lanyards, or cooking international food. At my camp, there wasn’t the typical hierarchy that existed in my regular classroom. I was with a new group of girls and for some reason I never figured out, every year I fit in with whomever was in my group.
But one year, I believe it was when I was in second grade, that all changed. I noticed that my camp counselor was sneaking away at various points in the day with her water bottle. Then, she’d meet-up a little later with the junior counselors and us and be even goofier than she was before. And her breath always smelled a little like Windex to me.
Anyway, one day I was talking about this with some of my friends and our moms and noticed that the moms weren’t as amused as we all were. As I’m sure you can imagine, they were concerned that our counselor was getting drunk while watching their little lambs and called the camp to investigate. My camp counselor was fired.
If the expression “snitches get stitches” was around back in the early-1980s, well, I would have been stitched from head-to-toe. All the girls blamed me for the departure of our favorite counselor. Hula dancing, singing, lanyard making, and cooking weren’t so much fun anymore.
But I still look back at that time in my life – pre and significantly post-tattling – as some of the most fun I ever had. So when thinking about how to frame an event for women changemakers who want to develop the vision and voice to make bigger impact in the world, I was drawn to the idea of structuring it after camp. Only at Moxie Camp, all Moxie Campers will get to shine. (This Mistress of Moxie won’t be having any shame on her watch!)
Whether you work for a nonprofit or social enterprise, want to grow a socially conscious business, or simply aspire to leave a legacy that lets you make your corner of the world a little better than when you found it, I hope you’ll take a peak at my Moxie Camp video, check out the full site for my one-of-a-kind event coming to the New York Insight Meditation Center in Manhattan, June 29-July 1, 2012 and…help me spread the word.
