I dedicate this book to the camp that gave me everything :)

Super Cassie

Narrative text

By: Mary Rose Thompson

Today was the day, a year had finally passed and she was back. Had it looked this magnificent before? She couldn’t believe how great the shade from the big oak trees felt on her warm face, it was better than she remembered. Today was the day that Cassie, a 10-year-old girl with Autism, returned to her favorite place, Camp I Am Special. 

Camp I Am Special is a magical place that has ginormous pirate ships equipped with towering waterslides, incredible swings that help you to fly as high as Peter Pan on his way to Never land, and delicious food that has everyone’s mouth watering for more. Cassie couldn’t be happier that she gets to spend another week of her summer at this amazing place, a new week of camp means a new journey was about to begin.

As Cassie took a stroll around the camp grounds she began pondering how this week was going to unfold. You see, some people didn’t know that Cassie had a mysterious secret identity. Cassie was diagnosed with Autism when she was 3, which most people see as a disability. But what those people don’t know is that Cassie was also secretly a superhero. Her autism diagnoses did not make her upset or angry, it gave her an inner strength to be able to conquer monster’s unseen by the common folk. With great power comes great responsibility and as Cassie knew first hand, superheroes never get a day off.

It was finally time for dinner, one of Cassie’s favorite meals of the day. As she sits down at a round table in the dining hall she notices something strange. The ground is shaking ever so slightly, the pitchers of water on the tables have rings rippling through them, this could only mean one thing. Yes, the loud noise dragon has returned and he is noisier than ever. His ear-splitting cries and menacing roar could be heard from miles away. The dragons massive body had intricate scales that were black as night and just a few that were red like the fire he was spitting out of his ginormous mouth. This particular dragon only picks on certain people and Cassie knew she was one of them.

Her first instinct was to throw the pitcher of water, but she knew this would disturb her other friends who were not being terrorized by the dragon. She even thought about screaming “Get out! Get out dragon!”, but that would only add more noise and egg the loud noise dragon on. So, Cassie took a moment, she put her hands over her ears to give herself a moment to think, and decided it was time to do what she knew was the best choice. She took her food and walked outside to the picnic tables, where the loud noise dragon was powerless, and she ate two helpings of the best chicken nuggets and mac and cheese she had ever tasted. Cassie had once again defeated the loud noise dragon singlehandedly, without screaming or throwing water.

After the loud noise dragon, Cassie had a couple days of quiet fun at Camp. She slid down the ginormous pirate ship waterslide, pet the animals at the petting zoo, and went swimming in the river for hours on end. Today, Camp has a special treat, a pool party filled with food, fun, and everyone’s favorite pool floats! Everyone was very excited because this was one of the most fun parts of the week! But of course, there had to be a twist. There is one monster that follows super Cassie wherever she goes, the weather witch. The weather witch is an ugly old woman with skin as grey as the dark clouds she brings, and hair as curly as the twisters she throws around. The weather witch always tries to ride in on her straw bottomed broom and rain on Cassie’s parade, literally.    

Just as everyone was getting ready to jump in, the weather witch swoops in turning the radar bright red. Cassie tries telling the weather witch to go away but to no avail, the thunder that was once in the distance gets closer and closer. Cassie starts to tear up, she wanted so badly to have fun at the pool today, she takes two steps closer to the pool, a little rain can’t hurt right? She stops with her toes hanging off the edge and listens to the thunder grow louder. Super Cassie remembered something that her mom told her before coming to Camp “We can’t always get what we want exactly when we want it, but that doesn’t mean we can’t try again later.” With that advice in mind Cassie uses all of her strength to back away from the edge, put down her big blue and red popsicle float and walk back to camp. About an hour later, the weather witch decides to take the rain else wear and everyone at camp rejoices, the pool party is back on! Cassie took a couple of deeps breaths and thought about how proud she was that she was able to walk away from the pool earlier and that she now gets the reward of jumping in on her big float without the rain to put a damper on her day.   

The last night of camp came too soon, as it always does. Cassie was having one of the best weeks she had ever had at camp this week, she had played basketball like a boss, sang songs around the campfire while eating s’mores and even watched a movie on the big screen before bed last night. At Camp, the last night is always celebrated by having the oh so important talent show! Cassie loved how excited everyone got for the talent show, some people have been preparing their talent since the day after camp ended last summer. Everyone starts to take their seats and the show begins. Before she knows it, it’s her turn to preform. Cassie walked up on stage, looked out at all the people, and saw something terrifying; it was the 1,000 eyed monster!   

The 1,000 eyed monster was one of the most horrifyingly disgusting monsters Cassie ever comes in contact with. Along with the 1,000 eyes coming out of multiple antennas on the tops of its head, the 1,000 eyes monster was also green and oozed purple slime as if it wasn’t distracting enough already. Cassie did not like singing in front of a lot of people and the 1,000 eyed monster made it so much scarier. She wanted to lay down on the ground and cry, but she didn’t. You know what she did? She remembered some strategies that she was taught when she was training to be a superhero. She asked for a soft, squishy ball to hold, she took 5 deep breathes and turned around to face the back of the stage. By using her incredible superhero strategies, the 1,000 eyed monster disappeared instantly! Now that she had defeated that green slime ball, Cassie finished her talent, ate a well deserved chocolate chip cookie and sat down in a bean bag chair to watch everyone else’s amazing talents.   

The last day of camp was here and everyone was sad to leave. Cassie packed up her bunk and went for a walk on the dock before leaving. She reflected back on the adventures she had while at Camp this week and realized something, her super hero powers were what Camp was all about. Having fun, conquering your fears, and celebrating your triumphs were the best adventures that she had this week. Only 365 more days until her next week at the most magical place on earth.

A day in the life: typical Thursday

Non-Fiction writing

By: Mary Rose Thompson

6:30 am: “Wow 4 hours of sleep, solid night. I am so ready for one of my favorite days of the week to begin”. Group leaders are waking up to get ready to start the day, we have to wake up before the campers and buddies to make sure that they get our full attention

6:50 am: “I really wish I could let the buddies sleep in, Thursday is a rough one but they are here for the campers and I know today will be amazing so it will all be okay” The buddies wake up around 10 minutes before the campers to quickly get dressed and ready to give their camper their full attention in order to make the morning run as smoothly as possible.

7:05 am: “Honestly, mornings are one of my favorite times. Being what the campers wake up and start their day to is so magical I couldn’t imagine a more perfect group of people!” The campers who are still sleeping are woken up at this time. Depending on the week of camp this could go very smoothly or be a rough transition. Most campers are eager to start the day because they know all of the fun things that we will do today from the schedules posted around camp.

8:00 am: “Oh my gosh Trish is actually an angel from heaven, how did she wake up at 5 am and make us all smoothies like wow, blessed.” 8 am is when we eat breakfast at camp. One of my 5 favorite meals of the day, nope not kidding we literally eat like 5 meals, breakfast get us up and ready to start our day.

9:00 am: “I really hope I actually get to see all of theatre works today before life guarding, these guys are actually hilarious and this theme is spot on!”. At 9 am we have some kind of morning activity whether it be theater works, people who come and put on a play for us that they make up from the camp theme because they rock, or petting zoo/hay rides, water slides, etc.

9:40 am: “Super bummed that I didn’t get to see the end but now I get to go jump in the pool before all the campers and buddies get here. ‘Shamu is ready for a show’”. At 9:40 am the life guards go down to the pool to do all the safety checks and get ready to guard the lives of our favorite people while they have the time of their life in the pool. Many parents have told us their testimonies about how important and therapeutic the pool is which is on the Camp website. 

10:00 am- 11:30 pm: “Oh lord, Andy would be sitting on his throne saying hello to his royal subjects as his buddy pushes him around the pool. So glad it’s going to be one of those days.” 10 am is when pool time begins, it usually goes for about an hour and a half so that we can get everyone back and changed in time for lunch to begin.

12:00 pm: “Stop it are the pizza people seriously here today? I knew this was going to be a good day but wow, have to get to lunch early for this day.” Noon is when we always have lunch at camp, we have to get almost every meal we have donated because there are so many other things we have to pay for here at camp. Most of the time people are incredibly generous because they have children who love camp more than anything so they’re happy to give. Sometimes restaurants even donate to us, PDQ is a frequent and favorite meal at camp because of their generosity.

1:00 pm- 2:00 pm: “Really happy with the group that I have this week, I mean some of my campers for sure won’t be coming to activities but I would want to swing in the sensory room too so I get it.” Each week group leaders, buddies, and campers are assigned to a different group and each summer the groups have names themed to the week to make it more fun for everyone. This is the time that the first two activities happen, for my group typically art and music.

2:00 pm: “Tropical smoothie for snack! This literally never happens I can’t believe the kitchen crew bought that for everyone!” We have snack time for 30 minutes at this time, we are very hungry people because of all of the energy that we use throughout the day. Just adding another meal to one of the five!