If you had told me in July that you can go six days without rain in Vermont I wouldn’t have believed you for a second. But somehow, whether canoeing in the Adirondacks or backpacking in Vermont and New Hampshire, these newly returned seven day trip groups saw barely a drop of rain. Here we are stressing the importance of lining backpacks with trash bags and keeping your rain gear handy and we’ve hardly been validated. Oh well, everyone deserves a break! Even if it was not the lessons of wet weather fires and lightening safety, there were plenty of opportunities for lessons learned. Campers returned with great new relationships, new perspectives on what they are capable of, and a host of input on how communities can help each other. Seven days in the backcountry is enough to slow anyone’s pace down to see the beauty of the world and feel the joy of being alive.
In celebration of our return and our excitement about the F&W community, last night we hosted a contra dance here at SAM. With over a hundred of our fellow F&W campers, we filled ourselves on Sam Arfer’s (Master Chef here at SAM Camp) amazing chili and danced into the night to the tunes of the F&W String Band.
This week, we’ll be navigating our way through both getting excited about Fair and mourning the coming closure of the summer. Campers today tie-dyed and boiled hundreds of beautiful SAM-danas. These will be sold at Fair in an effort to raise money towards campership. It’s a long standing 40 year tradition to make and serve our good ol’ Saltash Mountain Dew as well. Thursday will bring a coming together of crews that have been writing scripts and songs, designing sets and props, and even choreographing some dances for the opening skit at Fair. This all-camp project really shows how well campers put to use the skills they have learned to work together in groups.
Closure is eminent and though sad, it is done beautifully by the campers here at SAM. Campers have prepared appreciations of each other and we’ll have several ceremonies to honor gifts that camp has bestowed upon them.
Our kids have been given the new Fair and ending of camp schedule for this summer. Hopefully you’ve received the letters describing Fair day and departure day schedules. Please let us know if you have any questions.