Crank Up the Volume

We are off to a great start with second session!  By now our second session campers have settled in, made new friends and reunited with old. They have played at least two games of dodgeball, been in the lake for swim tests, and spent several activity periods at their favorite projects.  And until lunch today, we thought that they had already rounded into form when it comes to cheering in the Dining Hall.

Now our guys can cheer, but when the CITs from Chippewa Ranch Camp joined us in the Lodge for lunch, you would have thought you were at a ballgame.  You could hardly hear yourself think! The Senior Village began the festivities with their ritual Conga Line into the Outer Lodge.  Jumping up and down, they began chanting their traditional cheer, “V-I-L-L-A, Villa, Villa, All the Way!”

Not to be outdone, the Juniors and Intermediates (Ridge) got into the action quickly and noisily.  “J-U-N, I-O-R, Juniors, Juniors, Best by Far!” And, “R-I-D-G-E, On the Ridge is Unity!” All in all, there were fewer than 20 ladies from Chippewa, but when they took to the singing and dancing, they held their own.  Our boys unloaded the whole songbook and even unveiled some new moves for the occasion.

Today was our first day of our regular program during second session.  Each week, the boys choose their activities for the instructional periods. They choose from a wide range of programming in adventure, athletics, creative arts and waterfront activities to make up their schedules.  Every successive week, they will again choose a new set of activities and each camper can choose to build on the ones they enjoyed as well.  Read More About Our Program.

Very quickly, chess has taken North Star by storm.  Bruce W., who is here creating a new Promotional Video for us, also happens to be a chess master. The fascination started when Bruce challenged all the campers and counselors to take him on.  The catch was that he was going to play 10 games at once!  After Bruce set up three picnic tables side-by-side, he prepared the boards and lined up his challengers, whom ranged from 5-year-old Lake to not-5-year-old Leb. On Monday, Bruce went 9 and 1, losing only to counselor Charles E.

But that was not good enough. He wanted to go undefeated, and he took on a new crop today and succeeded, defeating all 10 opponents.  Bruce does have a chink in his armor though as he lost to our very own camper chess master Asher B. 

Tonight we had a modified challenge games that included several intriguing challenges.  We had an Ohio State versus Michigan football game, fueled by our Wolverine alumnus I-Village Director Jon K. and our Buckeye alumnus Senior Village Director Adam H.  Nano had the Fun-Bug area rocking. We had a soccer match led by Brant and Ben M., a blobbing contest spearheaded by Blumy and Blumy with nickname rights at stake, tennis courts filled with doubles matches, floor hockey, dodgeball, basketball and more; and all this while the sun was on its way down for the evening.  Tomorrow our first cabin trips of the session will head out, and we’ll keep rolling with the projects.

But that’s all in a day’s work at North Star. Second session is off to a great start!