Decorative Packaging

Every summer I work as a camp counselor at Camp Scoopachop in Southwest Maine. And, at the end of every summer it seems like most of the kids are complaining that the strings that tie their sleeping bags together have broken. The kids are left to hulk their bulky bags home wrapped in trash bags, or dragging along the dirt road leading to the parking lot where their parents pick them up.

This summer I had a novel idea–why not grab some of the bulk elastic cord stored in the camp’s arts and crafts shed to use to secure the kids’ sleeping bags into neat rolls! First, I tried my idea out with my cabin. The kids loved it, and they even decorated the plain, white elastic cord with marking pens and glitter. Soon enough the other counselors were asking me how to make the elastic sleeping bag cords. By the end of the summer even the kids who didn’t need them were using the elastic cord! I even won the award for “the best original arts and crafts project!”