Cliff Dwelling Golf Course
Yesterday I walked through the Canyon cabin area (cabins housing rising 3rd - 6th graders) to check on something or another. As I passed Cliff Dwelling I heard, “Hey Glenn, come check this out”. Well when the director hears that you know it’s either going to be really good or really bad. So of course I quickly forgot where I was headed and diverted to Cliff Dwelling. It was better than good, one of the most creative things I’ve seen in a while.
A homemade miniature golf course built all around and in front of the cabin. They fashioned clubs out of sticks, probably 2 feet in length (perfectly sized for an 11 year old). At the end of each club multiple colors of duct tape wrapped multiple times around something to form a nice looking golf club. They actually looked like golf clubs. “This is my chipper,” one camper said. “Here you want to see my putter,” said another.
“What do you use for golf balls,” I replied.
“Oh, we collected all these walnuts (or some variation)”. Sure enough, they had a nice pile of “golf balls”. They invited me to play a hole. Tiny little sticks with duct taped fashioned flags stuck in the ground in various places around the cabin. Around each flag a small hole was dug, probably 6 inches in diameter and about the same depth. It took me 3 strokes to get my ball in the hole from the designated tee box (a dusty patch of mulch and ground cover).
“What is par on this hole,” I asked, eager to know how I measured up. 4 one of the boys said. No it’s 3 said another. Seems they still had to work out a few kinks! But, hey, this is what camp is all about. They informed me that there was to be a Cliff Dwelling Invitational soon, and that maybe I could get an invitation to try out. Maybe. Look out Phil Mickelson and Royal Troon.
Today Alpine entertained two visitors from the American Camp Association. Every 3 years we undergo a reaccreditation visit. Today was the day! There are hundreds of standards, covering Site and Facility, Activities, Health and Wellness, Trips, Risk Management, Human Resources, etc. It’s best practices for our industry. I always highly recommend to parents checking with any camp you are considering sending a child to see if they are ACA certified. It’s a big deal, just not highly publicized in a lot of markets.
Happy to report we passed with flying colors. We exceed most all standards and the visitors were very pleased. This is owed to the amazing people we have around here, from kitchen and housekeeping, maintenance, and program and counselor staff, plus our super organized office staff who handle so much of the written documentation. We do it because we learn something new every year from going over the standards. Any organization should always be seeking to improve. And as soon as we think we as an organization or individuals at Alpine think we have it all figured out, we are in big trouble. We always want to learn from others in our industry.
So, this morning Carter and I showed our visitors around camp. As we walked in the Canyon cabin area to see some cabins and bathhouses, we coincidentally happened upon Cliff Dwelling. The boys had just finished cabin inspection and had a few minutes to kill before the bell rang calling them to first period. Let’s just say the Cliff Dwelling course has really been taken to the next level in 24 hours. More clubs, more holes, more enthusiasts.
They excitedly called to us, with visitors in tow. The visitors are camp people so they didn’t mind. The boys showed us all what they were doing. The ACA visitors loved it.
One of the visitors remarked to me that this is why we have camp. Boys (and girls too) are endlessly creative if we just give them some time for free play. Their imaginations run wild. He was exactly right. No screens. No coaches or parents telling them what to do. No official golf practice for a tournament. No test to study for. Just a few minutes here and there to create this makeshift golf course. None of those other things are inherently bad. It’s just that children, and boys especially, need this. They need time for unstructured play.
I’ve been here enough summers to know that this is happening all over camp. I just happened to be in the right place at the right time (twice) to be invited into this world. I don’t want to overdramatize this. It’s just boys having fun at camp, impromptu. But I do believe it is formative in so many ways. And a gift you are giving your boys. Thanks for allowing them to be here.
Mrs. Gail pulled out all the stops today for our meals (could it have been because of the ACA visitors???). For breakfast, hot pancakes and syrup, sausage, canteloupe, and the granola/fruit/yogurt bar.
Lunch pleased everyone - chicken fingers, butter beans, mashed potatoes, rolls, and her secret Shazaam sauce (think thousand island or comeback, with a twist).
Life is good at camp. Boys have played hard at camp these last few days, enjoying the routine of activities. We are now into the second rotation of activities so boys are feeling settled and at home. In the next few days I’ll hope to give you some inside reports from some more activities.
Thanks for reading and good night for now,
Glenn
