It’s a Merri day, Merri-Mac! 

Last night we initiated our brand-new 1B campers into tribes!! It’s the way we’ve welcomed girls into camp since the beginning, and it gives campers an instant sense of belonging. (Scroll down to see your new camper’s tribe!)

Have you been watching the weather reports? (We sure have!) The day started off cloudy and quickly turned to non-thundering rain, but we were ready! Rain is one of the things we do best here at camp because rain is a healthy and welcome part of North Carolina summers. So activities went on as planned, with only a few adjustments!

Today campers attended their first MWF classes, so counselors reviewed safety information and campers got their first tries at all sorts of new things: cooking, climbing, riding, kayaking and more! (Campers have four classes on MWF and four on TThSa, so tomorrow they’ll have the rest of their “firsts” for the 1B session.) 

The lake activities were particularly fun because, well, WE WERE ALREADY WET! Canoers practiced strokes and sang the parts of the oar song (so loud they could be heard up on Senior Hill, woo hoo!), while kayaking worked on wet exits — that is, rolling over in the water and releasing yourself from the kayak! (FYI, we have Thor Guard, a lightning monitoring system, that sets of a camp-wide alarm if lightning in in the area, so our girls were safe to be in the water.)

Another popular activity today was cooking, where girls made mini Belgian waffles from scratch (no mixes here!) and then topped them with strawberry, blueberry, raspberry and maple syrup. (What a warm and cozy snack for a rainy day!)

Also, some of the Tweedles took an off-campus excursion where they hiked to Tom’s Creek Waterfalls, where they played in the water pools and searched for rocks! The rain didn’t even phase them!!

In the afternoon, the rain let up and we got pockets of sunlight admits the clouds, but it stayed pretty cool temperature-wise. It was so fun to see girls cozied up in sweatshirts and Merri-wear all around campus at activities. When the girls wrapped up afternoon classes, we took the all-camp photo. (Parents, can you imagine the hilarity of organizing 300 campers and asking them to smile all at once?! Thankfully we have a lot of experience with this!) Then girls geared up in tribe jerseys and face paint for tonight’s evening activity: SOCK WAR!! (Sock War is a game of capture the flag where you get out by tagging others with a long sock!)

Oh, and not to forget meals (of course!): For breakfast, we had homemade French toast and sausage; for lunch, WALKING TACOS (a camp favorite: bags of Frito chips with taco toppings); and for dinner, spaghetti with marinara and broccoli. 

BLACK BEAR IS #1!
Talie Shove

BLACK BEAR TRIBE

Sadie A.

Lanier B.

Annie D.

Rosalind E.

Olivia F.

Jo Jo K.

Margaret M.

Mary Margaret S.

Rosemary S.

Sullivan M.

GOLDEN EAGLE TRIBE

Lexi A.

Virginia B.

Elizabeth B.

Cecelia C.

Maggie C.

Clythe H.

Emeline M.

Elizabeth R.

Smith M.

Abigail D.

RED WOLVES TRIBE

Sophia C.

Laine H.

Lyric J.

Jessica J.

Nora S.

Amelia W.