E Session Opening Day!

Dear Parents & Friends,

I hope most of you are safe and sound at home or perhaps at your alternate destination.  Thanks so much for such a smooth opening day and it was a great day to start our E session camp.  By noon most everyone was here and our lunch buffet kicked off the afternoon.  After lunch everyone went over to the lodge for Discovery signups and then it was off to activities this afternoon.  Climbing, Sports, Web of Life, Horses, Fine Arts, Mill, Outdoor Living Skills, Farm, Lake Fun, Tie Dye, Crafts, Pottery, and Swimming were all open this afternoon.  Your first afternoon at camp is a busy one and there’s a reason for this.  We like to keep campers busy in case there’s some lingering thoughts of home.  We also held swim assessments for all campers at the pool, which allows us to know each camper’s swimming ability.  Even though we wear PFD’s when we’re in any kind of boat, going off the zip line, playing on the watermat or testing your mettle on the Tension Traverse, it’s helpful to know swim levels.  Campers who don’t pass their “Lake” classification have to wear a PFD on the lake period and usually stay in the shallow area of the pool.  There’s not many of these campers but enough to certainly keep tabs on them when in the water.

Discovery Activities start tomorrow morning and here are the offerings: Masks Making, Weaving, Jewelry Making, Marbling, Silk Scarves, Scuba Steve’s Splash and Play, Mountain Biking, Large Vases (pottery), Wind Chimes, Outdoor Living Skills, Whitewater Kayaking, Web Of Life, Farm, Mill, Soccer, Stand Up Paddling, Archery, Creek Hiking, American Sports, Horses, Climbing (3 types), and Fine Arts.  Your children will be taking 4 of these in the morning hours and then have access to free signups every afternoon.  It will be a busy and exciting week.  You can make a lot happen in an 8 day session and we intend to do just that.

At tonight’s campfire each cabin presented their cabin skits which will continue into tomorrow evening.  We also learned where many of our campers were from and here’s the list of states:  AL, CA, CO, DE, FL, GA, KY, LA, MD, MI, MS, NC, NJ, NY, OH, PA, SC, TN, TX, UT, VA, VT, WA, NE, WV & MA.  And to top that off, here are the countries represented at camp for this session: Australia, England, Hungary, Republic of Ireland, Netherlands, New Zealand, Northern Ireland, Phillipines, Poland, Scotland, South Africa, and of course the US.

As I write serenade has taken place and all cabins are on their way to zzzz land.  Mountainside and Riverside will be leaving us on Tues. to begin their grand adventures and will return on Friday just in time for the Tajar Ball.  In the meantime we’ll keep you informed on what’s going on in camp and out of camp as best we can.  It will be a full week of activity and camp is akin to a bee hive this time of year.  We are making fun and learning instead of honey by carefully filling the structure of honeycomb that camp has in place.  Campers will be flying about gathering skills, gaining confidence and finding their way back to the hive several times a day to reconnect with their cabin, friends, and table groups.  Wings will grow and mature as they gain resilience, learn to make good decisions on their own and under the guidance of many king and queen bees. We hope that they will return home carrying the pollen of camp with them.  Stay tuned, there’s so much to come!