Each week Merri-Mac gathers around a bonfire for Merri-Mac Council. Legends are read, awards are given and handprints are left on standards.  We do this because we think it is important to recognize and celebrate growth in our campers, and equally important that they recognize it in themselves. It is important because we are made to live life together, to be challenged, grow and succeed, and to engage our world. These things are best learned in families, but we believe they are next best learned at camp. 

As part of White Feather, girls accumulate “marks” based on activity achievements, elective challenges and cabin leadership. Each mark takes them a step closer to their next “promotion”  and toward the highest rank of White Feather. With each mark and each promotion girls receive pins, which we encourage them to keep on their camp pennant.

Each Merri-Mac camper receives this pennant (and they’ve been around for about as long as camp!), and it’s a record of her time at camp. These start out relatively empty and each year they get filled up more and more. By the time a girl finishes with us, they are bursting with stories, achievements and memories she will cherish for a lifetime.

In the end, the most important part of Merri-Mac Council comes after the ceremony is over. During cabin time, on the evenings that we hold council, the counselors will go to each camper to describe the gifts and abilities that they have noticed in her.  This is where a girl who may never earn a White Feather Promotion, or a Gold Bar, or be elected to a tribal office, can be told about what we see God doing in her life and her contribution to the camp family.

Want to learn more about marks, and what each pin means?

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