After running an errand recently, I realized that the first 100 meters of the Camp Champions entryway has a lot of symolism.

But, if you will remember, Susie Ma’am has charged me with writing less serious blogs to complement my philosophical ones. With this in mind, I will break my ideas about “the entryway as metaphor” into two short blogs - one about fun and one about growth.

This one is about fun.

We want our families to know that Camp Champions is different from the “normal” world - full of fun and frivality. When you drive in, you see silly signs (“Do Not Cross If Sign Is Underwater”, “The Road Is Long, But If It Were Any Shorter, It Would Not Reach”), metal spinners and various pieces of “art”.

Of course, the most notable is our gigantic spur at the gate. Why do we have an 18 foot spur?

Why not?

[Note: a former counselor was driving through either Kansas or Nebraska and saw a sign boasting “the World’s Largest Spur”. He then saw a spur a lot like the Camp Champions spur. He called us to ask us the exact height of our spur (I think around 18 feet). He then went to the owners of the property and asked them about their spur. It turns out their spur was 6 inches shorter. They found this funny and now have a sign that boasts “the World’s Second Largest Spur”. It is nice to have advocates out there repping the camp!]

We want the spur to tell people that things are different here - sillier, unusual, quirky.

Over the years, campers and counselors also started to talk about the spur almost like a portal:

“I am more confident on this side of the spur.”

“I think the spur injects some happiness into people who drive through.”

Such comments invariably make me smile.

Just in case the spur was not enough to tell you that Camp Champions is different, we also have Cameron.

Cameron is our Camo-camposaurus. The Camo-Camposaurus is a rare breed, but we have one here. As you can tell, Cameron is a party animal.

We hope the drive into camp helps everyone hit “reset”. Even if you have had a hard day, the drive tries to tell you “you are OK and we will have a blast together!”

If you do not believe me, ask Cameron!

Steve Sir