Greetings from Hilltop. It’s a beautiful day for our first Sunday at Camp, and it’s been a great first week of Second Session.
Sundays are a completely different schedule at Camp. We sleep in an hour later, have a leisurely breakfast, and then Sunday Assembly. At Sunday Assembly, we gather in a beautiful spot in Camp, and a group leads a discussion of some topic that is important at Camp. Today, we met at Big Rock and the CTs led a discussion about trying new things. After Sunday Assembly, we have Sunday Work Projects, where we all do a job to give back to our community. We have lunch, an extra long rest hour, and then a fun Sunday afternoon activity. Today, we’ll all be heading down to the dock for Regatta Day. We’ll have dinner, and for our evening activity, we’ll have Evening Fire, Camp’s oldest evening activity, where we’ll gather in the Lodge to share music and poetry as campers and staff have for 90 years.
A Sunday focused on a slower pace, reflection, celebration, and service is particularly necessary at a four week camp. One of the best parts about a four week session is that there is opportunity for ebbs and flows, for development, and for deeper relationships to form. An opportunity to pause from the normal routine helps that process along, and it makes for some of my favorite camp days.
As I said earlier, it’s been a great first week. As I wrote in my first post, arrival day was followed by Rotation Day and Biffer Medic for evening activity. On Wednesday, we had our first day of classes, and Cabin Adventure for evening activity. Thursday brought the first day of Tuesday-Thursday-Saturday classes, the departure of the first round of intermediate trips (all the cabins and tents that are entering 8th grade), and Sports Night for evening activity. On Friday, we had a Folk Dance, which involves crazy costumes and dancing to well loved line dances. Last night, we had Age Group Night, where each age group comes up with its own evening activity.
With the first week in the books, we’re now ready to get into the meat of Camp. This morning’s Sunday Assembly topic was particularly apt for this time in the session. The reality of the first week of camp, and of a one week camp session, is that most of the new things campers try are thrust upon them. We create their cabin groups, assign their counselors, make their class schedules as best we can, but imperfectly, according to their preferences, and they learn all the ins and outs of camp. Now that all that is behind us, they can choose they new things they will try over the next three weeks. They can attempt that feat in an activity area that has been just beyond their reach. They can attempt to make a new friend that’s beyond their current social group. They can get up to perform at Evening Fire, or one of the many other opportunities we have for performance. In short, they can identify their own challenges, and attempt them. It’s a great thing.
Thank you for sharing your children with us. In this first week, these campers and staff have created the beginnings of a wonderful community, and I look forward to seeing how it develops. Until next Sunday, be sure to follow our daily updates on Twitter.