Challenge Day

It is Challenge Day today, a wonderful tradition that ALWAYS happens ten days into camp. Ten days is the “sweet spot” of the camp experience: when the campers fully adjust to camp life and the real “meat” of our camp experience begins.

Till this point we all are emotionally adjusting to life at camp. We adjust to the people. the schedule, the food, the weather, our beds… it takes time to settle into the hundreds of details that comprise a life lived in a new place. We have found that it takes about ten days to fully adjust (a fact that my Great Grandfather noted from the very first year). After this point, camp is experienced in a deeper, more relaxed fashion. For this reason, Main Camp is special.

Main Camp allows us to naturally adjust to camp and then have two solid weeks of “normal camp life” before the closing week madness. These middle weeks are the best weeks of the summer: full of deep growth opportunities and character building moments. Now is when the girls breath out a deep sigh and settle into the languid pace of camp life. There is LOTS going on, but the activity is all geared to building friendships and growth in the four fold way . The jokes are funnier, the conversations deeper, and the lessons of camp much more poignant. This is when the tears begin (Saturday’s 5 year celebration will have a lot of them) and the love builds. We appreciate the good things of life and are thankful. The very definition of a “Sweet Spirit”.

The weather continues to be VERY comfortable (highs in the low 80’s) and sunny (we have overcast skies which will clear as the morning progresses). ZERO percent chance of rain (apart from scattered afternoon showers). The girls will be worn out by lunch and take a good nap (don’t expect many letters to be written today!).

Tonight’s EP is Council Fire. We will gather around the old fire pit and speak of “important things”, tap members of the temporary honor council, and give award patches to those who have passed levels in their classes. It is a nice quiet end to a nice busy day.

The movie last night (The Grinch) was a huge hit. The new HD movie system was stunning and the setting was perfect under the lovely full moon. We sipped Yahoo and munched on Christmas Cookies (iced by the cake decorating class) as the fireflies rose in the clear night sky. It was another memorable moment of the summer… everyone gathered in groups around the pagent court taking in the glory of the post card setting as the movie gradually pulled them into rapt attention. Cheers and laughter erupting throughout the movie… wonderful.

I didn’t even mention dinner last night, and it is worthy of note. The kitchen cooked 400 pizza’s from scratch. We made a video of the process at June Camp and will post that movie to the Main Camp Video folder later on today. You should check it out (also the “get well” video to Ellie Holcomb which is precious). So many moments of quality and inspiration…

Life is good.