A Very Happy 4th of July!

Breakfast on the 4th of July is one of my favorite times during the summer. The enthusiasm is off the charts. Songs like Born in the USA, Party in the USA, Proud to be an American, and the Star Spangled Banner echoed loudly through the Lodge this morning. Then we read the Declaration of Independence as our morning grace before enjoying the waffles that the kitchen staff brings out with sparklers. There is a tremendous amount of anticipation for the day ahead, with a ton of excitement for the morning’s Green-White Marathon and the evening picnic with Birch Trail (more below).

I love that breakfast though because it’s an opportunity to recognize the ideals on which our country was founded and to acknowledge how we can live up to those ideals at camp each day. Our Friday Night Service this week was on the topic of character. We talked about being yourself and standing up for what you believe in. We had a great sermonette and stories about why these actions are so important, and we had a great keylog ceremony where so many of the boys talked about camp being a place where they really could be themselves.

And when you put last night and today together, it gave us a great opportunity to talk about what is maybe the simplest value that we are continually working to teach at North Star – To do the right thing for the right reasons.

For a little more detail on the day’s events:
The morning was our Green-White Marathon. This is a relay race that includes nearly every event in camp. It starts with a running race and includes fun-bugging, swimming, canoeing, climbing, archery, riflery, biking, skipping, tent building, tennis volleying, bed making, basketball shooting, bucket filling, singing, and more, before leading to Boil Water Boil. In this final event, the whole camp gathers around as the two teams compete to build a fire that can boil a tin can full of water over the top first. It was a very close race with the Green team squeezing out Boil Water Boil to take the lead and win the Marathon.

After lunch, we gave the boys some time to pretty themselves up for our Fourth of July picnic with camp Birch Trail. The girls arrived and much to their surprise we had turned our social into the “wedding” of our counselor Keith and his fiancé who is on staff there. There was a ceremony followed by speeches and a wedding dance, with dinner and many other fun activities sprinkled throughout the night.