I love seeing the creativity of camp. It can sometimes almost look like insane, but let me assure you that our counselors love doing crazy things to delight your children.

Yesterday after dinner, we had “Division Night”.

During Division Night, campers do a group activity with other campers in their division, groups of 32-40 campers (4-5 cabins). I will describe each. If you look through the photos from yesterday, you should see some shots from each.

I attended the Rookie Division Night, so I have pictures from it. I will describe it last.

Maxis and Aquanauts (girls cabins 1+, 1, 2, 3 and 4 and boys cabins 1-4) had a swim party in the pool. This event is less of a production than the other Division Nights, but we have found that the older campers simply love the opportunity to “hang out”, listen to music and cool off in the water. The campers I checked in with loved it.

The Midis (girls cabins 5-9) enjoyed the inaugural edition of “Paint Twister”. Imagine the game Twister, just make each of the colored dots into wet paint. Campers had to put their right foot on red, left hand on green, etc. This all worked quite well for 20-25 minutes until the DIY Twister board ripped. But this is not a problem for a good Division Leader. AC Ma’am simply said, “Paint war!” and the fun continued for another 15 minutes.

The Minis (girls in cabins 10-13 and Riggabamboo) had a “Spa Day”. Campers painted toes (theirs and their counselors’), got face masks and massaged shoulders. While this sounds kinda sedate to me, I have received rave reviews from all the little ones. They love playing like they are adults.

The Lettermen (boys cabins 5-8) had a “Battle Bot” competition. In this activity, each cabin made their counselor into a robot using cardboard and masking tape. The counselors were then run through a series of dexterity and mobility tests (e.g., dodge ball). Campers take great joy in seeing their counselors transformed into awkward robots who struggle to catch, throw and move.

Finally, the Rookies (boy cabins 9-13) created “Human Sundaes”. OK, this was by far the activity that required the most counselor commitment. If you think being a robot in a dodge ball competition is a bit hard, you should steer clear of the Human Sundae. It is everything that you might imagine. One counselor from each cabin laid down in the grass and their campers had 5 minutes to make them into a sundae, complete with whipped cream, gummy worms, cherries, syrups (chocolate, strawberry and caramel) and sprinkles. The campers howled. The counselors took long showers.

Do not try this in your workplace at home.

The Senior Campers (the campers finishing their 9th, 10thand 11thgrade years) actually joined their adopted cabins. That means the 10thgraders went with the Minis and the Rookies, while the 11thgraders joined the Midis and the Lettermen. The 9thgraders had just returned from their retreat, so they were showering.

I share this so that you can see the breadth of skills a good counselor needs. In addition to spending time with each camper, teaching skills and comforting them in uncertain moments, they also throw themselves into odd activities that will make campers smile.

Steve Sir