Greetings from Hilltop on a warm, sunny San Juan Islands Sunday. We’re about a week and a half into First Session, and everything is as it should be. We’re past the beginning of camp jittery phase and have hit the stride of the Session.
I wrote a week ago that the Session starting on a Thursday presented us with a bit of a dilemma for when to have the first real Camp Sunday, and that our solution for a week ago was to have regular classes on the 25th but still have Evening Fire for Evening Activity. A week later, we can have our first “real” Sunday of the session. In a four-week camp session, it’s important to intersperse the regular activity with an opportunity to slow down, reflect, serve, and have a different type of fun than we do Monday through Saturday. So, on Four Winds Sundays, we sleep in for an hour, have a nice breakfast, and then go to a special spot in Camp for Sunday Assembly. At Sunday Assembly, a cabin or tent group leads a discussion on a topic important to camp. Today, the Clipper tent led a discussion at Hill of the Moon on why we return to camp each year (or why we came for the first time). It was a brilliant topic for this stage of the session, because now that we’re all in the swing of the camp routine, we had a chance to reflect on why we’re all really here, which will center and focus us for the remainder of the session. After Sunday Assembly, we have Sunday work projects, in which each cabin or tent does a project for an hour or so that will make camp better. Then, we have lunch, an extra long rest hour, and a Sunday afternoon activity. Today, it’s the Barden Fair, in which the Barn and Garden staff combine to have a festival with sack races, pony rides, music, a pie eating contest, watermelon and snow cones for prizes, and other good clean fun on the west side of the property. Tonight, as usual, we’ll have Evening Fire, the perfect way to cap a Four Winds Sunday.
This Sunday caps off a fantastic week. It’s hard to believe how much has happened. Two-thirds of our intermediate campers have already completed their cabin trips. The Carlyn successfully began its journey, with nine campers and four staff, north up the Straight of Georgia. We had a Folk Dance, Age Group Night, Capture the Chicken, Family Feud, Sports Night, and Craftapalooza for Evening Activities. (For those that might not know what some of those are, be sure to look back on our Twitter Feed for an explanation of each one.)
Most importantly, the campers are starting to feel like they’re in their second home. Four weeks is a long time for a residential camp experience, at least on the West Coast. We stick to it at Four Winds because we know that type of experience people have come to value here takes time to marinate. Shorter camps can be fantastic, but the focus tends to be a bit more on fast-paced fun and activities. Keep them moving and send them home happy. At Four Winds, and other great longer-term camps, the focus is on community and relationships, and those take time. I’m fond of saying that at a four-week camp, you’ve got time to make a friend, have a fight, and make up. That’s how genuine, lifelong relationships are formed and strengthened, and that’s what’s happening here this month.
Thank you, as always, for sharing your children with us. We’re having a ball, and we’ll see you back here in this space next week.