Session 1 Day 1

It has been a great first day so far. We got all the campers to camp on time and the pickup went smoothly. Thank you to all the parents for being on time and patient.

When we arrived at camp, we spent a little while getting all of the campers into their tents, and then each team started out with some icebreaker and name games. This is a good chance for the counselors to get to know the kids, as well as for the kids to get to know each other.

We then moved into the dining hall where we had a quick orientation and went over the rules for camp. Each tent group signed a Community Standards and Behavior agreement. It is very important to us that all the campers treat each other with respect and this ensures that everyone knows our expectations. You will see a picture of the agreement and a photo of each tent group in a special folder in the photos folder.

After the orientation, we had lunch and then rest hour. Rest hour gets the kids out of the sun for the hottest part of the day. It is also a chance for the kids to really bond in their tent groups. They don't have to sleep, but they do have to engage in low-key activities such as card games or board games in their tents. They can also read or take a nap if they wish.

After the rest period, we had our first activity period. For those you who have never had a child at Camp, this is how it works: We divide the campers into teams, roughly by age. Hopefully, you noted what team your child was on when you put them on the bus this morning. We have 4 ninety-minute activity periods in the day, two in the morning and two in the afternoon. The color-teams rotate through the activities. We also have an additional period after dinner that everyone participates in together.

Today, the teams had the following schedules:

Red Team: Sports (Pillow Polo)

Pink Team: Crafts

Blue Team: Giant Swing

Green Team: River tracing

Orange Team: Ecology

There is a big group of teens (Gray Team) this week, so they are divided into two groups for some activities. Half of them did Climbing and the other half did archery. Then they switched.

For the final activity period, the youth campers played their first wide game. This is a game that all the campers play together. Today's game was Battleship. It is based on the popular game of the same name. All the campers are divided into two teams, and each team has a base with a counselor. Red and blue balls are scattered around camp. The campers disperse and search for the balls. If a camper finds a ball and successfully returns it to their base without getting tagged by the other team, they get to choose a square on the board. Once they choose a square, the counselor/base-master will reveal whether they have a hit or a miss. The first team to find and sink all of the opponents ships is the winner.

At 5:30 the kids all headed down to their tents for a shower and a bit of a rest. Dinner started at 6:30. They are just finishing up now, and then they will have a little bit of time to write in their journals before we begin our evening program. Tonight we will have our opening campfire. The counselors have a little skit prepared for the campers, and we will play some games and sing some songs together. We will end the night by roasting marshmallows for s'mores.

There is a link to the Dropbox folder with pictures of the day below. If you are not sure what team your child is on, start with the tent pictures folder. when you find your child, note the color of the lanyard on their name-tag. That is their team. Most of the pictures will be in that team's folder or in the whole-camp activity folder.

That is all for tonight. All in all, it has been a great first day. Sleep well. We are looking forward to another great day.

Dropbox link

Weather update: We are still monitoring the typhoon. It has slowed down a little bit. Currently, the weather is projected to be good through Thursday, but we will continue checking in.