Our first day at camp kicks off with a camp favorite for breakfast: Cinnamon Buns! After chowing down our delectable buns and chatting up our new and old friends, we engaged in a multitude of fun camp songs together. After breakfast, we trekked up to the chapel where we sang many familiar favorites, including my personal favorites: Good Good Father and Prince of Peace. We wrapped up our singing as always with the camp psalm. Today Mary-Paige delivered the message on growing to know God through his word.

After chapel, girls headed off to tribe meetings; some for the first time ever as they experienced the adventure of initiation last night. This is where new campers get assigned to a tribe, which will soon become like family. Next, the journey of the day begins as the girls head off to their classes. As the first day of the session, today will be the first time trying certain activities for many girls! These classes will allow your girls to try new things as well as push themselves out of their comfort zone.
Hopefully, they’ll even come home begging you to let them continue their activity year-round! Who knows, maybe you’ll have a skilled fencer for a daughter when she returns, begging for lessons to continue. In every class campers are learning new things; things they may have never even thought of before.

Lunch today was southwest chicken wraps, an especially tasty meal in my opinion. To accompany it we had oranges, fries, salads, and potato soup. Quite the feast! After clearing tables, the dining begins to erupt in tribe pride as we build our tribe songs to show our spirit! The evening activity was then announced: Tonight the three tribes will go head to head in the Gold Rush!

After lunch, we headed back to our cabins for a well-loved rest hour and then an afternoon snack at the trading post. Nothing like a little candy to regain some energy after a nap. Today Lake Doris was the place to be as Tweedle Dot, Dum, and Lavender's Blue had free swim during free time!

Girls continued to grow their skills as they headed to their activities for the afternoon. The Backpacking class was teaching Leave No Trace principles while the cooking class tried their hand at snickerdoodles! Climbing had the girls on the wall already as many girls faced their fears and surprised themselves as they reached the top!

After a delicious dinner, the girls got super pumped in the Gold Rush! Girls ran all around the camp to try and find various gold items: These items vary from a gold rock to a fully gold-covered counselor! Once collected, the girls try to bring the gold back to their base without being
tagged by a “bandit.” If tagged, both the bandit and camper will go to “court” to plead why they deserve the gold more. If won, the campers gold will go to their base at last. At the end of the game, whichever tribe has the most gold by weight takes the title of Champion. As always, spirit points are awarded to the tribe showing the most spirit!

The Evening Activity is always a fun way to play with the whole camp as well as a great way to help your tribe on its way to winning the Banner! The banner is awarded at the end of each session. Things like tribe games, spirit points, and personal points add up to determine the champion.

Today was a fabulously busy and thrilling day at Merri-Mac as always and we are all feeling so blessed! As 3B begins we are feeling incredibly grateful for the opportunity to spend the coming two weeks with your amazing girls. We love them already and I know in what feels like the blink of an eye we will be very sad to see them go.

From this haven,
Sally Thornburg
Comet Counselor