Day One Sunday of Carnival Week

After several weeks of training the staff here at CYC have been itching to work with some actual campers! That’s why earlier this afternoon a cheer went up when they heard the sound of buses coming down 520th Lane. Counselors and early arriving campers started waving frantically the minute the first bus rounded the bend and within moments of their arrival campers were playing Knight Tag The Big Wind Blows and singing all sorts of camp songs all across the main field.

Right on schedule campers were led to their cabins at 5:00. There they played name games and ice-breakers and helped to set out some beginning-of-the-week expectations. At 5:30 everyone ate a delicious dinner of pizza quesadillas fruits and veggies salad and frozen treats and then took a tour of camp (which included some of the freshly painted walls in Sweeny and the newly constructed shelter on the throwing field).

Tonight will bring the flag lowering circle and praise and worship. As the sun sets on the friendship circle each camper will be asked to imagine a perfect world — a world where people are allowed to express themselves and encourage each other without fear where everyone picks up after themselves and where we’re all free from the things that can sometimes make our everyday lives difficult — and then as they open their eyes and look around the campfire they will be told that CYC can be such a world. This is one of our rituals here at camp. We do it each week at the opening campefire and every year and it continues to drive home the type of environment we strive to create here at camp: a safe place where kids are empowered with the freedom to grow and to be themselves.

Stay tuned for updates on this blog throughout the week!