July 15 2024

Ddf65a2b 8a83 4097 af3f e95ac7a26439.jpg?ixlib=rails 2.1

Breakfast conversations today were centered on the interesting question of “why am I at this table?”. Every week, we change tables, but this is not a random assignment. We can sort according to any data in the records… the first three weeks we did birth months, middle name, and first name. Today is a new one that I have not yet figured out. It is fun to find out rather than ask Mary Gray (the Group Leader in charge of the dining hall who came up with the game). I’ll let you know when I figure it out.

The campers were led in their morning assembly by the Senior campers (as they are every Monday). The campers love being led by their peers in camp activities. It is distinctive of a camp with many older, wiser campers. This year we have 57 seventeen-year olds, 51 sixteen-year-olds. This is not normal for us but represents a wave of campers impacted by those crazy COVID years. Main Camp is very full these days, but we think the wave is subsiding, and we will have “normal” re-enrollment rates in a year or two.

The Blog is an accurate (though admittedly biased) window into camp life. With that in mind, I should mention a virus that is working its way through camp. It is not unusual for us to battle bugs every summer. Camp is a densely packed community that sleeps, eats, dances, plays, and sings together 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. If I get the sniffles, you will likely get the sniffles too… a scary thing when dealing with fevers or gastrointestinal symptoms. We would consider 1% of camp to be a reasonable goal when fighting a virus. The virus impacting camp now is one that isn’t that bad (low-grade fever, lasts a couple of days), but it has impacted more than normal (a 2% rate rather than the hoped 1% rate). Camp loves drama, so there are some cabins leaning into the drama of this virus… but rest assured, we are on top of it and not worried. The worst is over (it appears to have crested on Saturday), and we should be normal in a day or two. Cooler weather will help.

Thankfully, the heat wave is over! We noticed this fact yesterday afternoon as the cloud cover lowered our high temperatures by five degrees. The temperatures are dropping every day this week, with highs of just 78 predicted a week from now. Higher chances of rain translate into cooler temperatures. This pattern is perfect for camp, and we could not be more pleased.

Tonight is the Counselor Talent Show, a fun and laid-back EP on the pageant court. Tomorrow will be the Jimbolympiad… and that is the end of “regular” EP’s. From Wednesday on, every EP is a major “camper-led” event… each one is special in a way that is wonderful to see. The girls pour their heart and soul into the performances and savor the spotlight with satisfaction and pride. The audience is just as invested in the outcome as the performers, for they sympathize with their cabinmates and friends as if they themselves were on stage. With each successful conclusion, the cheers are heartfelt and genuinely moving. This is authentic entertainment. Where, other than camp, can you find this?

The end approaches so we appreciate the present. It is a valuable life lesson learned at a young age. We hope every girl learns to celebrate the gift given to each of them… a gift given to them for their entire lives… the gift of another Great Day.

One last thing… I have to mention the “white-glove inspection that is new this year (credit to Alpine Camp for Boys on this). On Sunday mornings, the Group Leaders go through camp and inspect every cabin while the cabin awaits the results on their porch. We pull out drawers to see if things are neat and tidy (making sure there are no dust bunnies or old socks behind the drawer), check that beds are properly made, inspect the bathroom in detail (even checking behind and under shower caddies), check wet laundry on the porch (neatly hung, anything dry that should be inside), and the surrounding ground (trash!). The winner gets to be dismissed first for Sunday Buffet dinner. This has become an epic contest amongst the cabins, a fact that surprises us to no end. Yesterday, the winning Senior cabin (11 West) set a standard unlikely to ever be surpassed. Anne Hayden (a neat freak Group Leader, known for frequenting spas on her day off) was over the moon and reported with astonishment the level of detail:

“The cleanest cabin I have ever stepped foot into.” bathroom floors, dried, swept, then hand polished, toilet paper folded and stamped, hotel-style, beds tucked so neatly they would pass a military bed inspection, whole cabin Clorox wiped, floors so clean you could have eaten the Sunday lunch ice cream sundaes off of them, a delicate scent of peony wafting through the air from a cleansing room spray, not a speck of dust in sight. Anne Hayden

Thank you for checking in.