It’s a beautiful day at camp with a slight mist coating the mountains.  The girls came running down the hill after cabin clean up to a breakfast of French Toast, sausage links, and the breakfast songs cannibal king, be kind, and rattlin’ bog.  The mist lifted off the Blue Ridge Mountains as the girls came around Lake Doris, my partner in crime Merri and me on the way to chapel.  The sun shined over the surface of the lake as Adam taught the campers about how as broken sinners, we try to earn our way to heaven with our actions but our Heavenly Father sent His son to pay the price for our faults.

Before our classes began on the lake, some campers went off of camp to try their skills outside of our waters.  Gracie T., Kristie G., and Katie G. got up before the sun rose over the ridge to climb a multi-pitch rock face called Table Rock a little while away from camp.  Ellie P., Olivia C., Catherine T., Lindsey A., Sarah T., and Nora C. took their talents to Lake James with Fallon for a waterskiing trip.  Finally Emily J., Ashlyn T., Mattie Y., and Anna M., paddled the waters of the French Broad instead of my dear Lake Doris.  We missed all of our adventurers when they left us but know that they tried new things and pushed limits makes their absence bearable.

Classes started off with a bang as Merri and I watched Abigail J. get her roll in kayaking, Anabell M. get her silver in Emergency Water Safety, Katie B., and Margaret R., got their bronzes in swimming, and Brigitte N. and Frazier R. get their bronzes in Diving! Watching these girls improve in their skills and achieve their bars makes my job hanging out with Doris and Merri in the sun all the more rewarding.

A lunch of chicken wraps and loud tribe songs was a nice marker in the day and got the campers ready for rest hour.  But a strange thing happened at lunch, as the campers in Dreams End and Dreams Begin dressed up for lunch as boys.  The other campers looked confused until the Sunnyside, Sunspot and Sundrop campers began to ask the Dreams girls to Sunny-Dreams prom, Sadie-Hawkins style.  So the “girls”, or sunnysiders, asked the “guys”, or Dreams girls, to an event that is a camp tradition in which the two oldest cabin groups have a dance in the Mike with a theme.  The Dreams girls were excited to finally go through their right of passage and the sunnysiders were sad that this would be their last Sunny-Dreams prom as campers.

After the songs, announcements and other clever prom asking events, the rest of the camp broke it down to hear the evening activity for that day and to learn the victor from the previous night.  The mighty Iroquois won spirit points and the game of Gold Rush but the games never end, as tonight the girls will play a spoof on the Hunger games, Merri-Mac style.  With Sunnyside and Dreams End as the tributes, the campers will participate in a glorified game of hide-and-go-seek complete with a cornucopia of camouflage items, tarps, and paint, and with the staff members dressing up as the member of the Capitol.  This fun, new, and lighthearted tribal activity is one of the camper’s favorites with opportunities to earn points for their tribe through tasks at different activity areas such as fitness, swimming and climbing in addition to the search for the other tribes’ tributes.  The victor of this game and that of spirit points will be announced at lunch tomorrow, let’s hope for my sake that the odds are in the Seminoles favor

In afternoon classes, Doris Merri and I watched more girls earn their bars, this time in the Mike and not the lake.  Brigitte N., Katherine M., and Olivia F. earned their bronze bars in gymnastics.  Something exciting also happened in Archery today that Merri and I heard through the camp grapevine; Katie W., or “K-Dubs” as her Dreams End cabin makes call her, shot a bullseye that went completely through the target, can we say Katniss Everdeen for the Choctaw?

After a dinner of lasagna and corn dip, many girls were given White Feather promotions to recognize and encourage their growth in the fruits of the spirit.  In the Junior Camp there are four ranks; tumbleweed, groundhog, badger, and bear. Tonight Claire D., Temple G., Aurora M., Nataleigh P., Hadley S., Evy V., Josephine V., Lydia W., Austin B., Avery B., Isabella S., Austin T., Susan W., Ava Caroline W., Carolyn C., Caroline K., and Riley E., received their first promotions to Tumbleweed in the Junior camp and Claire H., received a promotion to Groundhog.  In the Senior Camp there are seven promotions; arrow, crazy creek, longbow, running deer, red tail, junior feather and white feather.  Tonight Mary Katherine F., Molly H., Caroline H., Erika R., Caroline C., Stephanie T., Sara-Grace E., Jessica W., Olivia C., Katie G., Mary Ellen H., Caroline S., and Marie C. received their first promotions to arrow.  Also, Berkleigh H., Gracie Ray H., Sofia S., Ellie P., Alex V., Marquesa C., and Cara K., received crazy creek.  Linsdey H., was promoted to long bow, Ashlynn T., Hanna S., and Julia M. were promoted to running deer.  Hamilton I., Libby R., Sara W., Sydney D., Julianna H., and Madi S., were the six special girls were promoted to junior feather tonight.

After a long day of bars, promotions and games, Merri, Doris and I are ready to rest.  As we watch the campers file up to their cabins, we know that we can rest easy because our girls had a day full of fun and fellowship.

 

Lee Bolton

Dreams End Counselor

11th Summer

Proud Seminole until the day I die.