After lunch today the whole camp went outside to watch an extravaganza skit – gowns, tiaras, crowns, and of course a villain on horseback… It was the capture of the four Disney princesses by the bad guy, with the Junior Girls having to complete various challenges all afternoon to save the Disney princesses – which of course they did… Junior Boys played Stock Ticker for evening activity… The LITs got back from canoe trip today and the 2nd month LITs started their intense workshops/training, which kicked off with my traditional LIT Transition session – I ask them to talk about what they’re both losing and gaining in this great life transition – from camper to counseller, from child to adult, from cared for to caregiving. Then we walk through the forest to the Senior Girls Campsite and they each light and candle and speak about their personal reflections on this great journey of transition. Tomorrow their hard work begins, with sessions all day on behaviour management, teaching, conflict mediation, bully interventions, characteristics and needs of different age/gender campers, environmental stewardship at camp – and much more. It’s going to be 8′C here tonight, so we’ve warned everyone to bundle up well at bedtime. As I write this, the Section Heads and Head Instructors are in my cabin drinking mochachinos and eating Dufflet chocolate mousse cake, in the “Evals Lockdown.” (I do find that excellent food and liquids do nicely to fuel staff efforts.). The evals lockdown is when they write their 5th week evaluations of their staff, and they’re required to show them to their supervisor (a Head Counsellor or a Program Director) before they leave my cabin. They then, over the next 3 days, will deliver these evals to all their staff. We evaluate every staff at camp every week (alternating between written and verbal evals) because we know that feedback is how they grow – and how we hold them accountable to Arowhon’s high standard of staff excellence.