Another Gorgeous Day at Gwynn Valley
Dear Parents, Families, and Friends,
It’s been another gorgeous day for the books! The sun was out all day and while we did have some cloud cover, and a few rumbles of thunder, our day carried on with no interruptions.. There was a delicious breakfast of oatmeal, scrambled eggs, and fruit followed by the final day of C1 Discoveries. Some campers finished up their crafts projects like basket weaving, batik, and pottery projects. While others are taking away skills like mountain biking, horseback riding and horse care, along with kayaking, archery, and stand up paddle boards. All together, it’s been an amazing 6 days of growing skills, learning new things, and broadening horizons.
After an exhilarating and full morning, campers and staff sat down to a delicious meal of Brats, buns, watermelon, pasta salad, and cowboy fries for lunch. Corn is coming in fast so after lunch, all campers and staff headed out to the basketball court to shuck 3 ears of corn each which we enjoyed at dinner. Moving to sign-ups campers got to choose from a variety of activities from getting to make anything they wanted in blacksmithing, sitting with Debbie to make some cool braille critters, to corn cob boats at the mill. In addition to crafts, campers were able to sign up for archery, going on the zipline and traverse line at the waterfront, or heading down to the farm to pick some vegetables and play with the baby animals.
For dinner we had some delicious chicken cacciatore, with broccoli, corn and green salad, both of which were from our farm. It’s always so amazing to see what our kitchen staff put together in ways that allow our campers to expand their palate and try something new that they normally wouldn’t or would be hesitant to. Whew, our campers ate a lot of pasta! Tonight we also had six of our Main Camp cabins camping out, which left our dining hall feeling extra large. Our cabins who are out must have planned for the perfect weather as we are expecting partially cloudy skies and temperatures hovering around 70 degrees.
Once after supper activities end and campers move from running around on the green, or trying to spot the Tajar, our Hillsiders head into the lodge to start their evening of Mountain Dancing while our Brooksiders head up to Mountainside to learn about that program and are told how MS is similar and yet different to Main Camp. It always seems like there’s something magical that happens here in the valley around this time. The cicadas come out and start to chip, the sun begins to set over the mountains, casting the sky in pinks, purple, violet, and orange, and the sweet sound of children’s laughter can be heard across the green. I always appreciate this time of day, when the temperatures cool and the sky looks like a picture perfect painting, always unique, it makes me take a moment and reflect on the day. I think about the day as a whole, the smiling faces of our campers, and what a gift it is to help these amazing children’s world grow just a little bit bigger, and create memories with them.
While it’s time to close another day, I would like to share with you one of my favorite songs we sing at campfire “Goin’ Back To Carolina.” The song goes: I can hear the soft winds blowin’ through the valleys and the hills / I can hear the soft winds blowin’as I go, as I go, / I can hear the soft winds blowin’ through the valleys and the hills / I’m goin’ back to Carolina, bless my soul, bless my soul. Stay tuned for tomorrow’s blog and may your evening be just as peaceful as ours at camp.
