Monday Evening Fun with Food Week
Mud pit!
This week our theme is fun with food and of course we are doing everything we can to weave this theme into each of the activities that we do. Sometimes however this doesn’t quite go as smoothly as we hope.
While stomping around in the mud pit in an attempt to mix it up well enough for campers to challenge each other to tug-of-war matches over it Program Director Paul noted aloud the similarity between the color and consistency of the mud and that of Hersey’s chocolate syrup.
"Maybe we could tell the campers it’s chocolate sauce" he said. There was a moment as his cohorts Megan and Shayla considered the suggestion when all that could be heard was the vacuous slurping of mud around their ankles.
"What if they eat it?" Shayla asked. Megan nodded.
"We’ll tell them it’s mixed with mud" Paul said.
"That’s just gross."
"Okay" Paul replied. "We’ll tell them it’s all mud."
"Isn’t that what we always do?" Megan asked.
Paul thought about it for a moment. Then he said "mud could be food."
Edible or not (thankfully no one tried to verify) the mud pit itself was a huge success. Campers divided into their cabin groups and fought hard not to be tugged over the line of victory (and into the sludge). Despite their best efforts however many a camper eventually stepped into the muck during the competition and most jumped in wilingly after the tournament was over.
If you haven’t yet check out the photo section of our website for some fantastic pictures of your campers covered (in some cases head to toe) in our extra slimy mud.
Tie-dye and cabin spirit…
After the tug-of-war challenge over the mud pit campers headed over to the camp break area. Between the art barn and the chapel the break area serves as a sort of recess environment offering campers the chance to play basketball gaga — a camp favorite that involves campers shuffling around in a two-foot tall arena trying to swat a kickball into the legs of their competitors while only using one hand — four square and many other competitive and non-competitive activities.
During the day we spend two twenty-five minute periods in our camp break area. The first one which goes from roughly 11 until 11:30 is also the time designated for the girl campers to visit the camp store. The afternoon break roughly 3:50 until 4:15 gives the boys the same opportunity.
After this morning’s break campers stayed close to the art barn for our special tie-dye and cabin spirit activities. During this time each cabin was given a blank white flag to decorate with their cabin name and a creative symbol (this week we have the Sour Patch Kids the Cupcake Eating Unicorns among others) and each camper was given a white CYC t-shirt. The cabins then took turns tie-dying their shirts and decorating their flags all the while singing their cheers and working on handshakes chants and nicknames. This time always provides cabins with time to bond as a group — to become closer and to work as a team to accomplish something they can all share and be proud of. By the end of this time the cheers were almost to loud to hear over and a significant number of spirit points (the points that determine who wins the prestigious Spirit Award at the end of the week) were awarded.
Afternoon activities
After lunch (delicious chicken patties on buns veggies and a single brownie for each camper) we all jumped right in to individual activities. All of the traditional activities — such as canoeing sports throwing and swimming — attracted many campers but this week there were also quite a few campers who went out on a limb and tried some of our newer activities (improv in drama newspaper and drumline).
All afternoon dancers could be heard practicing their steps drummers their beats and boaters their strokes and the excitement will carry into these same activities tomorrow.
Right now campers are playing an old favorite Angels and Demons (a mixture of capture the flag and tag) and then they will head to Sweeney Down for showers meds and bedtime.
Overall this has been a fantastic start to the week and everything that comes later in the week (relay races the dance party s’mores and counselor entertainment) has been met with great anticipation. Keep checking this blog for updates throughout the week and don’t forget to visit our other sites for pictures (Ultracamp) up-to-the-minute updates (Twitter) and more general news and information (Facebook).