Too Long Didn't Read

If I open an email, Blog, or news article and see that it is long I typically don’t read the words that follow but jump into speed reading mode or close the link and move on. This is true for all of us… Who has the time to read a lot of words?

Believe it or not, we are sensitive to this fact. Now you are rolling your eyes, right? You know that we write a lot of words a lot of the time. Why do we do it if we know we might lose a lot of you in the process?

For the simple fact that many of you are detail oriented people and want to know every nuance of every subject… leave words out and you become frustrated because we did not answer your questions. In your frustration, you will call and might go to voicemail if nobody is in the office… and you get even more frustrated! So most of the time we put EVERYTHING in our communications and we try to do so in a pleasant and upbeat manner.

As a man, my preference is to limit a message to the facts… but this often reads as abrupt and insensitive, so my team (especially Margaret, Catherine, and Sarah) will encourage me to add opening and closing paragraphs that put our positive spin on the bare facts. This spin is a genuine reflection of what we feel, but it makes you read more words than some of you would prefer.

This has been the year of long emails, and a lot of them! TLDR (Too Long Didn’t Read) situations blossomed… so we followed up with more emails, texts, website additions, videos, and blogs in order to effectively communicate important information. Hopefully, we have not frustrated any of you… but if we have, know that it was for the best intentions! We wanted to set expectations so that we could exceed those expectations and leave you very happy with your camp experience. Frankly, I think we are providing an AMAZINGLY GREAT camp experience… it is shaping up to be our best year ever.

We are nearing the end of the summer and LOVING the time with your girls. It seems like every moment would be worthy of a paragraph in the blog. I could go on and on about the food, Breakfast Club messages, classes, cabins, conversations, devotions, character building, Health Hut, and even the maintenance and cleaning crews. I could do ten blogs on the lessons we have learned from this summer and the plans that we are already making for next. Each facet of camp is really amazing and we want to share, but I will limit myself… afterall, it is Friday and you deserve a break!

About 100 campers and counselors gathered to watch the first Mini Talent Show yesterday afternoon. The 20 acts were AMAZING… some shockingly good, some shockingly bad, ALL shockingly entertaining. My personal favorite was the stand-up comedy act that was performed by a little 10-year-old with the confidence of a professional. When she ended she got a standing ovation from the crowd! Another surprising hit was the tambourine dance (a very young camper wearing her bathing suit got on stage with a tambourine and performed a series of leaps and twirls without breaking a smile). It was over in 20 seconds, much to our surprise, and also resulted in a huge ovation… how could anyone not be delighted by such an act! Word is spreading about how great the Mini Talent Shows are and the crowd will grow… I expect 1/2 of camp will be in the audience today.

Tonight’s EP is the Counselor Talent Show. This is really just a chance for counselors to get on stage and ham it up with silly skits. Some of these counselors are very talented musicians, dancers, and gymnasts but they will not be putting those skills on display at the show because they are more excited about saying a line in “If I were not a Greystone Counselor” skit or getting shaving cream piled on their head in “Light and Fluffy”. The campers quite literally fall over laughing… their enthusiasm will assure a memorable show. The counselors will knock it out of the park.. it really is not hard to entertain this crowd!

Perfect weather continues. We wore sweatshirts to breakfast (temperature was 58 degrees) and were in our bathing suits by 10 (temperature quickly rising under a sunny blue sky). More of the same forecasted till the end of camp!

• Breakfast Pancakes
• Lunch Shepherds Pie
• Dinner Poppyseed Chicken
• EP Counselor Talent Show
• Weather 82 degrees, partly cloudy, chance of afternoon showers

Thank you for reading… and for your patience. I know so many words and so many pictures soak up a lot of time. You are kind to care enough to wade through it all.