Today is our second full day of camp, and campers are already getting into the swing of things! With wakeup at 7:30am, our cabins have time to help out with chores, keeping their cabins neat and tidy and helping them respect the spaces they share with others at camp. At camp we share breakfast family style, at 8:15am, starting the day off with an inspirational quote from our Associate Director Amanda, before getting the sit and enjoy a hearty breakfast. This morning our campers were treated to waffles and syrup, bacon and eggs, with the fruit bar open and cereal so there are plenty of options for all of our campers.
From breakfast it is straight to Lakeside, where each of our cabins participate in performing a roll call, and maybe even winning ‘B.O.S.S.’ (Bag of Some Stuff)… Our head counsellors walked us through the daily schedule, ensuring everyone knew exactly what they were doing throughout the day, everyone joined in learning some fun new songs, getting them hyped for the morning, and Tallulah outshone the rest with their rollcall, performing an original song to wow the crowd! We also had our Bears and Otters head out on their backpacks, attending Lakeside with the rest of camp before heading back up to the dining hall to the ‘Baggy Bar’ to prepare their meals and snacks as well as meeting up with their Trip Leaders to head up and out of camp!
For the rest of our campers, the schedule remained the same, with first and second period seeing them up in the sky park, conquering new fears and pushing themselves into their growth zones. Others were burning off energy in the Thunderdome, playing against their counselors and cabinmates in soccer, building new friendships that could last a lifetime. Before lunch our campers attend Hypetivity, a period with specific activities open, where campers get to choose which activity they want to spend the next hour at. During Hypetivity, campers get to learn about (and work through) levels at certain activities, progressing themselves towards earning a patch, showing their dedication and development. These patches are announced at Lunch, by the head of the activity, and celebrated by the rest of camp!
Lunch today was build your own Philly-Cheese Steaks, with a delicious side of curly fries and some refreshing melon cubes! Lunch was followed by downtime, an hour for campers to relax, catch up on energy with a quick nap, or continue bonding with their cabin before the afternoons activities begin. Periods three, four and five saw more of the same, with campers having even more fun as the sun continued to up the heat! Our older cabins were learning wet-exits and paddle rolls over at tiny boats, whilst our younger cabins got to cruise around the lake on SUP’s, soaking up the sun and getting to play SUP-wars, seeing who could stay standing the longest.
After fifth period, our campers are called up to the gym for fruit break, a nice pause between periods for campers to refresh, regain some of that burnt off energy and hydrate before heading to Gym & Swim!
Gym & Swim, much like Hypetivity, allows campers to work towards patches, or finally get to jump in the lake for those that have gone without waterfront activities for the day. Dinner at 6:30pm was different to our usual, with our kitchen staff off for the day, campers were treated to pizza and brownies, and got to sit around camp with their cabins and counselors, getting to enjoy eating somewhere other than the dining hall for a change! Unfortunately, after dinner, the weather took a turn, with rain seeming imminent… However, this did not dull the camp spirit! We persevered, changing the scheduled Evening Program for something slightly different, but just as fun for all of our campers to enjoy! Our village cabins got to gather in the Gym for Pinguard, an action packed game of dodgeball, where campers have to try their best to strategically knock down the other teams bowling pins, hidden behind their defenders! For the Hillside cabins, the girls got to sit together in the Shadium, just up from the Gym, where they partook in a thought-provoking, tactical game of Think-tank! Think-tank involves a series of minigames, where cabins must work together to be the quickest, most creative or most uniquely skilled to beat their competitors!
All in all, despite the change in plan, the evening was still just as fun as anticipated, maybe even more so with the surprise pizza and brownies! After Evening Program, campers received their evening meds, were able to get washed up for the night, and tucked into bed in their cabins, getting well rested and ready for another exciting day at camp tomorrow!
We’ll keep you updated!
