Senior Sienna Dehaemers walks along a narrow gravel path crawling with stubborn tree roots. She brushes aside tall weeds and thorny branches, without a second thought, as her feet find familiar footing. It’s a humid afternoon in late June, the kind that makes anyone feel like they’re being microwaved. And any hairs that aren’t slung back in her low, long ponytail hug her forehead with sweat.
She jokes about being able to walk this route in her sleep. It’s one she became all too familiar with last summer, and the one before that.
DeHaemers sports a grey cotton t-shirt with the camp logo, dark green shorts and belt, long socks, and hiking boots. A coup hangs around her neck, with two eagle claws facing upwards and an arrow. And sun bounces off the swiss army knife swinging from her side.
That became her uniform once she started working as a counselor at Camp Theodore Naish Scout Reservation. She arrived at her dusty cabin less than two weeks after school got out with her purple trunk of clothes, sunblock, bug spray and a three-pound bag of jelly beans.
It felt like only seconds after her arrival she was already getting up at 6:50 am every morning, running swim checks, saluting flags, singing songs at Breakfast, chasing chickens, dropping cockroaches and yelling at kids to stop throwing giant checkers at each other.
“My title is Nature Instructor,” Dehaemers said, glowing with pride. “I work with kids anywhere around 8 and 17 years old. I have them sit on the ground and talk about what kinds of things animals need.”
DeHaemers teaches four 45-minute classes a day. She gets to hold Pumpkin, their corn snake, and teach kids about shedding, feeding and habitats as they watch with wide eyes, while he entangles himself in her hair, or the front pocket of her sweatshirt. In her Champions for Nature class she tells them how to “leave no trace” in the wild.
DeHaemers has been in Scouts since the 7th grade. She joined because of a friend at her old catholic private school. A place where she never truly felt welcome or like herself. It was a noticeable difference from Girl Scouts, much harder. Nevertheless, Dehaemers was hooked, and for the first time in a while, comfortable.
Since Dehaemers has earned over 50 brightly embroidered merit badges for things like collections, horsemanship and nuclear science. Her sash is nearly full, and when she looks down at it, a smile lights up her freckled face.
“Scouting is a program where everyone is inherently a kind person,” DeHaemers said.
It’s where she met her boyfriend of three years. And how she helped a young boy with autism jump into the deep end — by jumping in too, wearing her once dry uniform and holding his hand until he let go — to pass his swim check. And it’s how she realized she wanted to work with kids who have special needs.
One day, DeHaemers wants to become the Nature Lodge Director.
“People change and everything like that,” DeHaemers said. “But the program is there. There’s always a merit badge — something else you can do, achieve, or learn. And there’s always a summer camp to look forward to. ”
