And just like that, we’re past the halfway point in our camp week. Wednesday started out with scrambled eggs, bagels, sausage patties, fruit, and cinnamon rolls! Those cinnamon rolls were exquisite. Our junior high campers had surprise guests in their morning groups today as our CITs and senior class took over and led each group. This provides our emerging camp leaders to gain experience working with our teens and facilitating a small group.
Lunch featured pulled pork sandwiches, grilled cheese, and tomato soup. It was a perfect day for soup (or at least this blogger thinks so). The star of the show was the french fries. Golden, crispy, and perfectly cooked. I saw many folks going back for seconds. After lunch, campers and staff surrounded the basketball court for our annual 3 versus 3 basketball tournament. Fourteen teams competed for the title of champion. The competition was heated, but staff member Jonathan Dimodica and campers Tim, Will, and Sam came away victorious.
After the tournament, the Camp Cody staff sold ice cream and slushes and opened the Camp Cody apparel store. You’ll likely see many campers wearing new Cody swag when they return home. For our Afternoon Program, morning groups paired up into seven teams to prepare a lip sync performance for the evening program. Each team was given a song and specific props to incorporate into the performance. Songs included “Mamma Mia,” “Hard Knock Life,” “Under the Sea,” and more. Teams met for almost two hours to perfect their performance before dinner.
This blogger was VERY happy about tonight’s dinner. The Cody staff spoiled us with sausage tortellini, green beans, garlic bread, and a cheesecake bar for dessert. Sausage tortellini (or just “linis” as some of us affectionately call them) is a fan favorite and provided much needed sustenance ahead of our Variety Show and Lip Sync Performance.
Tonight’s Chapel service was created over the course of this week by Rev. Brian Craig and a group of camper volunteers. Even the message was written and given by a camper. We also honored our senior class with a special song performed by Bob Caldeira. It’s a special moment each year that we look forward to!
Our staff was busy all week preparing our campers for the Variety Show. So much work goes into putting on this show. Staff members meet with performers all week and often participate in skits and musical performances alongside our campers. The Variety Show is an amazing event that highlights the many talents of our community.
To kick off the show, each team from earlier in the day performed their lip sync performance. Our judges were tough, but the teams rose to the challenge, giving entertaining and detailed performances of their assigned songs. The winner of the challenge was the team performing “Hard Knock Life.” I don’t want to brag, but yours truly found herself on the winning team.
After the lip sync performances, we transitioned into the Variety Show. Musical performances, skits, games, and more kept our Camp family entertained well into the night. Our first-year staff hosted the evening, Academy Awards style. They dressed to impress and came prepared with jokes that had us all laughing along.
Year after year, we are blown away by the talents of our campers. Whether they play an instrument, sing a song, perform a skit, or share their skills with our camp in some other way, the Variety Show is always a night where our hearts swell with pride. Tonight was no exception.
We made our may to the Council Ring for a song with John Fiander and a Vespers message with Bob Caldeira. It was another day filled with fun, lots of laughs, and good memories. It’s hard to fathom that our camp week is coming to a close in just a few days, but we’re doing our best to enjoy each moment.