Crazy Fun

Last night we made a mess and had a ball. We did a “fake” EP announcement at lunch (did a rhyme about having a camp wide “read your book” event… and the girls believed us!) before the “real” EP announcement for “Protect your counselor” (new this year). It was basically a team building project where cabin groups walked around camp and passed through various color hazards (colored corn starch is the typical thing to avoid). The winning cabins got a cool prize (a special Sunday Dinner catered by Moe’s announced this morning at breakfast). The big finish of the program is the color dance party on the soccer field. It is such a cool EP!

We do a “color” event at Main Camp every year and many of these girls have been dreaming about being able to do it one day (they often know all the details of other sessions because they read the blog when they go home). The excitement about the program was through the roof and you will be glad to hear that the visits to the health hut were WAY below normal (always a good sign after a big EP). We took about 2,000 photos and you will probably be shocked to see your little princess such a mess! The septic system alarms went off at 9:00 last night with the volume of water hitting all at once as every person in camp took a shower in 15 minutes! Crazy fun indeed!

You might have heard that we are experiencing warmer than normal weather for this time of year: yesterday matched the all time high of 91 degrees (last set in 1894)! The flip side of this coin is record low rainfall for this time of year (we are down 5 inches so far)… translating into perfect camp weather. We have not missed a single class due to thunderstorms and the pool and lake water is now a very comfortable 80 degrees (absolutely perfect). While it gets hot in the afternoon, morning temperatures do not pass 80 degrees until noon and the shade of the trees cuts ten degrees off the temperature (so we tend to stay in the shade in the heat of the day). To cap it all off, there has been a steady breeze coming off the lake every day, a fact that completely transforms the experience. Bottom line: don’t worry about the heat, it is not a problem! The temperatures are forecast to drop by about 2 degrees every day (high of 88 today, 86 tomorrow… by Saturday, a high of 76!).

Lunch is Chicken Fingers and Waffle Fries (we do not actually have a fryer in the kitchen, we “fry” in our awesome “Reliant” ovens that simulate the frying process with the aid of space age technology). Dinner is “Laura’s Pork Chops” (thick cut chops slow roasted with veggies… a Hollowell family tradition). The kitchen has been doing such a fantastic job and is now really hitting their stride. They are doing lots of little “extra’s” to make each meal delightful in surprising ways (the salad bar now has “salad themes” where the ingredients for a specialty salad are lined up and instructions for how to build that salad are posted at the salad bar line… Greek Salad, Asian Salad, Strawberry Spinach Salad, etc.). I could not be more proud of their efforts which make us all anticipate meal time (a huge morale boost to every one).

We posted a new video on Facebook today that shows some of the new program things the girls are enjoying at June Camp. Take a look, it is really great!

We also posted our first Sunday Sermon on the Devotions section of our website. Keep up to date on the devotions and sermons if you are interested, Simon is doing a GREAT job.

Tonight we will take our first group to the new “Glamping” outpost in North Carolina. The temperatures are about 5 degrees cooler, the stars are brighter, and the food tastes better at 3,000 feet. We have prepared an amazing experience for a slam dunk overnight for the senior campers (cabins 5-9 will go tonight, cabins 10-12 will go on Thursday). I hope to go up there with Dr. M to assess how it goes… it should be a night to remember!

There are so many good things to learn about camp. Take an interest in it and share those thoughts and questions with your camper. They are rapidly becoming “experts” and will LOVE telling you about what they think. Your emails (we printed over 1000 yesterday) and letters (we delivered about that many) are a BIG part of the camper day. You make camp better for your girls, so keep those letters coming!

Thank You for everything!