Days of Camp – July 12, 2019

Hi Folks,

ANNOUNCEMENTS:

  • For parents of four-week campers coming home on Saturday, we recommend unpacking your son’s duffel bags in your garage, your basement, your neighbor’s garage, just not in the house.  A little bit of camp often comes home with the kids, and you probably don’t want too much of that in the house.
  • If your son is missing anything OF VALUE when he gets home, please let us know.  We have returned all items that we recovered that has a name written on it.  We will have some stuff come in after the boys leave (it disappears and then poof!  Reappears later).  If we find what he’s missing, we’ll send it to you.
  • All 1st Session, four-week parents will receive a letter from one of your son’s counselors within a few days of him being home.  We hope you find it informative and helpful.  We also hope you’ll bear in mind many of our counselors are young, and unlikely to pursue a career in writing.  A NICE NOTE FROM PARENTS THANKING THE COUNSELORS FOR THEIR TIME AND ATTENTION TO THEIR CAMPERS IS A HUGE MORALE BOOSTER.  If you would be so kind to send them a thank-you note, we know they’d truly appreciate it, and we would too.  You can just address it to the cabin counseling team or a specific counselor at our PO Box and we’ll be sure to get it to them.  Thanks in advance for that.
  • Very soon we will ask you and your son to complete an online survey with your impressions of his experience at camp.  The more info we get, the better we can do.  Please follow through on that when the time comes.  Thanks.

Well….

It’s Packing Day.

Today is my 2nd least favorite day of camp.  It’s still camp and all…we’re having fun today while our 4-week kids pack up.  But still, they’re packing and tomorrow they’re leaving, and that’s just happened much too quickly.

What’s my #1 least favorite day of camp?  Packing Day 2nd session.  Don’t even want to think about it.

We’ve had a great few days since UN Day, and we have a fun Visiting Weekend coming up.  The weather has sure been terrific.  We had threats of rain on both Tuesday and Wednesday, and while we got pretty soaked Tuesday night, it didn’t start till the end of Evening Program, and it brought some cooler air along which made for a great night of sleep.  We definitely have no complaints with Mother Nature this session!

Wednesday was pretty warm, but we had a nice breeze blowing all day, and it was ideal for Cruiser Day.  The Senior Village cabins were out and about in vans, with a few tubing down the Wisconsin River, some heading up to Lake Superior, and one group checking out a water park down near Wausau.  The Intermediate village was together on a bus, and they had a blast!  They went bowling in the morning, grilled out burgers for lunch at a nearby park.  After that they went to the water slide park just south of town, and finished the day with a big pizza dinner.  And here in camp the Junior Village played all day, and they had a village campfire after dinner.  There was a threat of dew for the afternoon, and the sky did get cloudy, but we stayed dry and had a wonderful day.

Yesterday the last laundry of the session came back, and that always includes a bag or two of lost & found laundry that we send out from the L&F box.  Funny story….there was a Duke t-shirt that looked very familiar, but the name tag in it was worn and illegible.  So, as we were handing out the L&F laundry at breakfast, I walked to the older end of camp to check in with someone who I thought often wore Duke stuff.  He said it wasn’t his, but he thought it belonged to another camper.  So I walked to his table and as I was holding the shirt up for him to see, I got a tap on my shoulder.  I turned around and a different camper told me, with great confidence, that the shirt belongs to a counselor.  I walked over to that counselor, showed him the shirt, and sure enough, it was his.

Y’know why I love that?  Because in this family community of ours, people notice other people, and in short order – with the help of campers – we were able to identify who owned that shirt.  The kids pay attention and they know everyone so well, that it worked out.  I just think that’s cool.

Yesterday’s weather was nearly picture perfect.  The humidity was low, and we were in the mid-70s all day with a cloudless sky.  As it was the last day of activities for the 4-week kids, they pushed themselves hard to make it a great one.  It was cool to see the boys work hard at skiing to try to accomplish their goals.  And, of course, the staff was anxious to provide those extra pointers and extra time to pitch in with the effort.

Last night was our last Blue & White event, which was Capture the Flag.  Easily tonight was the best game of Cap Flag we have seen in many years.  The boys were into it, the staff was so enthusiastic, and the action was non-stop.  When the games finally concluded, we adjourned to the Lodge where we celebrated a great session of Blue & White events with a nice ice cream party.   Then it was time to announce the winning team for this sessions Blue & White, which – as it turned out – was the Blue team.  Congrats to everyone!

So, today we pack, and tomorrow we send our four-week campers back to you.

We have HUGE plans for our 8-week kids.  Visiting Weekend is gonna be awesome, and then we crank right back up as soon as it’s over.  We know that some of those boys may be a little blue for a few minutes when their visitors head out, but don’t worry….we got this.  We’re going to have so much fun with them, and when the 2nd session four-week kids arrive on Sunday afternoon, we’re gonna greet them with incredible energy!  Y’see…I’m feeling better already!

2nd Session has some amazing trips on the calendar.  We’ll tell you all about the first few that will go out in our next posting.

Finally, we want to extend our heartiest thank yous to all of you who have shared your boys with us this session.  We have had so much fun with them, and a real family environment has taken hold.  That makes it hard to say goodbye to the kids who are going home tomorrow.  We hope they have a great 2nd half of the summer.  We really cannot wait to get our 2nd Session four-weekers up here to join the rest of us and see how the new session unfolds.  We know it’s going to be fantastic!

We’ll write again soon.

Benches up,

Mike, Leslie & Dustin