Let the Games Begin!
Spirits and temps were high this morning as Alpine opened its 65th Second Term of camp high atop Lookout Mountain. While most folks have been anxiously awaiting the 4th of July, these 316 campers have had July 5th circled on their calendars. Many since the last day of camp last summer. As our Farewell song goes they’ve had “11 months to dream about next year.”. Finally, next year is here!
Boys peeked heads out of the top of SUV sunroofs or out the sides of top down Broncos. By 7:30 a line of cars queued past the bridge on the black top road out of camp. Work Crew members passed out fresh scones and bottled water to patient line members. Thanks for that patience, by the way, as we allowed our staff to fuel up with breakfast and make a few last minute preparations. A few minutes prior to 8 the gates opened and cars, vans, and SUV’s streamed in for several hours.
Members of our administrative team welcomed vehicles and handed out cabin assignments, followed by a quick temp check before cruising to cabins to meet campers and counselors alike. Again, thanks for your patience as we hoped to give everyone a proper welcome!
Carter and I enjoyed seeing so many of you, if only briefly, as you passed by the Dining Hall on your way to the cabin. My name is Glenn Breazeale, co-director with my wife, Carter. We are so grateful you have chosen to entrust your boys with us this term. While it is always fun to see you parents and visit for a minute, I always love watching the boys in the back seat, about to jump out of their shirt to get to the cabin. “Mom, quit talking and drive!”, you can almost see in a bubble above their heads.
And for good reason. The cabin is the center of camp life. And the center of the cabin is the counselor. As we tell them in staff training, they ARE Alpine for these boys. They are the heroes. They are the servants. They are coaches, teachers, mom, dad,friend, Christian mentor. They are all in college, 24 universities and colleges this summer, to be exact. 72 cool, fun guys who have chosen to give their summer to live in a cabin and show and tell your boys what it looks like to have faith, to have fun, and grow into a Godly man.
We hope your boys will catch a glimpse of who they can be in college. And we hope it won’t just be in what the counselors say but in what they do, in how they live their lives in front of these boys. They won’t be perfect. And that’s the beauty of the Christian faith. None of us are. There is forgiveness and grace abounding. As we tell the counselors during training, the most profound impact you have might be to apologize to your boys when you mess up. Real life. It will be a model for your boys when they need to apologize to other campers in their cabin or age group. Real life. Some people say camp is not real life. I disagree. I think it’s about as real as it gets, learning to live in community and experience so many real emotions - joy, sorrow, disappointment, contentment, playfulness.
Once you left, the counselors began to bond the cabins, with name games, tours of camp, and fun ice breaker games. Health checks by our medical team and cabin photos commenced late morning, soon to be interrupted by a round of thunderstorms. We sought shelter for a few minutes in cabins, allowing for more cabin bonding or reconnecting in some cases.
Our first all camp gathering happened at lunch in our newly renovated Dining Hall. Returning campers were so eager to be invited in to see the changes. One thing that hasn’t changed, our traditional opening day meal. Mrs. Gail, our longtime head cook, fixes us homemade chicken and dumplings with her famous silver dollar buttermilk biscuits, all from scratch. Green peas and corn and a green salad rounded out our first meal together.
We had an informative and welcoming first meeting just after lunch. We discussed some “family rules”, based on the idea that as a Christian camp we want to show love to all, even if they are different than us. Alpine is not a place where we make fun of others or put others down to make ourselves feel better. It’s also not a place where we keep secrets and we speak up if something makes us uncomfortable. Or if we’re sick or hurt. And especially if we’re feeling a bit homesick on these first few days. That is VERY normal because we all miss something from home. Our hope in having this meeting is to put boys at ease and let them know that all of us, including their counselors, are here to care for them. If you get a homesick letter in the next few days write back and encourage them to talk with their counselor about it. And remind them how boring it is at home!
As I type this I can hear the cheers and screams of your boys finishing their day playing games on the field and in the gym across from me. We live in the heart of camp, here all the time in the summer, the mom and dad of camp as we told your campers today. Carter grew up here. It’s in her blood. Her dad, Dick O’Ferrall, Mr. O, co-founded Alpine in 1959. Alice joined him later, both in marriage and camping, and Alpine grew to new heights. Carter camped and counseled and worked on program staff for quite a few summers at Camp Desoto in the 80’s and 90’s. I had the good fortune to camp here for 6 summers and work as a counselor in college, some of the most formative times in my life. My father, Don Breazeale, was actually one of Dick’s first campers in the early 1960’s.
Tomorrow we will kick off activites after our morning routine. We find boys thrive if we get them active quickly and create a good structure. Every day starts at 7 with a devotional and singing time we call Morning Watch, followed by breakfast in the Dining Hall. Then we’ll stop off at cabins for a cleanup and inspection from our head counselors (incentive: winning cabin in each age group goes to Store period first). Next we’ll be off to our first activities of the term. Boys signed up for their 10 activities this afternoon (plus all boys take Team Sports with their age group). I’ll look forward to telling you more about some of our activities and camp traditions like Morning Watch throughout the term.
Thanks for reading and thanks again for allowing your boys to be here, Glenn
