How Green-White Works at a Wisconsin Boys Camp
Families researching overnight camps often wonder how a summer-long team rivalry can pull boys closer together instead of driving them apart. At North Star Camp for Boys, an overnight camp in the Wisconsin Northwoods, that question runs straight into one of our longest standing traditions, the Green-White competition. Every camper and every counselor belongs to one of two teams, and once you are drafted, you are Green or White for life. The rivalry stretches across the entire summer, and it is built so that the friendships boys make here always come first.
How Boys Join a Green-White Team
Yesterday afternoon our newest campers found out which team they would represent, in a ceremony that began only a few years ago and has quickly become a favorite. Each camper hears his name called, learns whether he is Green or White, gets welcomed by his new teammates, and is promptly covered in green or white paint. Our returning campers love welcoming the new members to their side, and every boy gets to experience the roar that goes up when his name is announced. It is a loud, joyful way to tell a new camper that he now belongs to something bigger than himself.
What Green-White Captains Do
This session’s Green-White Captains were announced in the evening, and they are chosen because they have earned the respect of their peers and their counselors. Captains set the tone for their teams, organize events, encourage the younger campers, and help make sure that everyone feels included in the competition. While every camper hopes his team comes out ahead, the best captains understand that their real responsibility is to bring out the best in the people around them. That expectation shapes how leadership looks at a boys summer camp like ours, where a title means service to the team rather than status over it.
The Many Ways to Earn Points
When people first hear that Green-White is a camp competition, they usually picture athletic events, and those certainly play a role, though they are only one piece of a much larger picture. Points are earned in dozens of different ways across the summer. Signature events anchor the calendar, including the Green-White Marathon on the Fourth of July, where cabins rotate through a wide variety of challenges, and the Egg Marathon later in the summer, which is one of camp’s oldest traditions. The Green-White Series awards points through competitions in activities and evening programs, and Fourth Period competitions give cabins the chance to represent their teams almost every day. Campers turn camp upside down looking for the staff during Camper-Counselor Hunt, and events like the Dodgeball Extravaganza and Softball Extravaganza fold into the overall score, so that every camper has a way to contribute.
“It Just Doesn’t Matter”: How We Think About Winning
You have likely seen the slogan “It Just Doesn’t Matter” on our camp merch, a phrase adapted from the movie Meatballs that has taken on a very specific meaning here. It does not mean the competition itself is unimportant, because the games are a real chance to play hard, work as a team, and test your limits. It means that at the end of a day at camp, whether you won or lost is not how we measure success, which is instead measured by how you competed. We tell our campers that they are friends before the game, friends during the game, and that they need to behave in a way that leaves them still friends after the game. Boys are sometimes hardwired to announce that they won, that you lost, or that they are better than you, and that kind of chatter simply does not fly here, because it does not create a healthy environment in the cabins or around camp. You can play your absolute hardest and still be kind, and that is exactly what we ask of our boys. Over the course of a summer, Green-White gives them hundreds of chances to lead, to follow, to persevere when things do not go their way, and to celebrate someone else’s success, and those lessons tend to last much longer than any final score.
This Week at Camp
Today also marked the start of another week of activities, as campers settled into new schedules and continued progressing through our objective based programs, with another chance to try something new or work toward the next level in a favorite activity. The evening’s Green-White field games looked a little different than originally planned, because smoke moved into the area during the afternoon and we adjusted the program to reduce physical exertion. Instead of higher intensity events, campers rotated through bocce, KanJam, washers, and several other skill based games, and while the format changed, the friendly competition and the enthusiasm did not. Green finished the first session with a 35 point lead, which keeps things close and very much up for grabs throughout the second session. Last year White mounted a huge comeback in the second half of the summer, and they will be looking to do it again while Green tries to hold them off, so the standings will keep shifting the way they do most years, likely coming down to a handful of points before both teams cheer “It Just Doesn’t Matter” and “We Had the Most Fun!”
“Twixt the optimist and pessimist, the difference is droll. The optimist sees the donut, but the pessimist sees the hole.”
– McLandburgh Wilson
If you are exploring overnight camps for your son and want him to learn how to compete with intensity and kindness at the same time, North Star Camp for Boys in the Wisconsin Northwoods may be the right fit. You can explore our activities and traditions, see how a typical camp day unfolds, and reach out through our inquiry form to start a conversation or schedule a tour.
FAQ
What is the Green-White competition at North Star?
Green-White is one of North Star’s longest standing traditions, a summer-long competition in which every camper and counselor belongs to either the Green team or the White team. Boys earn points for their team through signature events, activity competitions, and evening programs, and the emphasis stays on sportsmanship rather than the final score.
How are boys placed on a team?
New campers are drafted onto a team during a welcome ceremony, and once a boy is drafted he stays Green or White for the rest of his years at camp. Returning campers help welcome the newest members, so every boy starts out feeling like part of a group.
Does winning matter at North Star?
The games are meant to be played hard, but our slogan “It Just Doesn’t Matter” reminds everyone that success is measured by how a camper competes rather than whether his team wins. We ask boys to be friends before, during, and after every game.
