Don’t Sweat the Fun

Don’t Sweat the Fun

July 27, 2016 by

Today’s Pictures

(Here is last night’s post! Thanks again for the consideration.  It looks like we were able to sort out all this crazy internet world.  I hope you enjoy the effort. -Don)

It’s hard to believe we have just few days left. It was a hot day in camp.  By hot, I mean it did get up to about 85 degrees.  I know most all of you are laughing out loud as I look at highs across the southeast.  Life at 3000 feet does have its advantages.  The temperatures make the lake quite pleasant, but we also try to keep these boys hydrated.  You will see some great pictures from our “Oasis” we created for our post-rest hour snack.  We put out the usual snack, but also had several gallons of Gatorade, and some wonderful props.

We still had a lot going on today. There was another “nature with Nick” event today.  The boys went to a serpatrium to check out a bunch of cool snakes. The three-day climb is still out on their adventure.  Our younger aspiring paddlers headed over to the Tuckaseegee. Finally, mountain biking headed out to DuPont for an all day trip. Hillside had a big adventure on the High Ropes course.

I spent some time down at the docks tonight with the Mini II boys.  Canoe fill-ups is such a great game.  Nothing beats putting four guys in a boat armed with two paddles and two buckets.  Add a half-dozen boats and BOOM you have some controlled chaos.  I will say every boy approaches chaos differently.  The game itself creates a bit of competitiveness, but only until they realize that the focus of the game isn’t really meant to win, it’s meant to sink and have fun doing it.  So when boys experience this game for the first time they actually try to win…and some boys might even bail out the water of their boat, or even get upset when a whole bucket is dumped in their boat.  The staff do a great job of helping the boys through this small bit of frustration, it’s then that the fun begins!  Boats are tipped everywhere, kids screaming, laying on their overturned boats and laughing at each other.  So the moral of the story is to just let go… If you hold on to tight you’re going to miss the fun.  That’s my camp lesson of the day.

Tomorrow will be the last “normal” day of camp for the session.  All the regular activities still happen.  We even still have the three-day climb out, another paddling trip, and a mountain biking trip.  Tomorrow night the evening program is “cabin night.’  Each cabin will find a part of camp to hang out and just be with their small group.  Some will play in the lake; others will hang out around the fire or even head out to one of our five shelters on the property.

We will give you some more details about the next few days’ events tomorrow.

 

Have a great night!

Don Gentle

Comments are closed.