July 29, 2023
Today was the start of a special event called College Days in the Senior Village! It’s a three-day competition where all the seniors are divided into six teams. The campers lead and organize themselves, dividing responsibilities and coordinating schedules in order to make sure that everyone is playing a vital part in their team’s success.
The boys are going to bed very tired after a busy first day of the competition! They have already competed in arm wrestling, soccer, a mascot competition, cheers, softball, karaoke, biking races, archery, riflery, lawn games and basketball. They also started making judged plaques and getting ready for tomorrow’s cook-off. The next few days will be filled with trivia competitions, football games, debates, swimming races, sailing, chess, waterskiing, climbing, canoeing, firebuilding, and more!
College Days is a great example of how we believe healthy competition should look at camp. It’s been happening since 1998, and it shows off our campers’ skills in so many different activities. But even as they compete, the boys still treat each other as friends and have lots of fun together. They are divided across cabins and a few age groups, and they learn to work together as a team to delegate and manage a very large list of responsibilities. For a team to be successful, every member has to play their own role well.
It couldn’t have been a more beautiful day either. The sun was shining, the temperature was in the upper 70s and the rest of the program was in full swing for our younger campers. Cabin J-6 returned from their camping trip today and J-5 and I-5 will return tomorrow. I-1 is heading out on their canoe trip on the Upper Namekagon River.
We also are hosting Rookie Weekend with a dozen prospective campers visiting North Star. The parents and kids received separate tours tailored to their interests and we love having families able to see what makes camp so special. When the parent tour was on its first stop in the Arts & Crafts this morning, a parent asked some of the boys what they love most about camp. One of the 10-year-old campers answered right away that “camp is a place where I can try new things, push myself outside of my comfort zone, and be supported by the counselors.” We wrapped up the night with our Dodgeball Extravaganza, which pits the campers against the greatly outnumbered counselors and is always a blast.
Today’s Grace:
– Grantland Rice
“When the one great scorer comes,
To write against your name,
He marks not that you won or lost,
But how you played the game.”
