A Farm Filled Day
Dear Parents, Family, and friends,
Each day is important and fun at Gwynn Valley but today really seemed to take the cake, carrot cake to be precise. It started with an amazing breakfast of fresh baked apricot cranberry scones with pork sausage, scrambled eggs, and mixed fruit. Following breakfast, campers moved to their B day discoveries. With a morning on the waterfront, making candles at the bong tree, all the way down to the farm, it was an exciting morning of skill building and Fun! Though I think the area of camp which was having the most fun today would have to be the farm. This is due to the long awaited arrival of three baby goats yesterday afternoon, and farm campfire. After 5 long weeks of anticipation the roar of excitement for the goats could be heard all around camp.
While the baby goats weren’t ready for human interaction in the morning, as they need 24 hours after they are born to bond with mom, campers in the afternoon were able to sign up and play with them. And while we did have a storm burst in the afternoon which set off our Thorguard lightning system, our campers and staff took shelter in lightning safe buildings. This resulted in an extended activity time, which pushed dinner back by a bit. There are many ways we appreciate our staff here at camp, and one way we show our appreciation for our support staff is allowing them to get off site as a group to go to dinner.When they do this, our campers and other program staff sit as cabin groups to enjoy a picnic supper. After our picnic, there was time to play.
But the highlight of today had to be the Farm Campfire. It was an amazing experience where we had a live band made up for Shelley, our office manager, Kevin, our director of older programs, Conor, a cabin counselor, and a special appearance of Josh, a staff alumni. Probably what took the metaphorical cake had to be Dale. Dale is the mastermind behind the farm and started the program back in the 1980s. He told us two funny stories and showed us a native Western Carolina way of clogging. Campers and staff were also given the opportunity to stand up and dance along to the band as they sang “Home Grown Tomatoes” and were taught the Cotton Eyed Joe by Farmer Kimmy. With all of these exciting moments of campfire, it’s hard to tell which was the favorite: the band, dancing, listening to Dale tell stories, watch him clog, or get treated to homemade carrot cake.
It has been one long, Farm Fun filled day here at Gwynn Valley and we hope that you have as many laughs as we have. Stay tuned for tomorrow’s blog!
