This morning seven campers completed the two-mile swim. Hurrah! The way it works is that seven canoes, each with two staff and one camper, paddled the two miles from camp to the Joe Lake Dam. Once there the kids got in the water to swim home, each with a staff canoe no more than a metre away from them at all times as their lifeguard. We’re so proud of the two-mile swimmers.

Other campers finished erecting the new tipi, a huge white canvas abode on long poles… Tonight was Aladdin, the Junior play, a triumph of theatrical talent and energy. The Juniors were fabulous, and they loved their cast party after the show with cupcakes and congratulations.

As I write this, the Senior Boys are doing an initiation into manhood ’round the fire at the Circle of Benches. I decided a couple of years ago that boys need more ritual, ceremony and rites of passage, thanks to a lack of these in modern culture and also to the fact that there is so much confusion about definitions of manhood.

So Max and I wrote a few initiation programs for the boys, to get them to reflect on what it means to be a man, and to do some outdoor adventure experiences that develop and strengthen their self-confidence as young men. The Point values of brotherhood and integrity and respect are of course the foundations of what we see as manhood here.

Add in a campfire, some talking reflection and a brief solo walk in the dark for each boy….