Carson is somewhere around Cleveland making his way home from Niagara Falls with a couple of dozen or so other teenagers and five adult chaperones. Yes, it's that time of year when church trips, sporting events, scout activities, and all manner of camps require volunteer chaperones everywhere to leave the comfort of their own homes to sleep in bunk beds, dormitories, tents, hotels, motels, cabins, or whatever else the case may be.

This is Carson's fourth trip, this summer, which have all been supervised by different groups of willing adults. Currently, he's with our church youth choir and they've been singing in retirement communities and nursing homes as they've worked their way through various landmarks of Kentucky, Pennsylvania, New York, and now back down to Ohio. Of course, since the beginning of the early Christian church, there's been the obligatory bus/van/camel breakdown, which has also proved to be the case for our group, this week. 

Our minister of music is the trip coordinator/bus driver of this 8 day expedition and, just in case you're wondering, from good ol' Mississippi, this trip to Niagara Falls equals driving 25 children, who don't belong to you, approximately 1,061.4 miles. I don't really want to drive my own children 1,061.4 miles much less a bus full of other people's children. And the thing about being the driver is that when you drive a bus load of other people's offspring 1,000+ miles away from their homes, then you're kind of obligated to also drive them back. Otherwise, I think it's called kidnapping, so we're really talking about 2,122.8 miles...that is if you can resist your impulse to leave them on the side of the road somewhere.  
I don't know how many years David has been taking the youth choir all over the nation, but I do know that he's driven both of my children, for 10 consecutive years, to places like Chicago, Philadelphia, Washington DC, Pittsburgh, San Antonio, Boston, Myrtle Beach, and Toronto. I even know, one summer, he retraced 30 miles or so to go back and retrieve some shopping bags Blair had left in her hotel room drawers. I'm sure that God noted this in His books and will dole out the appropriate rewards to David in the hereafter. 

I remember when I was a kid and we'd go on church trips. The list of chaperones was always about the same from trip to trip. I suppose there just wasn't an abundance of people falling all over each other to volunteer. I remember one trip, in particular, on which one of the boys on our van mooned a passing vehicle. There's nothing like a church van traveling down a long stretch of interstate with its name, denomination, and address plastered on both sides with a derrière pressed up against the glass. Nothing reinforces the catchy van message, "Follow me to Church" quite like that does. In this particular case, the adults used the ultimate chaperone weapon...the threat to purchase the offender a Greyhound bus ticket home....and I'm sure caused the church to consider unmarked transportation going forward. You know, not unlike a prison bus. And, as I recall, through the years, a few first time chaperones hung up their gloves after pulling back into our church parking lot. Never to chaperone again. It's just a tough business.    
So, as a parent, I'd like to recognize all of those, who are hitting the road, this summer. Not for a glamorous trip with those closest to them, but those people who take a week of vacation to have other people's children annoy them in enclosed spaces for extended periods of time. Those who walk around with the medical release forms and a purse full of over the counter meds. For the ones who have to get out of bed, walk down the hall in their PJs, and give a room full of teenagers a final warning about the noise with a firm, "Am I going to have to call some Mamas?...because I will!" For those responsible for counting heads every time the bus is reloaded. For those posting pics on Facebook to entertain childless parents back home as they're eating bonbons and getting pedicures. For those, who keep the children from playing in the interstate, while a tire is being changed. Those who've comforted homesickness and cleaned up car sickness. For those, who load the luggage and unload the luggage and load the luggage and unload the luggage. For the ones, who have to find an exit to accommodate every whim of 30+ bladders. And for those who endure the smells that waft up from the back of the bus and are bombarded with snippets of a thousand conversations, while traversing unfamiliar roads....I want to thank you.

While it doesn't seem like one of those big, huge tasks, which garners a lot of attention or makes a big difference, it does. I still remember all of the adults, who invested time in my life and I know my kids will, too. Thanks to all the chaperones, who'll lay their head down on a lumpy pillow tonight and get up and load luggage and count heads again tomorrow.....all for the enrichment of other people's kids.

Here's to chaperones everywhere. Past and present.

God bless.     


Y'all have a great weekend!