B Session Opening Day!
Dear Parents and Friends,
Opening Day for B Session was the best. Great cool weather in the morning was the perfect way to open our next session for the summer. After a good lunch we presented activity skits for our morning “Discovery” programs to help campers decide what they wanted to take over the days ahead for their morning activities. This is important because there is so much offered in the morning and in the afternoon. Over the course of 6 days of Discovery they have 4 activities in the morning and two different ones each afternoon. For those new to GV, morning sign-ups are for building skills and afternoons more for the experience, possibly adding to those skills and trying new things. Swim assessments were scheduled this afternoon along with activities. It takes a while to get through all those but it’s worth it and allows us to determine which campers need some help with their strokes. After sign-ups our major activities in Main Camp were open and running. Activities offered this afternoon were Pottery, Sports, Fine Arts, Mill, Horseback Riding, Crafts, Swimming, Camping Skills and Nature, Climbing, and Farm. Activities just for today were pre-assigned and get children right into the flow and tomorrow we start on the choices they made today. Many more activities are scheduled for tomorrow.
Tonight’s dinner was noodles and marinara sauce along with broccoli and salad from our farm and a giant cookie for each table in the dining room. Campers sit as cabin groups until tomorrow at lunch and then we all go to different tables and you get a chance with folks that are not in your cabin. After dinner there were after supper activities and then all campers attend our first campfire for the session. Cabins were introduced at campfire tonight via Cabin skits which are always great.
Mountainside had their closing ceremony tonight and Anne went up to the MS shelter to honor them and their time at GV. Several of those campers have been at camp for as many as 8 years. What a great crew up on Mountainside and also a great staff. Hat’s off to the staff for putting together such a great session. Thank you for sharing your Mountainside campers with us for the last 10 days. I think they’ve had great experience and we look forward to having them back next year either back on Mountainside or in our Riverside program.
As morning activities kick off tomorrow know that your children are learning and “living the GV dream” as one camper said. This is our 81st year of camping and many more to follow. Camp takes children to a new level of community life that even school and family can’t always imitate. Campers have a chance to make choices and become independent in their time with us. Camp creates a sense of confidence and resilience. Camp also offers a sense of belonging to something that is greater than oneself where we still practice the GV values of simplicity, acceptance, a strong connection to the natural world and in a non-competitive setting. We’re looking forward to a session of the simple joys of childhood for the days ahead. Stay tuned!