This feels like such a busy, exciting summer.  Every day we’ve had incredible events and adventures in and out of Camp.  I guess in part it is due to all the great weather.  Every trip planned has gone out, which certainly was not the case last summer!

Where to begin since my last posting…

On Friday night, after Services and two fabulous plays by our Sophomore boys and girls, we all settled into the tent for a movie.  Just as it was beginning the screen went white, and loud dance music started to play.  Behind the screen 12 counselors were backlit, and they began a choreographed dance to Michael Jackson’s “Thriller”.  The entire audience was on their feet cheering, as they knew that this was the start of our annual Big Weekend event (sort of a mini, coed color war).  The theme this year was movie monsters – Mummies, Werewolves, Vampires, Loch Ness and Frankenstein’s Monsters, and Zombies.  Each team of coaches came from behind the screen dressed in elaborate, silly costumes.  For the next two days everyone in camp was on a team, and seemed to be having a blast.

Throughout the weekend the boys and girls took part in events ranging from swim races and softball games to three-legged soccer matches and hula hooping contests.  On Saturday night, all six teams gathered up on our senior ball field for Rope Burning.  Each team’s eldest campers took part in a race to burn a rope suspended 12 feet in the air.  Lit only by their fires, and by the stars in the sky, the teams clapped and cheered and jumped up and down, doing all that they could to support those building and tending the fires. In the end, every team successfully burned their rope, and amazingly, every team was able to accomplish this feat in under 6 minutes!

Sunday morning we were back to more Big Weekend events, culminating in a final contest called “Songs and Formations”.  Each team had spent the weekend learning a silly song that their coaches had written about their team.  They also worked on arranging their teams into elaborate shapes and figures that would relate to their team’s theme.  It was an incredible showcase for our counselors’ creativity and our campers’ abilities to work together towards a unified goal!

And then it was the start of another great week at Camp.  The Kenwood Inters and Juniors spent the day out at a local state park, swimming and palling around in the water.  Evergreen gathered in the tent for a hysterical Lip Sync night, with bunks choosing their songs and developing their own choreographed dance routines.   Today, the Evergreen Freshmen and Sophomores spent a fun day in the sun at the Whale’s Tale water park, while the Kenwood Inters climbed a mountain and camped out overnight.   The Kenwood Freshmen went on their own expedition, climbing Mt. Kearsarge, and camping out this evening, while the Kenwood U12’s played their hearts out in a basketball tournament.  And while all of this was going on, we hosted the U15’s Ultimate Frisbee tournament.  Kenwood actually had two teams entered in this event, and they played each other in an amazing game in the Semi-Finals.  In the end, the team that won went on to win the entire tournament, and tonight our Kenwood Seniors are celebrating a hard-fought victory.

I look forward to the fun and excitement of tomorrow!