SUNDAY/MONDAY
I love to see all of the campers and parents who are returning to camp this year for the second, third, or fourth time. It's nice to meet all of our new parents as well, but I get excited every time I see a familiar face during the summer.
Every Sunday it's the exact same dinner menu, griller patties with all of the items you'd expect to find in a vegetarian cheeseburger. We have a full salad bar with every lunch and dinner, and PSR Camp is pretty serious about color on the plates of our campers and I'm not just talking about the green Jello. This week we have about 111 hungry campers and 90 hungry staff which equals planning meals for about 200 people each day. When you multiply by three, the cafeteria is producing over 300 meals a day for about 6.67 days this session.
It's also a lot of dishes, pots, and pans to clean!
After dinner we send the campers to retrieve their jackets and then it's off to the evening program. We used to call them 'campfire programs' but we're not allowed to have fires anymore. The campers sing silly songs, see a silly play, and watch some silly videos. Camp can be a really silly place sometimes and we think laughter and smiles are the best way to start each week.
The next morning we're up at 7:00 am (some of the girls wake up earlier, but I've never been around to witness that) and then we start to clean ourselves in the showers and the cabin for inspection. Every night from 10 pm until 7:00 am their are two adults in each cabin to prevent instances of bullying or to make sure that someone can be with the campers if they have to visit the bathrooms in the middle of the night.
We can think of dozens of reasons to have two counselor with them at night, but its for the reasons we can think of that makes this camp policy so necessary.
The entrée for breakfast today was biscuits and gravy. Every breakfast comes standard with 8 different types of cold cereal, packaged oatmeal, four types of fruit juice, 2% milk, almond milk, rice milk, or soy milk, fruit, fruit cocktail, yogurt, granola, toast, bagels, cream cheese, peanut butter, jelly, and everyone has to have at least a half cup of water. In addition to entrée, we also served sliced fruit, tater tots, ketchup, salsa, and various other toppings associated with breakfast.
Campers aren't required to eat everything on the menu, but our goal is to provide a wide variety of options for campers and staff to choose from for each meal time. Plus, at camp the food has to be excellent because we have to compete with all of the wonderful things you provide for your children at home every day.
After breakfast the South Village ladies raise the flag and then at 9:39 am we apply sunscreen to all the exposed areas of our skin. This the second application of sunscreen, the first takes place in the morning before breakfast and the third application takes place during rotations or morning classes. Sunscreen is important but the first and best line of protection against the sun is shirt sleeves and pants! Some of the campers get to much sun and it's a constant battle against the sun that includes the routine application of sunscreen and having the right clothes for your particular camper.
After "Sunscreen Time" we send the campers to morning worship. Each camp council worship consists of singing songs, listening to a short devotional from our camp pastor, a skit, a nature presentation, prayer, and our scripture lesson for the day. Camp Council used to be my least favorite camp program, but I think every year it gets a bit better. This summer our theme is 'Connect' and so far all of our camp pastors have been able to tie the scripture (Philippians 2:13) to the lesson of the day.
Worship ends around 10:30 am, and then the campers are off to their activities. Some campers choose to take the same class every morning for two hours and some campers sign up to rotate through activities in the morning. This morning I looked in our photography class for a few minutes before our administrative camp meetings and I also walked by the camp pool and I could hear the girls splashing around and using the diving board. One young lady told us that she didn't know how to swim so we sent her to a different activities (Arts and Crafts & Archery) so she wouldn't have to miss out on an entire activity period sitting by the pool.
Two hours of activities usually makes the campers really hungry, so we get them all together at 12:40 pm for mail call. The amount of mail is highest for the first week, but still pretty high for the junior weeks at camp. The gymnastics department did a short skit to introduce mail call, and then it took about 20 staff almost 5 minutes to pass out the emails, packages, and notes from parents.
Lunch begins right after mail call prayer, and today the entrée for lunch was Frito casserole. Just like breakfast, at lunch you can expect a few things every period: A starter salad (with romaine and iceberg lettuce) with 9 different vegetable toppings, two crunchy toppings, three salad dressings, cottage cheese, Jello, fresh fruit, peanut butter and jelly, three types of bread, soda, tea, milk, rice milk, almond milk, and soy milk, along with orange slice and dessert.
Once you've selected your options (being careful to construct a colorful plate) and eaten your lunch (hopefully all of it) it's time for a break! Our staff like to spend a bit of time resting while the campers either rest, go for a hike, or visit the camp store. The camp store is a really popular option after lunch, but usually their are some pre-conditions to a store visit. The campers should expect to be on their best behavior before and after visiting the camp store. We're really lucky because last week and this week most of the campers have really good manners and are very polite. I heard a lot of 'please' and 'thank you' during Junior #1 and I'm hoping Junior campers this week will continue the trend.
Rest period ends at 2:50 pm, and then the campers gather to dismiss to afternoon rotations. Unlike the mornings, afternoon rotations are done by cabin instead of by activity, so it's a great chance for everyone in the cabin to be together and build some shared memories. I spent some time at Archery with Nez Perce and checked in on the Nature Center class where they were making some kind of blue goo. I was asking a few of the campers what their favorite things at camp was and the boys in Nez Perce all told me that they loved the go-karts. In this age group (10-12) they're finally old enough to drive the go-karts and they all really enjoy it.
After PM activities it's time to get some Ultimate Cabin points by playing a large group game on the field. Today's game was a tournament of champions where campers try to tag the other campers with soft dodgeballs or pool noodles. It's a pretty fun game and the campers were mostly able to police themselves in determining who was out and who won each round of the challenge. The cabin with the most points at the end of the week wins a hat, but right now were focusing on the fun of each challenge and building each cabin into a team of friends.
It seems like we just ate, but at 6:10 PM it's time for dinner. Tonight the main entrée was a taco station where campers could construct their own tacos. Personally I smash two taco shells into chips and pile on whatever the protein options are (adding liberal amounts of cheese and sour cream), but these children carefully build the tacos they'd like to take back to their tables with them to show to their friends and counselors. We still have all of the standard lunch options (salad bar, cottage cheese, fresh fruit, etc...) and the only thing that's really missing is the soda. For dinner we concentrate on water and milk(s) only.
There's a bit of free time after dinner, today we used some of the time to have a fire drill and lower the camp flag before heading to the evening outpost. This summer the Outpost Play centers around a mystery involving a man who is possibly about to be convicted of a crime he says he didn't commit and a lawyer who's trying to find out if he's innocent or guilty. Along the way we find out the truth and then its a rush to figure out how to make sure that justice prevails for all involved.
I know that was a really vague description, but the function of the 3-part (Mon, Tues, Wed night) outpost play is to give children a window of understanding into the decisions adults make every day and then they get to see the consequences of those choice play out. I really enjoy talking to campers about what they think is going on in the play, and how they agree or disagree with the choices of the characters.
As an added bonus, the characters are staff members here at camp and the campers also get to talk to them about the play and the cast.
Right now its about 1:06 am in the morning on Tuesday, and we've just finished cleaning the village bathrooms for the third time today. A big thank you to the cleaning crew this week! We're really just practicing for next week when their will be over 160 children here at camp (compared to 111 this week).
I hope you enjoyed this play-by-play of the past two days; we really having a lot of fun already this week and probably eating a bit to much good food. Don't forget to log-in to Ultracamp to see pictures! We've already post a few already from Sunday & Monday.
Blessings,
-Jeremy
After PM activities it's time to get some Ultimate Cabin points by playing a large group game on the field. Today's game was a tournament of champions where campers try to tag the other campers with soft dodgeballs or pool noodles. It's a pretty fun game and the campers were mostly able to police themselves in determining who was out and who won each round of the challenge. The cabin with the most points at the end of the week wins a hat, but right now were focusing on the fun of each challenge and building each cabin into a team of friends.
It seems like we just ate, but at 6:10 PM it's time for dinner. Tonight the main entrée was a taco station where campers could construct their own tacos. Personally I smash two taco shells into chips and pile on whatever the protein options are (adding liberal amounts of cheese and sour cream), but these children carefully build the tacos they'd like to take back to their tables with them to show to their friends and counselors. We still have all of the standard lunch options (salad bar, cottage cheese, fresh fruit, etc...) and the only thing that's really missing is the soda. For dinner we concentrate on water and milk(s) only.
There's a bit of free time after dinner, today we used some of the time to have a fire drill and lower the camp flag before heading to the evening outpost. This summer the Outpost Play centers around a mystery involving a man who is possibly about to be convicted of a crime he says he didn't commit and a lawyer who's trying to find out if he's innocent or guilty. Along the way we find out the truth and then its a rush to figure out how to make sure that justice prevails for all involved.
I know that was a really vague description, but the function of the 3-part (Mon, Tues, Wed night) outpost play is to give children a window of understanding into the decisions adults make every day and then they get to see the consequences of those choice play out. I really enjoy talking to campers about what they think is going on in the play, and how they agree or disagree with the choices of the characters.
As an added bonus, the characters are staff members here at camp and the campers also get to talk to them about the play and the cast.
Right now its about 1:06 am in the morning on Tuesday, and we've just finished cleaning the village bathrooms for the third time today. A big thank you to the cleaning crew this week! We're really just practicing for next week when their will be over 160 children here at camp (compared to 111 this week).
I hope you enjoyed this play-by-play of the past two days; we really having a lot of fun already this week and probably eating a bit to much good food. Don't forget to log-in to Ultracamp to see pictures! We've already post a few already from Sunday & Monday.
Blessings,
-Jeremy
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