Greetings from Hilltop. It’s been a fantastic first week of First Session. Campers have gotten fully into the swing of the rhythms of Camp. They’ve been having a great time in classes, cutting loose in Evening Activities, building their relationships with each other and their counselors, and perhaps most importantly, taking advantage of all the in between times to be truly present in this experience.
The first week of Camp has certainly been a full one. On Sunday, the first full day of Camp, we had Rotation Day. On Rotation Day, the campers learn about all the activities that are on offer here at Camp and sign up for the second half of their schedules (the first half was filled using the forms you all filled out in the spring). Once that’s done, the Activity Area Heads run up to the office to attempt to give each camper the closest possible thing to their ideal schedule, and the rest of Camp rotates through Camp to visit the nurse, take the swim test, visit the office, exchange uniforms that don’t fit, have their cabin photos made, and get to know each other better. For Evening Activity, we had Biffer Medic – a giant game of tag in which the campers attempt to match interesting facts to counselors while avoiding Biffers (counselors armed with a sock with some flour in it) and being rescued by Medics (counselors dressed in crazy costumes with silly tasks campers can do to get freed from being tagged).
On Monday, classes began. On Wednesday, after going to all their classes once, campers had the opportunity to switch out of any classes they didn’t like and into something they like better. Our goal with classes is to have campers push themselves outside their comfort zone a little bit, and we’ve found over the years that that works best when campers have a voice in which challenges they take on.
Evening Activities for the rest of the week were Cabin Adventure (in which each counselor comes up with an activity for the small groups), Sports Night, Moonraker (where we have silly songs and skits on Moonraker Point, one of the best spots in Camp), Capture the Chicken (Capture the Flag, but with a rubber chicken, the favorite Evening Activity for about half the campers), Age Group Night, and Folk Dance (where we dress up in crazy costumes and do line dances to favorite songs, the favorite Evening Activity of the other half of the campers).
Today is Sunday, a special day in Camp. We take things a bit more slowly than the rest of the world every day in Camp, but on Sundays, we slow down even further and reflect. We sleep in for an hour, have flags and breakfast, and then Sunday Assembly. Today, Top Gallant led Sunday Assembly on the topic of growing up – a particularly poignant topic for our 10th graders, since it’s their last year as campers. As I write this, the campers are doing their Sunday work projects. Later on, we’ll have lunch, an extra long rest hour, and a fun Sunday Afternoon activity. Today, it will be the Four Winds version of the World Cup, complete with made-up countries, a soccer tournament, and yellow cards that result in silly penalties instead of game suspensions (just like the regular World Cup, there’s no biting – sorry, Uruguay).
Tonight, we’ll continue our oldest, and perhaps most treasured tradition, Evening Fire. We’ll gather in the Lodge to share music and poetry. Like many things at Camp, it sounds simple on its face, but it’s a powerful time for our community. It can’t be recreated outside this setting, so we’ll savor it well.
All is it as it should be as we transition from the first week of Camp to the second. Campers are having a ball, stretching beyond their preconceived limits, and connecting with each other and their counselors in wonderful, genuine ways. When there are problems or disagreements, they’re sorting them out with the help of caring, supportive counselors. Beyond that, they’re participating in something that is bigger than themselves, a part of Camp that should never be ignored. It’s a great thing, and I’m glad to be a part of it. Thank you for sharing your children with us. Until next week, be sure to follow our daily updates on Twitter.