Great Opening Day!
Dear Parents and Friends,
Your arrivals and drop-offs went very smooth this morning. Our D session started beautifully and then a shower rolled in later in the afternoon. After lunch went right into signups and then off to activities. There’s not too much down time on opening day and there are reasons for that. Thank you for bringing such a great batch of campers. We hope you are safe and sound wherever your destination. We just finished our first night of cabin skits and will return tomorrow night to complete all the cabins on Hillside and Brookside. Our Mountainsiders and Riversiders hold their own campfires in their own quarters. Dinner tonight was the traditional first night of spaghetti which is very child friendly food. To top things off each cabin got a giant cookie, and I do mean giant chocolate chip cookie at their table. It had their cabin name on it written in icing. After supper we all went to “after supper activities” and there was a great choice of things to do.
Activities open this afternoon were pottery, horses, weaving at Shady Grove, the Mill, sports, the pool and also peeked in on Riverside on the Gatehouse Green playing ice breaker games. They play a lot of icebreaker games to get to know one another and start the session off right. It was certainly a vocal crowd. They were having a blast. Mountainside was playing their own games and working on group bonding as well.
We also held swim assessments this afternoon after lunch. We don’t call them swim tests because that sounds too much like school. Campers also signed up for their Discovery Activities today. They will take those four activities through Saturday which last for 3 days each and happen every other day just in the morning. The Discovery activities are as follows: Farm/Mill, Horses, Archery, Climbing (3 types), Soccer, Candles, Weaving, Fine Arts Musical, Dance, Mask Making, Basketry, Batik, Printmaking, Weaving, Stand up Paddle boards, Creek Hiking, Junior Life Guarding, WEB, Mountain Biking, Pottery (2 types), Outdoor Living Skills, and Whitewater Kayaking. The afternoon has 2 more hours of activities that provide campers with a variety of sign-ups each day. These can be 1 or 2 hour activities and there’s no limit to the possibilities. Staff can provide a one time activity or several of the same over the week. This should be a great week as the session begins.
Riverside leaves on Tues. for their climbing trip and they are going to Foster Falls in TN. They’ll be gone through Friday of this week. Mountainside begins their mini-adventures tomorrow and will be in and out of camp as they sample each adventure. As the session progresses, we’ll have more and more trips out for all three programs including Main Camp. We look forward to reporting on those and hopefully will have some photos up.
Last night the whole staff met for our campfire before we started D, Mountainside and Riverside sessions. We have a great staff this summer! Our goals are being met through their fine work of providing the following aspects that define Gwynn Valley:
Camp has been a safe and supportive environment where children can develop authentic relationships.
It’s a place where we’re unplugged and focused on one another and becoming cohesive in our groups of cabin, table, and program communities.
We’re providing parenting on a different level, with structure and support as they gain hard and soft skills each day.
We’re helping the campers reconnect to the natural world where they are participating in human powered activities.
And last but not least, we’re allowing them to relax and just be kids or as we say at GV “the simple joys of childhood”.
Can you think of a better way to spend 13 days or three weeks. Ya gotta love it!
Stay tuned!
PS – Our internet was down last night so pardon the late update!