It was a typical morning for the campers at Merri-Mac as they walked down to breakfast, but there was big news coming. Staff had been told to wear their tribe shirts down to breakfast with a sweatshirt over top, not to reveal the surprise too soon. At the end of the meal we then pulled off our sweatshirts and revealed the exciting news! The girls were so excited to be able to play with their friends all day long while fighting for the banner. We had a delicious breakfast of pancakes and sausage to fuel for the fun activities. Afterwards, the sunnysiders picked out “Be Kind” and “Hip Hooray” for the morning songs. As soon as we were all dismissed from breakfast, the girls ran to their cabins to change into their tribe jerseys and paint themselves from head to toe. The first game played was tribe trash, which took place immediately after chapel and is a fun way for the girls to clean up camp while earning points for their tribes. It was later announced that the Blackbears were the winners of that round. Next, they geared up to play gold rush by formulating stories to beat the staff. Gold Rush was won by the Red Wolves and spirit points were won by the Golden Eagles. After wearing themselves out, the girls were in desperate need for some food and water. The kitchen staff did not disappoint as they provided us with pizza, grapes, and caesar salad for lunch. Decided by the Sunnysiders, lunch was tribe song switch so each tribe sang that of another tribe using their name. Of course the surprises weren’t over… Momo announced that there would be an hour long rest time and immediately after would be Song Fest! Song fest is now back at camp and the Sunnysiders did an amazing job at leading their tribe in a group chant and song. Each tribe was judged by Adam, Ann, Olvey, Drake, MoMo, Sarah, Meg, and Patti-O. I would hate to be a judge because they all did such an amazing job! It began to rain pretty heavily during rest time, but don’t fret it stopped just in time for song fest and… INFERNO! That was our fourth activity of the day. The winners of song fest and inferno have not yet been announced, but we are all shaking in our boots to find out. It has been such a blast to capture the smiling faces of campers being able to compete alongside and against their best friends! I can’t wait to see what tomorrow brings. 

Love from camp Merri-Mac,

Lilly Classey (PAWS staff and Sundrop counselor)