Thanks Angela Marks for the latest entry on the Counselor Blog! Send your favorite summer memory to media@ACAcamps.org!

My week with Rising Abilities was full of great stories and memories, but one story stands out the most. There was an adolescent camper with autism who was so excited to catch a fish to cook himself that he spent every day asking his group to go fishing for all their activity choices. On the last evening of camp, he finally caught one big enough to keep. Just down the stream, there was a five-year-old boy who was trying really hard to catch a fish but was having trouble. The older boy looked at the younger boy and said, "Don't be sad — you can have my fish." Then he dumped his fish into the other boy’s bucket and walked back to the cabins. It was in that moment that I realized my campers had learned a great social skill: Kindness.

Photo courtesy of Rising Abilities, Lebanon, Missouri