Favorite Object- Personal History

My Bear Scare Bracelet

Received in 2009- Made in 2009

Leather and Plastic Pony Beads

Made by myself and my dear friend Ruby

This is my Bear Scare Bracelet. It's a camp tradition to receive one every year you attend my beloved summer camp growing up. If you count the number of beads, you will know how many years I went to (and worked at) camp. Eight! That also means I have owned 7 more of these. Some are packed away in storage somewhere or lost forever in my childhood. 

I started attending Camp Mosey Wood when I was nine years old. Mosey Wood is an overnight, residential  Girl Scout camp in the beautiful Pocono Mountains. For a week as a camper you lived in a tent with three other girls in a unit and did a fun program that included daily activities such as swimming, boating, and eating (lots of eating, camp food was delicious). S'mores, campfires, hiking, blueberry picking, singing songs, making new friends. The true summer camp experience. It was a wonderful part of my childhood. My first year there and I loved it and wanted to come back the next year, and the next, and the next. 

I was nontraditional in that I didn't go to camp every summer in a row. Sometimes things like family vacations, or not being able to afford sending me to camp, or having a full summer already kept me from going back as a kid. When I was 16 however, I got to spend over 5 weeks at camp, working as the arts and craft aide. It was the best summer of my life. Some of my closest friends were made that summer (including my current roommate!! ) and I really felt connected as a part of the camp. 

Later on when I was 19, I returned to camp as a camp counselor and spent the entire summer living and breathing the camp life style. And continued to do so the next year, and the next. Camp made me the person I am today. I am full of songs, I can build a fire in the rain, and I can be flexible in any unpredictable situation life throws my way. 

The bear scare bracelet is a symbol of who I am and how I came to be the person I am today. It holds its very own story as well. On every Thursday night, the last night of camp for the week, a farewell ceremony is held to say goodbye to your friends you made and to reflect on your week at camp. At this ceremony, the bear scare story is always told. The story has had many variations, depending on who is sharing the story that week. The general story goes along the lines of two campers were walking in the woods. The campers became seperated and were on their own. One camper encounters a bear and is terrified and doesn't know what to do. The other camper, realizing they have lost their friend goes to find them and finds them with the bear and scares away the bear. The bracelet symbolized this simple tale with the knots. When you recieve the bracelet, there are three knots. The middle knot represents the" bear". Now the "bear" can be more than an actual bear... it can be a homework assignment or a issue with your mom or an obstcal to overcome. The two other knots on either side of the "bear" are your friends. When you tie your bracelet on your wrist, a fourth knot is created and it represents you. When you wear the bracelet, you are reminded that your friends are there, and they will always be there between you and the bear. 

The bracelet also represents how many years you have been attending camp. Each color bead represent another year. After eight years, the colors repeat again, so brown is the last color bead that is recieved.  The color order is significant to the bracelet and are not randomly chosen. The number of beads are always divded equally on each side of the center knot. If you are a first year camper, you get two red beads, so you always have a buddy, one bead for each side. 

The bracelet also is significant to me since I was an arts and crafts aide when I was 16. As the arts and crafts aide, I was responsible for making most of the bear scare bracelets for all the campers every week for the camp. Some weeks I made over 100 bear scare bracelets, each unique for the amount of years for each camper. For campers, the braclets are more simpler than the one pictured about. It consisted of simple overhand knots. Staff member bracelets were made with friendship knots, hence the double stranded look to the bracelet pictured. When I became a camp counselor, it was no longer my responsibility to make bear scare bracelets. For my eighth summer, Ruby, the arts and crafts director let me make my own since I knew how to, and I wanted to because I knew I would be using all of the colored beads since it was my eighth summer, and it was something that I was looking forward to since I was an aide. 

During my last summer working at camp, I wore this bracelet everyday. You can see how worn out the leather is and how dirty and scratched the beads are. Currently, my bracelet is kept in a metal Girl Scouting tin I labeled "camping". With it are some carabiners, and my headlamp, other things that are always with me at camp. It's not on display, but I know exactly where it is. Past bracelets are kept in my labeled boxes of camp memories in my closet. 

To understand this object more, one should attend overnight summer camp for themselves. Not necessarily Camp Mosey Wood, or Girl Scouts of America camp, but any overnight summer camp. As a child, being away from home in a new environment has such a great impact on character development. As a teenager, it helped me to find my social identity and the real meaning of friendship, something many adolescence struggle to find. As an adult, it has taught me valuable teaching and life experience that can never and will never be replaced. It was a home away from home, and it holds a very special place near and dear in my heart. 

People who would not be interested in this object may be those who did not attend summer camp or have any sort of summer tradition. Or maybe people who do not care about my experience at camp because they may of held their own traditions at camp and do not wish to accept mine. Or those who do not care for summer camp or jewelry. 

Opposing views may say its just a simple braclet made by randomly selecting beads and putting it on a string, just for aesthetic  looks. No meaningful signifigance to it except to be made as a piece of jewelry. Or that it did not come from a young girl at summer camp, but is in fact a piece of native american jewerly, found in a strange place called Nawakwa. 

I could tell hours of stories about my personal experiences at summer camp. From the time I chased a bear out of my tent, to the time I won second place in a camp themed beauty pagent run by the campers. I could tell viewers about camp traditions and what others ones were held at my camp such as wishing candles and all-camp games. I can tell anyone about what my job position entailed and how crazy life at camp really got to be and the interesting people from all over the world that I met. And I can without a doubt, sing my favorite camp songs, both fast and slow, if anyone would dare to listen to me sing. 

Oh Mosey Wood we love to wander....