Second Term Underway
Second Term got underway this morning under blue skies and coolish temperatures for almost July. Parents, thank you for sharing your boys with us for the next 25 days. 37 cabins, 74 cabin counselors, 335 campers from 17 states will enjoy fellowship, fun, and food together. Old friendships have been reunited. New friendships begun. The advantage of being here for this amount of time is that it’s not a mountain top high experience. Don’t get me wrong, there are plenty of fun mountaintop adventures every day. But 25 days means you also have to learn to live with each other through hardship and difficulty. We often say boys not only learn how to make friendships but also how to mend and keep friendships.
Just before lunch all of camp gathered in the gym for our opening meeting. I began by reminding everyone that part of being a Christian camp means that we love all of those in our cabin and activites, just as we have been first loved by God. What that means practically is that we don’t pick on others who are different than us. We can be free to be ourselves, whether that is an athlete, an artist, or an archer! We also talked about the importance of letting a staff member know if someone is doing or saying something that is inappropriate. Or to speak up if you’re not feeling well. Then we introduced some of our administrative staff so that everyone knows who they can talk to if they can’t find their counselor. We covered a few rules and guidelines to keep everyone safe and healthy in a large community like ours.
Thankfully the bell rang just in time, after I had bored them enough with my welcome speech, calling us to our first meal at camp. Homemade chicken and dumplings, corn off the cob, green peas, and silver dollar buttery biscuits in large family style bowls sat atop each table. Boys have assigned tables in the dining hall, by age group, but not necessarily by cabin. Two, sometimes, three counselors sit at each table. Our high school Work Crew, kitchen boys as they are affectionately called, graciously serve each table (along with setup and cleanup). These are mostly guys who have been campers growing up with us.
In the afternoon age groups rotated through various stations including signing up for activities and getting a cabin photo made. By the way, our first batch of photos will be posted tomorrow. You should have received an email from our office today with instructions on how to view the photos. As a reminder, they are a window into our world each day, an attempt to tell part of the story of camp each day. You may not see your camper every day and the photos are only a snapshot of one second, often not telling the full emotions of the campers captured.
Mostly this afternoon boys played games around camp, as cabins and age groups. Our counselors goal is to bond the cabins as quickly as possible. Mostly for boys that happens through active games. The old adage that boys relate to each other side by side (i.e. through activity) and girls face to face certainly holds true at Alpine a lot. But there’s also plenty of good face to face time too. As I write this everyone in camp is headed back to cabins after a fun night game. After brushing teeth campers will gather in a circle in their cabin, with their counselors, for a devotional time. Usually one counselor will share a verse or story from the Bible, and then talk about it for a few minutes. Often they will ask each camper to share highs and lows of the day and any prayer requests. Tonight they might do some icebreaker, get to know you, type questions.
Tomorrow we commence with the first 5 regular activites of the term. A routine, regular schedule helps to get boys acclimated to camp and shake off any lingering homesickness. Which reminds me, at our opening meeting I also tried to normalize being a little homesick today. I told boys that an almost fool proof cure is to talk to your counselor about it. And reminded them that it is nothing to be embarrassed about. It means you love and miss something at home!
I look forward to bringing you more updates like this every few days or so, little windows into the fun we are having atop Lookout Mountain. Thanks for reading and good night for now, Glenn
