Activities Begin at Junior Camp

The Summer of 2023 kicked into high gear Wednesday and Thursday, as the boys enjoyed back to back full days of activities and fun on Lookout Mountain. The weather has been remarkable- clear skies and temps in the mid 70’s. It’s hard to imagine a better start to Junior Camp. My name is Wayne Ingram, one of the Associate Directors here at Alpine. As a former camper and counselor, the beginning of another summer is exceptionally nostalgic. Seeing new and returning campers and staff continue the routines, traditions, and community of camp is truly a beautiful sight.

At Alpine, we like to bookend our days with devotional times. Each day at camp starts with a 7:00am wake up call to head to Morning Watch where campers sing hymns and hear a devotional from their Head Counselors. At night, cabins gather together to recap their day, hear stories from the Bible, and slow down after a full day of activities. In between, campers enjoy 5 activity periods, 3 meals, 2 snacks, and countless laughs. Our camp bell keeps everyone running on time, and in Junior Camp the running is literal. Boys love to race to the next activity, meal, or wherever they are headed.

Our most popular activity this term is Waterfront. We are fortunate to have a section of the Little River dammed up where boys can go down 50 foot slides, ride the water zipline, chill out on the lilly pad, or even blob their friend into the river. Another fan favorite is horseback, where boys get a chance to ride one of our 22 camp horses. A new activity was also introduced this summer: Pinecraft. We love to celebrate boys’ creativity, so we created an activity where they simply create! With a hearty supply of cardboard boxes, legos, hot wheels, and Lincoln Logs, campers are free to tinker, build, and rebuild whatever they see fit.

With all this action, campers and staff need plenty of fuel, and the kitchen at Alpine provides delicious, hearty food to keep bellies full and spirits high. Ms. Gail Collins and her team have been serving hot meals for years here at camp, and this week was a showcase of some of our best meals. Wednesday breakfast was french toast with bacon, cereal, yogurt, and bananas. For lunch, we enjoyed chicken tenders, mashed potatoes, butter beans, salad, and rolls. Campers can hardly contain their excitement from the dining hall ramp when our work crew (otherwise known as Kitchen Boys or KBs) sets it on the table alongside Alpine’s special chicken sauce, Shazam. At dinner, the boys enjoyed spaghetti with meat sauce and garlic bread.

After dinner each night, all of camp gathers in the gym for Glee Club. Staff over the years have written clever parodies and covers of popular songs with lyrics about life at Alpine. It’s a huge part of the community of Alpine, and it also allows the sun to set for night programs, which often rely on darkness for some of our favorite games. Tonight is actually our most exciting and adventurous night activity known as Mission Impossible. At dinner, counselors perform a skit where a beloved camp item is stolen. Campers must travel by cabin around camp delivering passcodes and clues to “Good Agents” in order to recover the item and complete their mission. However, the boys must be stealthy to avoid being spotlighted by a “Bad Agent.”

Thank you again for sharing your sons with us this summer. Our staff has been preparing and looking forward to this term for months, and it has been so joyful to see camp come alive again. Thanks for reading, and have a great weekend!