Session One, Week One

The first week of camp saw us invite over 100 campers to the island for an action packed two weeks.  This week included one of my favourite nights – Casino Night where everyone dresses a little crazy (even the campers got into it this year!).  For the evening we print our own money and every camper starts with the same amount and amid all the craziness and music runs around playing cards, shooting hoops, ricking it all on the ‘stock market’ and other crazy activities in an effort to gain enough money to buy prizes from the prize table.  Prizes included cookies, candy, and other experiences such as throwing a certain staff member in the lake right through to joining me for cabin inspection.  It’s surprising how popular some prizes are…

Dressed up for Casino Night

The very next day was the 4^th July, and what a day it was!  As usual, the 4^th means it time for the first social of the summer with the girls camp, Nokomis.  This year we had a huge social planned.  We had arranged for the entire girls camp to come to Lawrence rather than the usual 50/50 split, and had a live band lined up along with a large fireworks display to end the night.  Although a thunderstorm interrupted things at the start when we were transporting everyone here, the night was a huge success and everyone had a blast!  I’m pretty sure it was the best social yet!

The action continued the very next morning while everyone else slept in for a lazy day (just an hour though) as the CIT’s (Counselor’s in Training) headed off for their CIT overnight Hike with Nate the CIT Director and Jim the Camp Director.  Having been with Nate to check out the location I am jealous of this trip as they are off to some natural waterslides and a huge cliff jump into a natural pool in a fantastic forest location.

While the CIT’s were away, the second year CIT group pranked them by setting up a floor of leaves and rocks in their cabin along with suspending a canoe from the rafters of their cabin.  What amused me the most though, was that as this was happening, the program director, ropes course director, and another senior counselor were in the dining hall pranking the second years by ‘jenga-ing’ the benches.  This prank is a classic camp prank where all the benches are stacked in the middle of the dining hall as you would a jenga game, and as a kicker they inserted to tables – which were set – into the middle of the stack.  Brilliant work by all!

Bring on Week two!

Staff Training

I arrived at camp on the 10^th June, and straight away we got right into planning our staff training and preparing for campers to arrive on the 30^th June.  We are starting a week later than normal this year, so should be well prepared for everyone’s arrival.

On the 16^th June the leadership team arrived for a week of focused training and planning before the rest of the staff arrived on the 23^rd and things really picked up.  All sorts of training sessions were crammed into this time – everything from how to work with children to activity instruction training to dealing with bullying, abuse, homesickness, and different camper types.  I was really impressed with all the staff and how well they took in all the information that was thrown at them, and felt that this year was one of the best staff training weeks we have had.  Not only that, but I am confident that this year sees us with the best staff group I have seen at camp.  We are in for a good summer!