Finding Treasures at Camp
While the Olympics may take a four-year long hiatus (two years if we want to be technical), here at GV we have a spotlight on countries from around the globe multiple times every summer, sometimes twice in one session! We recently celebrated Ireland, New Zealand, Colombia, and Germany as we honored several counselors and staff members and got to see a glimpse of what their countries are like. We were treated to a fantastic day of different cuisines, including Colombian hot chocolate and pandebonos for breakfast, German schnitzel and potato salad with braised cabbage for lunch, and a Kiwi minced meat pie followed with a rich Irish creme chocolate trifle for dessert. We got to see some videos of the stunning landscapes, watched a skit of Hansel and Gretel, sung a song in Maori, and learned all about Gealic football during our Evening Program.
As we give special recognition to all the countries we have staff members visiting from, we here at Gwynn Valley are also getting ready to cheer on Team USA at the Olympics! If you walk by our Dining Hall right next to our lake, you’ll see the American flag waving tall, blowing in the breeze with the picturesque view of the Blue Ridge mountains in the background. While we may be about to watch stunning displays of athleticism and fortitude on the world stage, we’ve had our own stunning displays of athleticism and fortitude from our very own campers! That’s right, both our Mountainside and Main Camp have embarked on their Scavenger Hunts recently, and I can assure you it has been quite the sight to behold.
Mountainside gets a bit more zealous, as it’s each cabin for themselves while they embark on their quest to find the most outlandish things they can. Notable entries of recovered items include the water mat from the lake, camp’s maintenance truck, and the legal birth certificate and driver’s license of a few generous staff members (not to worry, all has been safely returned). The highlight of the night, however, which helped propel one of our girl’s cabins to victory, had to have been the Snapping Turtle that likes to frequent camp’s lake (taken by a counselor, of course).
Main Camp’s scavenger hunt, on the other hand, is a bit more collaborative in nature. It turned out that the sneaky Tajar had dognapped Nala, GV’s yellow lab (and hands down the most popular member of our Greeting Committee on Opening Day). In order to get her back, the cabins all had to collectively earn 5,000 points by finding various items around camp, writing poems, and just creating chaos and whimsy in general. I had the distinct honor and pleasure of helping judge, and I can safely say that if the Tajar ever whisked me away, I would feel safe and secure in knowing Gwynn Valley campers were on my rescue team. Campers earned points by things like having push-up contests with their counselors, getting written life advice from a member of leadership, creating and performing dance routines, and procuring a lock of a staff member’s hair.
One can learn a lot about themselves at camp, and I have learned that I am a complete push-over when it comes to giving out points. How I am to resist when ten small faces sprint up the hill at me, beaming ear to ear, to proudly show me that they’ve poured pond water all over their counselor’s head, prepared a song to sing in Japanese, dressed a counselor in the most astonishingly peculiar assortment of costumes the human eye has ever beheld, and have procured rock solid evidence for who at camp they think could be the Tajar in disguise? (The secret is out Grant, you can’t hide for long). One cabin of boys in particular spent quite a bit of time bringing me as many heart shaped rocks and perfect marshmallow roasting sticks as they could, and I must inform you all that based on their dedication to their craft and unwavering dedication to the task at hand, we have some phenomenal future Young Leaders with us! We can’t wait for another great week at camp cheering on each other and Team USA!
