Sunday Blog Update
First session is now in full swing, and today our campers are in their second day of their second set of projects. Since the blog post, many unique events have occurred, such Wednesday night’s staff show, a new evening program on Thursday called “Infection”, our friendship fire on Friday night, and our first Green-White series of the summer on Saturday.
Each week, boys request their top 10 choices for activities and are placed into 6 of them. While it has been a little chilly over the last few days, campers and staff have not let weather impact their fun, and have continued making the most of each project period. Our objective based programming means that campers are focused on improving their skills on any program area in addition to having a ton of fun. Campers will sign up for their second week of activities soon, giving them the chance to both progress in areas they enjoy and try some new activities.
At the beginning of each summer we put on a staff show as a way to introduce the campers to the entire staff. It allows the staff to show their humor and talent off to the boys. This year we had a variety of great skits put on. A few staff members told their best bad jokes (keep on the sunny side), others adapted the well-known J.C. Penny skit to T.J. Maxx. In the skit, many people walk through the stage with interesting clothes on. As they enter, they are asked where they got their outfits, and respond “T.J. Maxx”. At the end, someone comes on stage and asks, “Have you seen my clothes? I’m T.J. Maxx”. Andy and Laney read a book called “The Invisible String” and two of our counselors pranked some of their unsuspecting peers into sitting on a wet towel as part of their skit. It was a fun evening program filled with plenty of laughs. Check out the North Star Instagram account for one of the highlights from the staff show, where Dan’s dog Leo was used as a prop!
Thursday night’s evening program was a game called infected. A few of our staff members adapted it from the video game call of duty. One person in all of camp starts as infected, and once the bell rang, it was their goal to infect as many others by chasing them and tagging them out. If you became infected, you tied a shirt around your head and then tried to infect the remaining healthy people. The goal of the game was to stay healthy for the entirety of evening program. Infected was a great new addition to the program and the campers had a ton of fun playing!
Our first Friday Night Service of the summer was the friendship fire. As is tradition on Friday evenings, all of camp put on nice clothes to head down to the Council Ring for the service. The Friendship Fire focuses on the importance of friendship and how we can all be better friends to each other. We heard a musical selection, a counselor chorus and a camper-counselor chorus, and each sung a song that fit the theme of friendship. We were also treated to a fantastic sermonette by counselor Jake Kraemer, who spoke of the value he places on his friendships made at camp and how the supportive nature of a camp friendship makes it special. The Keylog Ceremony associated with the friendship fire is somewhat atypical. The friendship fire keylogs represent the bond between North Star and the many places our campers and staff come from this summer. At our last count, we have campers or staff from 30 states and 14 countries. It’s a pretty amazing opportunity to have friends all over the country and the world.
Green-White is an all-session event. All of the campers are split into two teams and compete throughout the session in various activities. Two captains were elected in each village based on good behavior and leadership. The captains then drafted each camper onto one of the teams. This session’s Green-White captains are Brandon L. and Charlie J. in the Junior Village, Jayden C. and Lucas F. in the Intermediate Village and Joe S. and Tagir N. in the Senior Village. Last night’s series was the first of three for the session, and included events such as football for the junior village campers, a doubles tennis match where one team wore matching sweatshirts and team-scored climbing.
As of the writing of this blog, we have already had I4 and S5 return from their trips on the Lower Flambeau River and the Brule River respectively. Later this afternoon, cabins S3 and S1 will return from a 5-day hike on the Superior Hiking Trail. Our trip leaders are staying quite busy and as early as tomorrow more trips will head out, with cabins S4 and S2 heading out on their hiking trips. The Pine Manor campers are on the 5th day of their trip in Quetico Provincial Park and we are looking forward to their return on Friday.
Tonight we will have our first Sunday night of the session, so evening program is unorganized free and cabin campfires. Unorganized free allows the campers to find creative ways to play and spend their time. This is followed by cabin campfires, during which the cabins recap the week and talk about growth and goals, both as a group and personally. These campfires are an opportunity for the boys to reflect in front of their friends and talk about what they want out of themselves and each other in order to maximize their camp experience. The cabin campfires are finished off with S’mores around the fire.
