Trust and Teamwork Conquer The Toughest of Challenges

Dillon Osei placed one foot into a hanging tire and shoved off with the other.

"Swinging!" he said.

"Swing on!" came shouts in reply.

Dillon, 15, a staff trainee at Camp Moss Hollow, had embarked on a 40-foot journey, careening from swinging tire to swinging tire, all suspended from a wire and dangling about two feet above the ground. Would he make it to the last tire?

It looked like something the Marines might have invented.

With some resolve, more momentum and lots of encouragement from a dozen other teens stationed along the way to catch him if need be, he made it to the end of the tricky course.

And by getting there, he demonstrated a Camp Moss Hollow truism: In unity, trust and teamwork, much can be accomplished. Or, the whole is often greater than the sum of its parts.

It's a life lesson that is constantly reinforced for the nearly 100 campers at Moss Hollow every week. Teamwork wins the daily "Golden Broom" award for the unit with the tidiest beds, the neatest bathrooms and the cleanest cabin floors. It's teamwork that transforms the dining hall after meals, when campers and counselors together stow away tables and chairs, sweep up the trash and mop the floor.

Not everybody at Moss Hollow has had much experience with teamwork or trust. More than a few campers lead challenging lives as foster children. Many live in neighborhoods where trouble, even danger, can be hard to avoid and where mutual trust is the exception rather than the rule.

"They're kids who've been marginalized," Camp Director Hope Asterilla said. "Many of them haven't known much success."

Moss Hollow offers a taste of success, and it often comes through trust and teamwork.

The camp's Challenge Course is where every camper gets the message loudest and clearest, whether they're tackling those tires, trying something a bit simpler or confronting the Big Daddy of challenges: the Wall.