… Let the laundry commence.
It was a wild two weeks. When we met Katy at her tent to gather up everything that wasn’t her trunk (those go to a central location) she told me she lost a sheet. Their tent was over-run with chiggers (could be worse) and the nurse had to wash all their bedding and somehow she didn’t get one of her fitted sheets back. She had two because I thought one was a mattress protector. They also had wild dogs near the tent one night and three different bugs that they named. That’s what happens when you live in the woods.
The campers are divided into four units based roughly on age. The first year Katy went was for a one-week session that wasn’t full. By her age she should have been in Oakledge but ended up in Sherwood. Her second year she was the age for Sherwood and that’s where she was. This year she should have been in Glen where the last-years and next-to-last-years are but the session was full and there were so many older girls that Glen filled up and she ended up in Sherwood again. She was a little disappointed as Glen does some really neat things the other units don’t. And each unit has a color and naturally I bought her two plaid shirts for Glen. Sherwood is red and I thought about red shirts the night before, just in case, but naturally she had outgrown all the ones she had and it was too late to run out an buy more. She did have a dark red shirt and a maroon one that did the job.
It was a great two weeks, though. For her classes Katy did Project Adventure II (ropes course and climbing wall), drama and general merriment. She picked outdoor living skills but didn’t get it. That surprised me as I thought older girls would get first pick and that class is one thing I really like about this camp. So she got her back-up class. General merriment is fun. The girls did a variety of things including wide games, making ice cream in bags, making water balloon babies and keeping them alive and a Harry Potter Day.
Each day begins and ends with Colors, a flag raising and lowering ceremony and the units take turns being in charge of it. This year Katy got to participate a couple of times.
Each unit does an out-of-camp trip and Sherwood went hiking at Cloudland Canyon State Park. I got an email from the director asking for permission to take her. I thought that was strange since I signed the permission sheet when we checked her in. Turns out I was off a line and signed for the girl above. Oops. They hiked down to the falls and spent about 20 minutes singing. The counselors said it was “magical”. Katy just said it was a lot of steps.
The had a talent show and Katy did a skit with some of the drama group.
On the last night they have a banquet and Sherwood was in charge of planning and decided on The Wizard of Oz, with each unit being a different character.
Last year the CITs decided Paint Twister would be fun and they decided to go it again this year. Katy took last year’s shirt and shorts just in case. So that shirt now has two summers’ worth of paint on it. She’ll need a new one next year, this one won’t fit by then!
Camp ends up with All-Camp Day and awards are given out. Sherwood won for Song Contest (their secret song was written by one of the campers), 14-Person Fire (they won that last year, too) and water boiling (Katy didn’t do that contest). They didn’t place in the overall competition, though. Glen came in first with all manner of plaques! But Katy was happy to double the number of stickers on her trunk. There are girls who go every summer from age 7-15 and sometimes for multiple sessions and their trunks are covered in prize stickers! Her tent didn’t get Pixie (tent inspections) because one day they didn’t pass because of one fake feather underneath the platform. They didn’t even know where it came from.
She was also voted Most Likely to Become an Auctioneer as she talks fast and you can never understand what she’s saying. For their “kangaroo court” she was forced to speak slowly and clearly! She said a few girls said she should be most likely to become an exterminator since she was always killing bugs for the girls in tent 5.
Overall it was a successful session and she’s already looking forward to next year and being a “last year”.
