E Session Opening!
Dear Parents & Friends,
Welcome to E Session and hope your travels home or wherever your destination was safe and sound. We felt it was a smooth and easy opening and we’re just happy the weather cooperated. After your departure, everyone had a buffet lunch in the Dining Room. Lunch ended as cabins finished up and headed over to the Lodge to sign up for Discovery activities which begin in the morning. Campers sign up for 8 Discoveries of their choice and are assigned 4 for the session. Of those four, two are each day every other day in the morning slots. There are 27 different activity offerings for morning Discoveries aimed at building skills. In the afternoon a host of activities are offered to experience once or as many times as they are offered during the afternoon. So… there’s quite a variety of choices for these youngsters to choose from.
After Discovery sign-ups they went back to cabins to change in activity attire. Everyone was swim assessed today and then proceeded to two of the following activities: Tie Dye, Crafts, Swimming and Lake Fun, Fine Arts, Camping Skills and Nature, Sports, Mill, Farm, Climbing, Horseback Riding, Pottery, and Archery. As you can see we jump right into the program to help with adjustment and not having too much time on one’s hands to think about home. We have a good many new campers this session and we want to keep folks busy this first afternoon.
Tomorrow morning campers will jump right into their Discoveries and we’re off and running for the week. Our calendar for the week is full and we are looking forward to having some fun and great days for experiencing camp life throughout the week.
Tonight at dinner we had our camper friendly pasta and marinara sauce which is a good way to start. Along with the pasta were fresh broccoli, homemade bread, and salad from the garden. Dessert as always is a giant cookie served on an XL pizza pan and chocolate chip no less. Food is important to campers and we want this day of transition to be smooth. We do our best to keep everyone in their comfort zone this first day.
After dinner, we held a giant scavenger hunt for cabin groups and then everyone assembled in the Lodge to go over some nuts and bolts for the session. Campers then went back to their cabins for serenade which happens every evening. A group of our activity leaders go around each evening to let cabins know it’s lights out by singing to each cabin. This has been going on for many many years. There are many traditions here at Gwynn Valley and we hope to share even more with you as the week progresses. Stay tuned!
