Having been presented with a Bradfield Society Travel Award at Commemoration, Silvia Serra-Scott (K 19-24)  travelled to the Adirondacks to be a counsellor for Camp America during the summer of her Gap Year. She is now studying for a BA Hons in Performance Costume at The University of Edinburgh. Read about her trip...

Arriving to camp was surreal, from the concrete jungle of New York to fewer buildings and more mountains rising through the pines, the scenes along the 7-hour drive into the Adirondacks were immense. I stepped out of the bus welcomed with chants of excitement, finally landing my gaze to my home for the next few months. A pristine lake glittering in the setting sun onlooked by rows of wooden cabins, it felt magical.

For the next few days it was just counsellors, we got our bunks and started to settle in. As one of the Pioneering Counsellors or as we called it the Pio team, we had a lot of courses to complete with the climbing tower, ropes course, first aid and safety on the mountain. One of my favourite memories was when the kids first arrived, it was bus after bus of campers and suddenly the camp was a hive of activity. I was in a bunk with the youngest girls. 4 counsellors with 5 campers. We helped them get settled in, put up their decorations, folded their clothes and helped them make their beds. We were their camp family for the summer. It was quite a scary moment for the girls, their first ever summer away. They were seven and eight years old, but they were super strong and despite a few wobbles every now and again they had the best summer of their lives so far.

Although living, what felt like miles away from any civilisation, our favourite day off trip was to the nearest town Lake George. The picturesque lake surrounded by beach and mountains held many a tanning trip as well as some very competitive water ball games. The town itself felt straight out of the set of Riverdale. The eerie feel that I had just step into a 70s Polaroid both amazed and terrified me. It felt frozen in time. The old arcades and diners lining the street were pure unfiltered American.

This particular summer in New York state came with lots of storms and many tornado warnings, these warnings became so frequent they became normal, and we became less worried about their effects. However on one of my days off we drove through a small town to get to one of the bigger towns, which we subsequently got stuck in due to a tornado and thunderstorm, it was on the way back we witnessed, even on a small scale, how dangerous these were. Whilst driving back through the smaller town (which clearly had been the eye of the tornado) several large cars had been flipped, and a building was in ruin. There were several of these scares throughout the summer, one of the big ones happening near the end of camp where after a big storm one of the large trees had fallen on the power line and we were out of power for almost three days, in the middle of nowhere. Luckly, it ended up with takeaway pizza from Lake George for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

When on one of my bigger hikes I ended walking up sheer rock faces in the middle of a thunderstorm with two campers, it was, as you can imagine, a fairly teriffying situation. Clearly someone was on our side as, as we reached the peak the air cleared, and sun appeared exposing one of the best views i have ever seen. Looking over I felt proud seeing the girls' expressions at the scene ahead. It was just our luck that the moment we started walking back the storm came back in full force. In a way making us appreciate what we had just seen all the more.

After camp a group of us went and travelled through NY, Philly and Miami. With even more stories to tell from each place, hopefully i can go back and visit one day.

Many thanks to Masons for sponsoring the Bradfield Society Travel Award that I received, giving me the opportunity to participate in my Camp America Adventure and to make some memories that will last a lifetime.

This year the Bradfield Society is offering three Travel Awards worth £250 each in the categories of Adventure Travel, Eco Travel and Charity Project. We look forward to receiving trip proposals from interested sixthformers by no later than Friday 9 May for the awards to be made at commemoration. Applications to bradfieldsociety@bradfieldcollege.org.uk