Mission Impossible: The Quest for the Maple Syrup

Of all of the awesome and fun night programs we have here at Alpine, the most famous and most talked about has to be Mission Impossible.   Campers roll through the front gates asking about Mission Impossible. It’s always a big mystery as to when MI will take place, and only the Program Director knows when that is. Boys constantly search for hints as to when it will take place and convince themselves that “it has to be tonight!” Well, yesterday they were right!

Mission Impossible is usually announced in the dining hall through a skit put on by the counselors. During the skit, something important to camp is stolen and it is up to campers to retrieve later that night. Due to a shortage of maple syrup, a group of Canadians (led by a Mountie, a fierce hockey player, and two lumberjacks) invaded the dining hall to confiscate Alpine’s supply of syrup. The campers did not appreciate them stealing our syrup and were determined to get it back for our pancake breakfast tomorrow morning.

After Glee Club, everyone met in the gym decked out in camouflage. Mission Impossible is played together as cabin. Once a cabin has assembled together in the gym, they are given a secret message or code by their Max to deliver to a specific Good Agent. Good Agents are spread all over camp and cabins must stealthily sneak from Good Agent to Good Agent delivering the secret code given to them. Each cabin must be sneaky and quiet when moving throughout camp to avoid being caught by the Bad Agents patrolling the grounds. Should a cabin be spotted by one of the patrolling Bad Agents, they are then sent back to their Max to receive a new secret message to deliver.

It takes a lot of teamwork to win Mission Impossible. Usually the cabin demonstrating the best teamwork and cooperation among cabin mates makes it to the end. Thanks to Cabin 12, 13, 14 on the Mountain and Cabin 2 and 4 on the Ridge, our maple syrup was successfully retrieved for our pancake breakfast! Everyone had a blast playing Mission Impossible, and I’m pretty sure I overheard one cabin already formulating a game plan for next year’s Mission Impossible.