Most Camp YOGO mornings begin with an adolescent chorus of “Smells like summer!” in response to a semi-rhetorical questioning of “Smell that, YOGOs?” While it may be impossible to describe the exact smells of summer or fully quantify their effects, the enthusiasm that fills this group of more than 30 campers on a daily basis is as palpable as the Maryland humidity.
Camp YOGO’s summer 2022 offers a return to weekly field trips – though only two per week instead of the traditional three of previous summers – and a full-day schedule of activities after last summer’s half-day camp due to the ongoing pandemic. With campers enthusiastic for the camp’s return, each session’s enrollment has surpassed capacity.
YOGO, an acronym for “Youth on the Go,” provides a space for campers to stay active while expanding their comfort zones each day. Field trips consist of hikes on local trails like those at Sugarloaf Mountain, activities like figure skating at Wheaton Ice Arena and thrills like riding The Flight of Fear at King’s Dominion. On a recent Thursday morning, campers explored their boundaries and forearm muscles by climbing a series of walls at Laurel’s ClimbZone. Each trip offers the group a chance for discovery and enjoyment.
When the group remains at camp, they play a variety of camp games ranging from thinking games such as The Line Game and Magic Stick to active favorites like handball, Capture the Flag and pillo polo. The latter is reminiscent of field hockey but with yellow and blue padded sticks. Each week the YOGOs face off in a pillo polo battle pitting the two colors against each other, with the blue team known as The Egyptian Flying Koala Bears and yellow as The Indonesian Crime-Fighting Black Bears, both named by former campers. Once a YOGO joins a team, they remain with that team for the entirety of their career; former YOGOs now turned interns and counselors still join the Friday matchups whenever possible as both teams vie for the Nabozny Cup, which is awarded to the winner of the summer-long series.
Campers and staff pass down stories of former games and players each summer, only adding to the excitement over each yellow and blue matchup. After a competitively fun pillo polo battle on either the Youth Center outdoor or indoor basketball court, filled with shouts of joy and exasperation along with faux British commentary, one may say it smells like adolescence. But if you ask any YOGO, they would tell you that it “smells like summer.”