There was a bittersweetness in the air at camp today, as campers and staff held each other close and soaked in as much of this place as they could before they say goodbye for now tomorrow.
Groups of campers clumped together like glue, exchanging contact info, writing each other bus letters, and making promises to get together throughout the year.
A new thing I noticed today was how many campers I overheard thanking their staff for all the work they did to make camp a positive experience – what a testament to our campers that they could recognize and express gratitude for this!
This evening after an extra long awards banquet (because so many campers deserved recognition for their activity attitudes and commitment) we went up to Rustic Lounge to watch the slideshow, which had everyone oohing and aahing and more than a few tearing up at the beautiful memories. Our incredible multimedia team are now uploading their work and will share links with parents later this week of the slideshow and session photo dump.
The icing on this incredible summer was our annual candle lighting ceremony, which only seems to get more magical every year.
Campers and staff walked down from Rustic Lounge to find a huge “A” made out of candles on the front lawn of the Main Lodge. Each person sat behind a candle while their Section Head spoke to them about memories of the summer, and then everyone got to float their candle (on it’s wooden raft) out onto the lake with a wish for next summer. By then end of it, all of the seniors and most of the inters were sobbing into each other’s arms, not wanting the magic to end.
We are so grateful to all of our wonderful campers for bringing their energy to camp, because without them it’s just a bunch of old buildings, and we can’t wait for them to fill them again next summer!
