Bugle Call – Week 7 – 2014
Our camp Kohahna, dearest home, of happy summer days! We can hardly believe this is the last week of camp. We could be sad about the closing of the summer, but instead we will give gratitude for all the good that has happened this summer, and what a wonderful note to end on!
To cap off the summer’s theme “Bring the Fun”, we ended with one of the core metaphysical concepts of the summer: selflessness. We learned about Jesus’ selfless acts and that we should follow his example. Additionally, the girls learned about true unselfish happiness from the lead quote of the summer: “Happiness is spiritual, born of Truth and Love. It is unselfish; therefore it cannot exist lone, but requires all mankind to share it” (Science and Health 57:15).
On Monday, we celebrated our annual CT appreciation day! When the ladies headed down to dips, they were greeted by CT’s in crazy costumes singing a catchy jingle : “get in the water and get your hair wet!” Later that day, they led afternoon activities such as hipster hangout, jazzercise in costumes, and slack lining. Additional afternoon activities included glazing and making arrows for archery. That evening, the wildwoods and waukeena’s headed to the dunes for a camp favorite, dune football! Although neither the sands nor the pines scored, it was still a blast and a success.
Tuesday was a lovely day that included a watercolor marathon, a lost girls activity, an advanced/expert waterski, improvisation games on the Great House deck, and flower crown making. The day was concluded with Kohahna’s rendition of the Hunger Games, the “Kohahna Games.” The girls wore to bandanas at their belts. Once the bandanas were taken, they were out of the game. Although the Kohahna games are designed to have one winner, in true Hunger Games style, two girls decided to take each others’ flags at the same time, thus both winning the game. The winners were rewarded with hot chocolate at breakfast!
Wednesday was cabin day! Cabin day was complete with a visit to the cherry orchard for cherry picking, tubing on Big Glen Lake, a Glen Arbor adventure with ice cream, t-shirt making, making a music video in Leland, and a trip to Sutton’s Bay. A beautiful Wednesday night service followed. What a wonderful, happy day!
For many, Thursday afternoon was dedicated to preparing for the horse show during encore and the dance and drama show that evening. For the rest of camp opportunities were given to finish up art projects, to participate in a dipathon, to paddle board and read on the beach, and to waterski. Afterwards, we had an art show, displaying all of the arts and crafts, ceramics, and silversmithing projects of the session. That evening at the dance and drama show, young Kohahna women showed off their ballet, modern dance, monologue, and group skit skills. And of course, afterwards we had a dance party!
On Friday, we headed to the beach for our last dip! All of the Kohahna ladies, on the count of three, ran into the water together for their final dip of the summer session. To our relief, it was a warm and pleasant dip! Later that day, after our packing party, we all got ready for our final, and most memorable council fire. At final council fire, the tradition is to give gratitude and toss a pine bough into the fire. Our gratitude session lasted for over an hour! There were many tears of love and gratitude, words of thanks, and heartfelt smiles shared that night. This year’s pine bough ceremony really highlighted and illustrated all of the good expressed and received at Camp Kohahna this summer.
On Saturday, after Encore, we all dressed in our finest whites in preparation for final banquet; a bittersweet event. That evening, we celebrated achievements such as the Merit Hat, Kohahna Rose, Trail Blazer, activity awards, Illuminata (an award voted on by the campers to honor one of their peers), and the Camp Spirit award. To finish the night, we revealed this summer’s winning team; the Sand team. Needless to say it was a summer filled with spirited, high minded, hard fighting, competition that really brought the best out of both teams. We thank you Kohahna ladies for your excellency and graciousness in competitive activities and sports, it was a gift to watch!
Thank you all for making this summer absolutely splendid, filled with patience, obedience, gratefulness, selflessness, and forgiveness, all of the qualities under the overarching theme of “Bring the Fun”. Wonderful spiritual growth, as well as growth in confidence in and love for ourselves and others. We are so grateful to have witnessed this growth and know that the goodness does not end here, all of the lessons we learned can and will be applied naturally and joyfully throughout the year!
Thank you all again. We can’t wait to see you again.
