Ally Blomgren, 10, is a bright, chipper fifth grader at Kincheloe Elementary School who’s looking forward to Fitch Camp this summer. I take that back. She’s not just “looking forward” to Fitch Camp. According to her, she’s “excited because it’s really, really fun!”

Though she attends classes in the school north of the city, Ally lives south, so she takes the school bus from Patrick Hamilton on sunny summer mornings.

It’s a part of the successful logistics that Fitch Camp has worked out for decades with the Dowagiac school system, so kids, no matter where they live, can easily and safely get to the campgrounds.

This camp-school cooperation has enabled Ally to meet Fitch Campers from other schools as well as her own.

She and her friends, Daniella and Shelby, from different schools, can catch up on their latest news on the drive out to Cable Lake.

According to Ally, “We like playing games on the basketball court, like Octopus.”

They also enjoy “those string things.”

She’s made lanyards for everyone in her family, in their favorite colors. How does she know their colors? “I asked them!” she says.

When asked about lunch at Fitch Camp, she replied, “It’s kind of like school lunch. Well, actually, it’s kind of better because of everything we do.”

The counselors are “really fun,” and Ally is a good judge of fun. “I can talk to them,” she says, “and some of us get to be good friends.”

One of her favorite stories about swim time is when the kids watched one of the counselors “attack” another counselor in a paddle boat. “But they were just having fun,” she declares. “The counselors watch us really well.”

What if someone should fall and scrape a knee? “They take you to the main building and fix you right up,” she says.

Ally was telling me all this because she knows that the annual soup luncheon that benefits Fitch Camp will be served at First United Methodist Church this Thursday, March 17, from 11:30 to 1:30.

The women of Alpha Upsilon Master Chapter of Beta Sigma Phi are busy preparing three kinds of homemade soup and lots of salad and desserts for hungry people looking for a good lunch.

Takeouts are also available at (269) 251-6406.

“Bloomie” — that’s Ally’s nickname sometimes at Fitch Camp. When I asked why, I had a kind of duh moment. “Well, because of my name, you see!” Of course!

Then I asked her two last questions: What would you do if there was no Fitch Camp? And what do you think your favorite memory of Fitch Camp will be when you’re grown up?

To the first she replied, “It would be a pretty boring summer!”

And to the second, she gave an answer that would be echoed by so, so many grown-up Dowagiac kids: “My favorite memory would be just how much fun and how much I got to enjoy at Fitch Camp!”

Let’s keep helping all the kids of the Dowagiac school system to enjoy the benefits of Fitch Camp.

One of the best ways to do that is to help yourself to homemade good food at the soup luncheon March 17.

The donation for the homemade soups, salad and desserts is only $5.

And after all, it’s all for kids like Ally.