Hi Folks,
It’s Packing Day today. We’re not really sure how that snuck up on us like that, but here we are. There are two days in the summer that I really don’t enjoy, and this is one of them. The other one is Packing Day at the end of 2nd Session. That one is rough.
For the kids, there are tons of emotions coursing through them. The kids who are going home tomorrow are excited to get home, see their parents, reconnect with their friends, but most are also pretty sad to leave camp. It can be confusing for them. For the 8-week kids, they’re excited for the new session and for the new kids coming up, but also a little sad about saying goodbye to their first session buddies.
Put that all together, and you have the frame of mind of our staff. They are sad to say goodbye to the kiddies who are leaving Saturday, very excited for the kids coming up on Sunday, and they are busy! There’s a lot to do during this change of session time, and they are moving at a feverish pace. So it would make sense that they get tired over this weekend, but here’s the cool part. The energy that the 2nd Session four-week boys bring up with them (remember…for them it will be the FIRST DAY OF CAMP!) creates a wave that we all get to ride together. And it’s incredible how fast that hits us all and gets us going again.
So, we just need to get the boys all packed up, get them on their way early tomorrow morning, and prepare for the wave Sunday afternoon. We can do that.
The last few days of the session were action-packed! As you know, we finished UN Day on a strong note, and that helped us cruise through the last few days. We had an awesome Cruiser Day on Wednesday. The Juniors were here in camp and took over the place! The Intermediates were on the bus and they had some quality time at the waterslide park, the bowling alley, and the mini-golf course. The Seniors scattered with one cabin heading to Madeline Island in Lake Superior, another chilling at a lakeside park closer to camp, and another group going to the ski jump in the Upper Peninsula. It was a beautiful day and everyone had a nice day together.
Yesterday was an exercise in navigating dodgy weather. There was a storm a brewin’ in Minnesota, pointing right at us. In fact, we woke up to some “heavy dew,” which was only the 2nd time all session that happened. Fortunately, by the time activities started, it had stopped, and we were able to get our schedule in. The dryness continued through the afternoon, which was really fortunate.
Last night’s evening program was scheduled to be Capture the Flag…the last Blue & White event of the session. The forecast didn’t look so good, and as we headed into dinner, a light mist was in the air. We figured that we could move things along quickly, skip the free period after dinner and get right into it, and hopefully fitting it in before the storm fully arrived. And that’s precisely how it went down. We managed to get a longer game in than we had hoped, which was awesome. When it came to an end, we regathered in the Lodge to share some ice cream and celebrate a great session of Blue & White events. And, of course, we shared the final results of the session. It was close, folks. Very, very close. And it was fun, folks. Very, very fun!
Luckily we shooed the kids back to their cabins after the ice cream party, and just in time because the skies opened up and we got drenched all night long. The good news is we could really use the moisture. The bad news…well….it’s Packing Day today and there is some wet stuff getting packed up. We’ve had a run on plastic bags in the office, which we have the kids use when packing up wet towels, swim suits, etc. There will be an abundance of that coming home, so be ready for that.
Tonight will be our last campfire of the session, and we’re really hopeful we can have it outside. If not, we’ll be more than capable of holding it indoors, but it’s not our preference. We are having an early dinner tonight because the last campfire of the session tends to run very long. And because tomorrow we will wake everyone up very early. Wake-up tomorrow is 5:15 AM! We don’t ring bells that early because we have a very friendly relationship with our neighbors on the lake, and we want to keep it that way. So we run cabin to cabin waking up kids and counselors, and by 5:45 they are up, their remaining stuff is packed up, and they are in the Lodge having breakfast. The buses will roll out of here tomorrow morning at 7 AM so our flying kids can make their flights.
And then we’ll rest up a bit, and launch right into Visiting Weekend and 2nd Session!
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
- As noted above, we had some wet weather toward the end of the session, so please don’t leave your son’s duffel bags packed up for long after he gets home. The wet stuff is supposed to be in plastic bags, but that will only last so long.
- On a related note, we recommend unpacking your son’s duffels 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 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.
- YOUR SON IS BRINGING HOME AN ENVELOPE WITH HIM THAT WILL HAVE A POST-CARD WITH AN IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT ABOUT NEXT SUMMER’S ENROLLMENT!! Please be sure to ask him for it and check it out.
THANK YOU PARENTS!
We have truly loved our time with your campers during the last month. We know what goes into the whole process of letting your kids go to camp, and we just want you to know how much we appreciate your trust in us and our staff. And we appreciate your support – as always.
We also appreciate our Full Season boys, and we are so excited for the upcoming session. To all of our camp parents, we say thank you very much.
We’ll write again soon.
Benches up,
Mike & Leslie