Mud Sunday
August 4, 2019 by Don Gentle
Sunday’s are special here at High Rocks. We want to be sure the boys have some time for reflection and to change it up a little bit. Rest is important. We give the boys an extra thirty minutes to sleep in on Sundays and we also share some important lessons down by the lake. Today was a perfect Sunday morning!
Our first agenda item of the day, however, was laundry. The boys all work together to get their items sorted into three bags, then they are asked to all work together to get those items off to the backside of the dining hall where the laundry is picked up. It’s certainly not something you add to your brochure, but these little steps at camp really help build some independence, accountability, and even empathy. I love watching the guys work together to get these sizable bags off to the pick-up point. In a flash, it’s all back to camp clean, dry, and folded before dinner.
Breakfast kicked-off with scratch-made cinnamon rolls! I watched them roll out right on the table, head to the proofer, the oven, and finally the glazing! You will also see it in today’s pictures. Super awesome! Of course, it was combined with assorted cereals, scrambled eggs, sausage, oatmeal, and an extended fruit bar with yogurt. A great way to kick-off a Sunday. I was up a little early to “juice up” the mud pit for later this morning. It’s actually quite a feat to get together.
Our morning by the lake included some great camp songs and then Zoob shared some inspiring words from the book “How Full Is Your Bucket?” There are an adult and a children’s version of this book. We used the adult version during our staff training and we felt like the lesson would carry over to our camper community very well. The concept is that everyone has a bucket. There are certain things that fill your bucket and certain things that empty it. For example, when a camper leaves his wet towel on someone else’s bed; drip, drip, drip, the water comes out (of the bucket). Or when a counselor likes a camper’s tie-dye so much he wants to use it as an example in class; DROP, the water goes in! The author goes on to explain that when you focus on filling other buckets in your community, your bucket fills too. It’s a good lesson and very easy to read.
We quickly headed right into our morning adventure of rainbow tag. The boys need to find different staff hiding around camp and then get marked by their color. The goal is to collect all the colors. The caveat is that there are eraser staff that can remove the collected colors. It ends up being a wonderful event with a lot of running. The best part is the mud pit at the end of the event.
As if the morning fun wasn’t enough, the afternoon soon came to life after rest hour with the Annual High Rocks Carnival! Complete with all sorts of games and fun including a bounce house and a dunk tank. The boys had a blast and so did the staff!
Everyone ran off to shower after the carnival. We then had a great cookout with hot dogs and hamburgers on the lawn. After dinner, we had an all-camp campfire to finish out the day and think about the week ahead. The boys had a hard time believing that there is only five days left of camp. They say time flies when you’re having fun, & we’re certainly having fun!!!
It’s going to be an awesome five days! I will keep you posted up to the last night. Stay tuned!
Don