Great news, everyone! The sun came out today! After mostly cloudy skies, showers, and one big thunderstorm, we started our day with sunshine streaming through our cabin windows. While it was a chilly morning, everyone was enthused to start the day with sunshine.

The breakfast lineup included waffles, bacon, eggs, fruit, and HOMEMADE DONUTS. The donut was heavenly. Chocolate frosted with sprinkles. Very enjoyable. Highly recommend. After Morning Watch, campers and staff made their way across camp to their various Morning Group spots to discuss today’s theme: competition.

The Morning Group program delved into ways we compete with ourselves and others, how we handle competition, competitions we enjoy and ones we don’t, and how we challenge ourselves. Groups were also encouraged to play a variety of games, including the infamous forehead Oreo game. In this game, you place an Oreo on your forehead and try to wiggle the Oreo from your forehead into your mouth. This blog author is notoriously good at this game. Each group also wrote out goals for the upcoming year, for 3-5 years from now, and 7-10 now. One of the questions from Morning Group that lots of people enjoyed was, “What is a time you challenged yourself with something you were uncomfortable with and ended up succeeding?”

Lunch began with sunshine and ended with a rain shower. Campers and staff were enjoying chicken stir fry and broccoli when it suddenly began to rain, which called for an impromptu dance party in the rain. As the sun broke through the clouds, campers and staff linked hands and danced together in a circle. It was one of those moments that you couldn’t have scripted if you tried and those are often times the most memorable ones we have here.

We enjoyed our final Spree Time of the week after lunch and many campers took advantage of the sunshine and swam, paddle boarded, and kayaked in the lake. After Spree Time, campers returned to their cabins to prepare for Cabin Wars 2024. Each cabin is encouraged to dress similar for the competition and the event kicks off with each cabin walking in to a pump-up song of their choice. Check out our Instagram post for photos of each cabin!

The competition was fierce but fair and featured classic games like trash in my backyard, bucketball, four corners, sponge relay, and more. Teams who lost in the first round were given an opportunity to earn their way back into the competition through our redemption bracket. All of the cabins fought valiantly, but only two can advance to the epic final relay. Kingfisher and Fox battled it out in a relay race that included dizzy bat, disc golf and corn hole throws, a bottle flip, pie-ing a counselor in the face (LOL), and a run down the 100-foot slip and slide. Kingfisher came away victorious, hoisting the second best trophy in sports (second only to the Stanley Cup, of course) above their heads. Congratulations to our winners, and congratulations to all of our competitor for a fun and entertaining afternoon.

Dinner was chicken parm, ziti, rolls, and mixed veggies and everyone was hungry after such an active afternoon. The lemon bars stole the show and quickly skyrocketed to one of my top desserts of the week.

Our seventh and eighth grade campers were invited to help with Chapel this evening. We also had a surprise full-band performance of a song written by our own Bob Caldeira. John later played “Will the Circle be Unbroken,” as our senior class danced together around the council ring. This is a special tradition that we look forward to every year. Someone must have been cutting onions nearby because a few of us were shedding some tears.

Adam Martignetti gave the Chapel message and shared his athletic successes and setbacks, reminding teens that competition with ourselves helps us to grow. After Chapel, we got our first real sunset of the week and she was a beauty.

Wednesday’s evening program was 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. More than 20 acts shared their talents with the camp! We had musical performances, skits, trivia, gymnastics, dance routines, and more. Year after year, the talents and creativity of our campers amazes us all. The show was entertaining and filled with fun and joy and ended with a beautiful cover of “Don’t Stop Believing.”

John Fiander had double duty at Vespers tonight, starting off with a song and then giving the message. As everyone listened to John, I noticed many faces turning upward to admire the star-filled sky. This is the first night since we arrived that we’ve been able to see the stars. The stars at Camp are sacred to anyone who’s been here before. They’re obviously brighter than at home, and there’s something extra special about seeing a shooting star when you’re here. It feels like a sign of good things to come.

As always, we closed the night with the Lord’s Prayer, arms linked. There were so many amazing moments today. People helping each other, lifting each other up. Celebrating together. This group is making the most of the time we have at Camp this year and it’s beautiful to witness.