It was a chilly morning here at Merri-Mac! We woke up bright and early and bundled up in our
cutest sweat sets, with many sporting their brand-new quarter zips and matching sweatpants from
the Clothing Room! We started our day off with a delicious breakfast of baked oatmeal,
blueberry muffins, fried apples, grits, and lots of berries at the yogurt bar!! From there, we
headed up to Chapel, where Mary Page told us a story about her best friend Madison. She read
from John 3:16 and spoke about who God is and how he invites us into a relationship with Him
through the word of the Bible.

Several of our campers embarked on our second rafting trip of the summer today on the French
Broad River:
Ella B.
Kahlan C.
Haynes H.
Mary Rhodes M.
Eva P.
Quinn P.
Caroline S.
Marion S.

Caroline T.
Hattie W.
Eloise W.

Taylor Y.

Campers went from Chapel to their tribe meetings, where our Sunnysiders (our oldest campers
and elected tribal leaders) taught their tribes more songs to sing at lunch! From there, we all
enjoyed our morning activities! Campers in Backpacking learned about the seven principles of
Leave No Trace, including hiking only on marked trails, disposing of trash properly, and more.
In Cooking, our girls started the session off right with homemade chocolate chip cookies!
Campers in PAWS started training our five perfect golden doodles in basic commands like sit
and lay down.

After our morning activities, we headed to the Back Green to enjoy some Turf Time before
lunch! Today was a fabulous day for meals, and I’m sure you can imagine the excitement across
the Tucker Inn when we learned that it was Pizza Day!! A camp classic (and my personal
favorite!), we gleefully ate the delicious, thick-crust cheese and pepperoni pizza with peaches
and salad for lunch. So yummy!!!

After lunch and rest time, our campers enjoyed their snacks from the Trading Post during free
time! The most popular snack combo today seemed to be Sour Punch Straws and Lipton Green
Tea, where you of course sip the tea through the Sour Punch Straws! Girls spent the rest of their
free time laughing with their friends, playing tetherball, playing Uno in the Knitting Hut, and
playing Gaga Ball, where Anna Wilder P. was crowned the Gaga Ball Champion of the
afternoon!

We had a blast in our afternoon activities, too! Ella H. learned to play three major chords on the
guitar for the first time and even put them all together to play the song Riptide! In pottery, some

of our girls worked on pinch pots, while some of our girls learned to throw on the wheel!
Campers in Knitting learned to make slip knots and cast on to start their projects!
We dismissed a little early from our last activity of the day to take our all-camp photo in our
Sunday whites, and then we changed into our tribe jerseys before dinner to prepare for tonight’s
evening activity: El Presidente! This one is a camp favorite. Different campers are assigned
different roles worth varying amounts of points, but the ultimate goal is to capture the other
tribes’ presidents to end the round. These presidents could be anyone in the tribe, and they’re
usually kept a secret from everyone until the game is over. I’m feeling another Black Bear win in
our future!
In other big news: Two of our campers lost a tooth today! Congrats to Anna R. and Saunders B.!
Crossing our fingers that these two get a visit from the Tooth Fairy tonight!
After El Presidente, we ended the night with cabin time, friendship bracelet making, and
devotionals! It was truly a Merri day here at Merri-Mac!

From This Haven,
Layla C.
Cloud Nine Counselor & Knitting Instructor
10th Summer at Merri-Mac