Camp Council, Northwoods Tennis, Windsurfing & More
We saw perfect 75-degree weather today for our regularly scheduled day of activities, a beautiful scene in the Northwoods with the sun out and shining. Campers saw a full day of the program and an organized free, followed by a lovely fifth period of some friendly Green-White competition! We sent group of tennis players over to the Northwoods Tennis Tournament with Camp Nebagmon and Camp Lincoln and our boys were proud to return victorious and with the Sportsmanship Award.
Our first rounds of trips have arrived back at camp with S-1 and S-2 completing their Superior Hiking Trail trip yesterday and the S-3 and S-4 cabins arrived today from their adventure out on the Brule. The campers have come home with rave reviews of the trips and our phenomenal trip staff. And we are just one day away from our Pine Manor cabins’ long-awaited return from Canada!
Today was also our inaugural meeting of the Camp Council. A classic North Star tradition started by Sue, the Camp Council is kind of like our camp government, with each bunk choosing one camper to represent their cabin at the meeting each week. While presidential candidates are debating on TV, our Camper Council was working towards a better future at North Star. We feel that it’s incredibly important for our campers to have their voices heard and respected here at camp, and the camper council gives them the perfect opportunity for this. It’s a wonderful outlet for our campers to learn assertiveness, public speaking, and leadership skills, engaging in referendums regarding program activities, organized free, and anything else that they might have an idea about. The Camp Council is also a place for campers to actually instill changes that are meaningful to them. In fact, we’re already working to actualize some of the ideas.
Evening program tonight was Organized Free with some special offerings. We had Chess N’ Chill on the terrace with Connor, a funky jam session on the office porch with Mason, a pontoon boat tour of Spider Lake with Alex and Joseph, and more. Pickleball, rugby, soccer, a swim point extravaganza and a basketball shootaround and more gave the campers an absolute blast of an evening.
I myself have had a special task on my plate over the last few days, returning to the waterfront as a windsurfing instructor. When I was a young counselor, that was one of my main responsibilities at camp. Between time off and the trip schedule, there was room for me to take on a few days of lessons. It has been such a joy to be back on the water playing balance games, teaching about wind direction and how the sail interacts with the board, and seeing campers successfully breezing across the lake for the first time.
