Friday

Basking in the glow… that is what some of us are doing today, for the production of “Annie” was a HUGE HIT. A few highlights from the show:

Sophia as Annie… AMAZING.
Harper as Mrs Hannigan… OWNED IT!
The Orphans… Fantastic team work, a home run acting, singing, and dancing performance.

The wireless microphones worked well, though not perfectly. We purchased a whole set of them to allow all speaking parts to be wired up… I chose a “cheap” set and it showed. Some units had connections that blinked in and out (slightly annoying) but overall it was a vast improvement over the old days where only half of the actors had amplification.

We are big believers in the live stream technology now. You can still see the performance here until this afternoon. The nice thing about watching it now is that you can skip to the sections that you like. Tomorrow we will stream the water show from the pool (turning the camera on at 7:30 PM) and keep that video up until Monday. We did get one report of bad audio (an echo), but upon further investigation we found that if you simply reload the website it seemed to be fine. The recording has no echo… so it must have been in the web connection path.

Today is sunny and warm. We are locked into the closing programs of camp and there is a quiet intensity about the entire camp. About 200 girls will perform in tonight’s Performance show (where all performance classes do a representative act for the entire camp). The girls LOVE the chance to show off their skills and are often quite nervous about that moment when the curtain opens and the stage lights are focused on them. Those jitters quickly disappear and are replaced with the happy glow of satisfaction when a performance goes as planned. Their friends and counselors surround them with hugs and cheers afterwards. Triumph!

Weather is hot, humid, and we might get rain this afternoon. Same forecast tomorrow.

We ate Krispy Kreme donuts for our Sleep Late Friday breakfast in bed… always a hit. Last night was our last night of cabin overnights on Apple Hill (we don’t want to disrupt the regular night time routine for the rest of camp). Bungalows 5 and 6 (who slept out last night) had a fantastic setting for this most “camp like” of moments. The moon is about 3/4 full, the temperatures were a comfortable upper 60’s, the fireside s’mores, games in the field, and stories told in the dark of night will certainly be a favorite memory for many a girl. I hope to one day expand our overnight opportunities for cabins… it really is a wonderful experience.

One quick word about the Water Show tomorrow night. The show will begin with a diving exhibition by the advanced divers, this takes place as the campers arrive to take their place in our pool side stadium. We have a fantastic pool complex that was completed just 6 years ago. The focus of this area is our magnificent Diving Pool (a Junior Olympic sized pool that is over 10 feet deep everywhere). We built this pool in order to offer a diving program, a water polo class, and a proper syncronized swimming program. Of all these programs, syncronized swimming is BY FAR our most popular class. About 150 girls take it and will perform tomorrow night… it is an amazingly difficult skill that is very popular with the best swimmers (and oldest campers) of camp. I don’t know if the live stream will do it justice, but it is worth checking out tomorrow.

No Breakfast Club today, but will be back tomorrow.

Thanks again for reading,

Jimboy