Bugle Call – Week 1 – 2009
With everything we have packed into the last seven days, it’s hard to believe that it has only been a week since Opening Day! We kicked off the week with a warm and successful swim test followed by an afternoon of quality cabin time. For our first evening activity we played several rounds of Kick the Can and other lawn games. It was so fun to see all the girls, young and old, getting to know each other as members of one warm community.
Tuesday was our first day of regularly scheduled activities. Campers hit the water in skiing, the wheel in ceramics, and our horses certainly met a lot of new faces. Meanwhile, our CTs began work on their weeklong project of building a new Kohahna bowl. The finished product looks wonderful! We are so fortunate to have such a hard-working bunch setting such a fantastic example for our campers all summer.
Tuesday night Princess Kohahna came to tell new campers whether they were Pines or Sands. Once each team welcomed their new members, they were able to vote on captains and play one of our favorite team games: Bombardment! The game ended with a very long standoff between all the counselors and campers. The counselors won, but to celebrate a job well done by all, everyone took a dip in the lake.
Wednesday afternoon was cabin day. The girls’ activities ranged from Gulls Nest making craft bags to Breezeway baking cupcakes for camp. Many girls got to try the ropes course, and the oldest cabin even had a wilderness scavenger hunt. Of course Wednesday night we enjoyed a quiet night of church and hymn sing with our Leelanau brothers.
Thursday afternoon we had beautiful beach weather. In fact, many afternoon activities, like 80’s step aerobics and journaling, ended up changing their locations from land to lake thanks to the hot sun. When it cooled down at night, we all took an inspiring hike up to Pyramid Point. Friday we had our usual day of activities, and at night we played Human Stratego. Of course, there was plenty of time before bed for the girls to get a head start on their trunks before Saturday clean up.
Saturday clean up went very well, and the campers were heavily rewarded for their orderliness throughout the morning. In the afternoon everyone was surprised with an all-camp trip to an ice skating rink in Traverse City! How special to have everyone laughing and skating along together no matter what age or whether it was their 1st or 100th time on ice! After we turned in our skates we went to a park to have a picnic dinner, but the fun didn’t end there! We had our first Lip Sync contest of 2009 once we got back to camp! All of the cabins had funny and choreographed pieces, but Evergreen took the cake with a performance of a song from the musical Hairspray.
We certainly appreciated our Sunday sleep-in after Saturday’s activities! After Sunday School both camps participated in a huge Harry Potter extravaganza! Counselors were dressed up as characters, kids were playing “Quidditch” on the soccer field, and teams tried to answer trivia questions for “house points”! After our weekly cook-out, we headed on up to council fire for awards and another chance to talk about the theme of “Through the Looking Glass”. This week’s presentation was on leadership, with Harriet Beecher Stowe as our example. We also talked about the North Star and how it might not be the brightest star in the night sky-but its consistency makes it the best leader of all the constellations. We’ve packed every minute full of fun this week! Second week will have even more to bear!
