Greetings from Hilltop. It’s hard to believe how quickly the first week of Second Session has flown by. We’ve been buzzing with energy and excitement since camper arrival on Monday, and the fun has only grown from there. Here’s a rundown of our incredible first week, full of laughter, adventure, and the spirit of Four Winds.
Monday was a whirlwind of joyful reunions and new beginnings as we welcomed our campers back to Four Winds for Second Session. From the moment the boats pulled into Four Winds Bay and the first hugs were exchanged, it was clear that this session was going to be one for the books. Each cabin and tent was filled with chatter, excitement, and the buzz of anticipation for the days to come. The counselors got everyone settled and oriented, ensuring everyone felt comfortable and ready to dive into the camp experience.
Tuesday kicked off with Rotation Day, where campers had the chance to learn about our activity areas, pick their classes, and take care of beginning of camp jobs like taking the swim test, visiting the nurse, and having cabin photos taken. The day culminated with Biffer Medic for evening activity, a high-energy game in which camper match fun facts to counselors while avoiding Biffers (counselors armed with a sock full of flour) and getting help from Medics (more counselors, dressed in Folk Dance attire, handing out silly tasks to get unfrozen) when they did get biffed. It was a fantastic way for everyone to blow off steam and build camaraderie at the end of the first full day.
On Wednesday, it was time for Cabin Adventure – in which counselors design an individualized evening activity for each group. In the early days of camp, it’s important for cabins to have time to bond, and Cabin Adventure is a great opportunity.
Thursday brought a beloved tradition to evening activity with Folk Dance. Folk Dance is among the top handful of answers that you tend to get when you ask longtime campers and alumni what their favorite evening activity is. It’s simplicity itself. We dress up in crazy costumes and do line dances to beloved tunes like the Pata Pata, Saturday Night, and Virginia Reel, but like many Four Winds traditions, the description doesn’t do it justice. It’s good clean fun of the best kind, and it’s fantastic to see a generation who, if you believe the conventional wisdom, can’t be entertained with anything but a screen, dive right into analog fun that Four Winds campers and staff have loved for decades.
As the week approached its end, Friday night was a special night for each age group. Just as Cabin Adventure gives space for each cabin to bond, Age Group Night does the same for each age group. Activities ranged from an egg drop contest from the treehouse to dodgeball at Upper Landsports, and a great time was had by all.
Last night was another activity that’s high on the list of favorites: Capture the Chicken. Again, the description doesn’t tell the full story – it’s Capture the Flag with a rubber chicken as the flag, but it’s a ball to run all over this property, and the campers fully embraced it.
Today is our first camp Sunday, when we slow the pace a little and focus on service and community. We slept in for an hour, had Sunday Assembly after breakfast (Flying Cloud led us in a discussion of people that we admire and why we admire them), work projects after that, an extra long rest hour, and for our Sunday afternoon activity, we’re having Regatta Day, with the whole camp heading down to the Dock. Tonight, we’ll gather in the Lodge for our first Evening Fire, arguably our most beloved tradition. We’ll gather in the lodge to share music and poetry, reframe our mindsets in community, getting us ready for another great week.
Thank you, as always, for sharing your children with us. Be sure to follow our daily updates on our Instagram stories, and we’ll post here in a week with another update.