Well, I’m sad to say it, but camp’s over. We sure had a great summer, didn’t we?
There was truly a whirlwind of activity to wrap things up at camp this summer. Since I last wrote we had Banquet, Friendship Fire, Fair, Fire Quest and lots of work during post-camp. Some of it is hard to convey in print, but I’ll do my best. In particular, I just want to highlight two big events: Fair and Fire Quest.
Fair was a whole new experience this year. At Flying Cloud we held on to a lot of the best elements of Fair that we’ve always had and loved, and we also had some new elements. If you have thoughts about the changes, I’d love to hear them. We made beef jerky this year, like always, and we also made more of our Flaming Tipi Hot Sauce, which has become increasingly popular as we fine tune the recipe. For next year I think we’ll make even more of both, since as usual they sold out fast! This year we decided to give away our fried grasshoppers, and I was surprised to see that people ate them right up! I guess if you fry something in oil and put enough chili powder on it, it’s pretty yummy. 🙂
The new version of the closing of Fair was very pretty, though a big hot fire in the middle of the day was a bit too warm for most! For next year I’m sure we’ll keep the piece about each camp singing a song, which I thought was gorgeous, but we’ll have to find a new way to have fire be a part of Fair. Right now I’m dreaming of something more sculptural…. Again, if you have great ideas I’d love to hear them.
The other big event that was part of the closing experience for the summer was the addition of Fire Quest. In this ceremony older campers who chose to were invited to go out into the woods around Flying Cloud, build a fire, and tend it overnight until they were called back in to camp by the sound of our ceremony drum. On the surface this sounds like a pretty simple task, but there’s something about sitting alone, in the dark with a pile of wood and a little fire all night that seems to bring out a lot of personal reflection. Our hope in holding this ceremony was for our campers to have a chance to reflect on their summer and to prepare themselves for the coming year. Life as a teenage boy can be stressful and confusing, and often times taking the time to sit and think while under the protection of a loving community can make all the difference. We hope it does for our boys….