Note: The following essay was written by a 1st grader about her favorite place in the world. The essay won 1st place in a local PTA contest

My Favorite place is Camp Y-Noah because me and my friends are always together there. Camp Y-Noah is a really fun place to go to because there is a lot to do. We are there for three days and we have tons of fun during those three days at Camp Y-Noah.

On Friday my Dad and I leave to go to camp Y-Noah. We stop at a big McDonalds with a play ground to meet my friends and their Dads. Our Indian Princess tribe is called Catawba. We arrive at Camp Y-Noah in the afternoon. We unpack and theres a warm fire for us to sit around and we make smores. When I am hot I go play with my friends while the Dads sit around the fire. Then we go inside the cabin to play then go to bed. I am still awake and read a book.

We wake up on Saturday morning, brush our teeth and then we get to go to breakfast and when we come back from breakfast we get to play. Some of us go to the fishing spot and fish. Me and my friend Kathleen go sand climbing. We made up this game and it is fun. Me and my friends and the Dads go to lunch and we had pizza. After lunch we go to the Cabin and we play my little pet shops. After that we go outside and play some tag. We take a walk where the haunted hay ride is. We go on a haunted hay ride. I like to go on the haunted hay ride. That was really fun. We see scary stuff, skeletons and witches, and on the haunted hay ride we saw the chainsaw guy who could only say argh so we named him Argh. We go rock climbing and horseback riding. After horseback riding we go to the store and I got a bunny with a shirt that said Camp Y-Noah. I carry my bunny every day in my backpack at school to remind me of Camp Y-Noah. My friends and I like to play tether ball, then we go and have dinner at the Dining hall. At night we go looking for Big Foot. One time at camp Y-Noah I saw Big Foot's cave. Big Foot is not always mean but he does like to eat kids :-)

Saturday night we go to the dining hall and eat dinner and after that we sit around the campfires and some of us have torches and we play until the torch parade has come. At the torch parade we get our torches lit and we get to go to this one place that we throw our torches in the fire to make a big fire. My Dad said he is wasting a lot of his shirts making torches. After the torch parade we go to bed and tell scary stories in our cabin while lying in our bunk beds.

On Sunday morning we brush our teeth and we pack up to go home. I don't want to go home but I meet up with my friends at the same McDonalds and play. After that we go home and me and Dad are finally home and I will miss Camp Y-Noah. Me and Meghan have a plan for the next time we go to Camp Y-Noah.

Camp Y-Noah is one of my favorite places because I spend a lot of time with my friends and Daddy. 

-- Emily H.