It all started in the spring of 2020, you know the "Covid Summer''. We were told that we could not open Nyoda for the first time in 103 summers! Needless to say we were all devastated, and none more that the girls poised to be Tiamalians! In true Nyoda style we set about the task of deciding what we were going to do for those who would lose such a critical year in the life of a Nyoda girl. After listening carefully to them and brainstorming possible scenarios we made the decision to allow them to return as Tiamalians in 2021 with the exciting addition of implementing more leadership training into their summers. What that meant was every camper returning in 2021 would be one grade older. Tiamalians would be coming out of 10th grade, Witawentin 9th grade, and so on right down the line with Okpe now being 5th graders. The question became what happens to the Jr. bung? Will they now be just 3rd and 4th graders and we lose the 2nd graders? Do we combine 2-4th grades? We didn't like either of those options. So we applied for an EIDL loan to rebuild the remaining 3 original bungs with 4 bungs so we could provide for a Jr bung of 2-3rd graders as it always has been, and a new bung of 4th graders. This "new bung" is yet to be named.
Having Covid restrictions so top of mind, we designed the 4 new bungs with separate bathrooms to comply with new safety protocols. The bungs are also able to accommodate up to 16 girls allowing for us to grow for the future as the demand for beds is already there.
As time goes by I am sure we will see many silver linings that will come out of this unusual time in history, but for us growing and updating our Nyoda community with 4 new bungs has been an amazing blessing. Without the help from our dear alumnae, camp families, and the SBA EIDL loan, we never would have been able to make this a reality.
We are so excited to welcome our summer Nyoda family back this year and set a course for another 100 years filled with amazing new experiences and extraordinary friendships. While it was sad to see the last original bungs go, we are happy to say that bung 5 now has a new home at the edge of the new athletic field. How it will ultimately serve us is yet to be determined but we are a very creative bunch and I have no doubt that we will put it to great use. If you are interested in seeing the transformation process, check our youtube channel Camp Nyoda as we will be putting videos of the process up there as they get made. Thank you again for all of you who have given generously to this project and helped us make it a reality!
Comments