One of the gifts of our final two week session is the energy our girls bring with them to camp. This group has been waiting all summer for camp to arrive, and they could not be happier to finally be here. Our older campers, our Pixies and our Dryads, settle in quickly. They know the activities they want to take; they have goals for themselves, and they dive right in to camp. We also really appreciate our Leadership girls, our LITs and Aides. With the Dryads, these girls are able to help guide our Elves as they make their way in camp. Elves are rising 5th graders down to rising 1st graders. Between our 2 weekers and our Key campers, we have 58 Elves!
The Elves add so much to camp. We love how precious, how curious and how loving they are. You can really recharge with a great hug from a little one. However, Elves bring different issues to camp. They are very dependent on their care givers. They need more direction and supervision. Our counselors and our CITs have been working hard to organize cabin life. Clothes are selected the night before; backpacks are organized as well so the mornings can be grab and go. We all look out for our Elves. Camp is a very big place when you are only about 50 inches tall! Walking from the barn to the canoeing lake may seem like miles on shorter legs. Piggy back rides happen frequently. Our Aides and LITs assist in escorting the girls to activities. You will see that your Elf will have great friendships with these older girls, and that is one of the great benefits of attending a smaller camp where all of our age groups constantly mix and mingle over the session. We want our camp community to be one big family where everyone knows everyone else. Activities are by interest, not by age, and our team games give the girls another chance to get to know girls they may not encounter regularly. We just changed tables this evening, from eating by cabin to being assigned to a table because of a data point the girls share, i.e. same birthday month. We will be one by the time the session ends!
If there has been one fact that has attracted interest since Sunday, it would be our significant loss of teeth. Over the course of our June or July sessions, we might see 5 teeth lost. We had 5 teeth lost on the first day of this session. The Keystone Tooth Fairy has been extraordinarily busy! She delivers a certificate for a day of free Tuck. Then there was the lost tooth at dinner this evening. It ended up being dropped on the floor of the dining hall, and we had biscuits at dinner. Do you know how much a biscuit crumb resembles a baby tooth? Martha and I were both on our hands and knees crawling around on the dining hall floor to find the tooth. Of course, the tooth was dropped in the corner of the dining hall where everyone comes to put their cups in the dishwasher racks, so we were dodging so many feet in looking for the tooth. Unbelievably, it was found, and we have another visit for our Tooth Fairy.
The weather has been a bit wet, but that brings its own fun. The cabin campouts scheduled for this evening are taking place in the Lodge and on the Lodge porch. Dinner was cooked in the fireplace, and the sleeping bags are spread from one side of the porch to the other. We make it work no matter the weather. There is never a dull moment at camp!
