During training we describe the Timberlake (TL) summer as our own Joseph Cambell-esque “Heroes Journey” for both our staff and our campers. The magic has just begun, and campers have left the ordinary world of their homes, answered the raucous call of adventure, and have begun to find their mentors in their counselors. We have been blessed with unbelievable weather so far (NYC and Boston, be jealous!) that has rarely happened in all my summers here.
Here’s a few quick hits of the magic:
- From the first day our Head Cook, Ethan, began showing off his skills with an insane pasta bar – the perfect comfort food – followed by s’mores and cabin contracts;
- All campers adventured through the “Hook,” where staff tried to convince campers their activity area was best and should be the one they choose to sign-up for;
- We played our traditional first-day All-Camp-Game (ACG) named Kingdoms, which involves a lot of silly running around, obtuse trivia questions, and our valiant staff in all sorts of crazy costumes;
- Big lodge had a clever lodge evening that involved inflatable whales, cardboard boats, and counselor-goblins;
- Senior Lodge and upper Big Lodge chose their trips and began pack-out today – lots of nervousness and excitement in the air!;
- Today we also had our first “TL Sunday,” where campers did all-camp chores (guided by the mystical teaching of the Chore Lord), wrote letters to their families (be on the lookout soon!), and begun practicing skits for Council Fire tonight.
Our counselors have also been hard at work teaching our campers all the rituals needed to be successful at TL (oh, so many) and have been guiding our campers through all the newness. We put a special emphasis on a wake-up routine, a rest hour routine, meal routine, and good-night routines, adjusted for the unique needs of each group of kids in each cabin. We firmly believe that we can only seek out this adventure when our campers feel safe and secure, which means they know what to expect and feel well held by their counselors and the entire Timberlake community. I have been applying all my middle school teacher super powers to help make this the most welcoming community possible for all – names matter, pronouns matter, food preferences matter, each of us, matter.
How can we possible fit so much awesomeness in just the first few days? Simply, it’s just what we do at Timberlake.
Camp magic has started, y’all.