Lift School Day 1

It has been a good first day at camp. It has been cool and overcast today. As long as it isn't raining, that is preferable, by some at least, to hot and sunny. The campers arrived right on time. We got them all checked into their tents, and met in the dining hall to have a quick snack and go over some camp rules. We were able to start the day's first activities right at 10:30.

Our day is divided into 90-minute activity periods, and the children are divided into three teams. The teams rotate through the activities. Today, the campers had the following schedules.

Gray Team started with climbing. Our wall is about 18 meters tall and campers had a choice of climbing the level 1 wall or the cargo net. In most cases, they all have the chance to each at least once. After lunch, they went river tracing. There is a small stream running through camp. They put on life jackets, helmets, and river tracing shoes to trek several hundred meters up the stream. For many kids, this is one of their favorite activities.

The Yellow Team began with orienteering. Groups of 3-4 campers are given a map and have to find clues hidden around Camp. If they find all the clues, they can solve a puzzle that allows them to open a locked box. Inside is a ledger of all the people who have completed the task before, and they can add their names. After lunch, they moved on to the Giant Swing. This is just what it sounds like. A camper is suspended from a cable, and the others pull them up. The camper on the swing, can stop at any point. Then they have to pull a release and they swing away.

The Pink Team had the Giant Swing as their first activity and then had archery after lunch. After a bit of instruction and a few rounds of practice, they have a quick competition.

Our final afternoon activity period was a camp-wide game called Survival. This is a camp-wide game where campers are split into herbivores, omnivores, and carnivores. Each group starts with a different number of “lives.”

The herbivores try to complete missions, such as finding food and water, while avoiding the omnivores and carnivores. The omnivores have to "eat" a certain number of herbivores while completing a smaller number of missions and also avoid being eaten by the carnivores. The carnivores, of course, have to catch omnivores and herbivores.

In the later stages of the game, a few people are released in the role of viruses. They can catch or infect any of the above. In the final moments of the game, a couple of teachers or counselors are dispatched as humans. They can kill anything.

There can be more than one winner. Any herbivore who completes the missions and still has some lives left, is a winner. Likewise, any omnivore or carnivore who catches enough prey, completes their missions, and doesn't get eaten is a winner. It's a lot of fun and demonstrates the food chain.

The campers have all had a chance to take a shower and are eating dinner now. After dinner, we will take a short night hike. We won't go far, but hopefully, we will see lots of animals and insects that only come out at night.

That is all for tonight. There is a link below to a Dropbox folder with pictures of the day. The password to this blog will change when the next group comes to camp, so please be sure to download any pictures you wish to keep.

Dropbox link