Day Two Wednesday of Sampler Week
And it begins!
It’s Wednesday afternoon and activities are in full swing! This morning — after a breakfast of long johns cereal yogurt and fruit — campers and staff headed over to the flagpole for flag raising and holy ground. The trailblazer girls led by Andrea and Jen put the flag up and led us all in the Pledge of Allegiance. We then headed into the chapel for a saint-of-the-day talk and a quick praise and worship song.
Chapel ended today as it often does here at CYC with the CYC camp prayer. This is one of those traditions that is relatively new here at camp. While we have always had an official prayer we only just updated it recently to incorporate our Five Cs of Faith (courage community cooperation charity and Christ). The text of the prayer is as follows:
Dear Lord / Please bless and watch over our community as we gather in faith. / Help us to be courageous to try new things to be charitable by sharing with others and to work together in cooperation. / Let us always meet each other with kindness acceptance and an open heart. / Keep us safe today as we learn grow and play in Your creation. / ~Amen~
CHAOS
Just before lunch (a delicious plate of spaghetti a few breadsticks and the option fruit and salad bar) campers and staff gathered once more around the flagpole for the hodgepodge activity that we call CHAOS.
No campers aren’t allowed to roam free during this time wreaking havoc on CYC and the surrounding area; rather campers are able to select an activity that they typically might not find at camp. The name of the activity itself (CHAOS) is actually an acronym that stands for Counselors Have Another Outstanding Talent. Rather than participate in things like boating fishing swimming arts and crafts or drama during this time (activities that are offered among others in the afternoon) campers were able to pick from Irish crafts and sports (led by counselor Michelle who just returned from Ireland herself!) the egg drop challenge (where each team was given an egg and limited supplies and told to create a contraption that would keep the egg safe from a two storey fall!) hair-braiding (led by counselor Meghan) and a sign-language workshop.
The most popular activity by far was the egg drop challenge attracting almost half of all the campers. There teams worked together and successfully came up with several contraptions (none of the eggs broke!).
A Busy Afternoon…
And the fun just doesn’t stop. This afternoon campers are in activities (throwing swimming dance etc.) and just before dinner they will be treated to a camp favorite Angels and Demons. In this cross between capture the flag and tag campers will have to successfully get three angels (counselors at stations spread throughout the girls cabin area) to sign a slip of paper and deliver it to their teams’ bucket without being tagged by any of the five demons.
This evening too will be filled with fun as campers will head to an activity with as a cabin attend Praise and Worship and then dance the night away in Sweeney Up.
Sampler week may be shorter but we certainly don’t cut out any of the fun. In fact because of the shortened schedule it often turns out to be a greatest hits week. While we can’t fit all of the great CYC activities into just a few days we definitely try. So far this week I’d say we’ve been pretty successful.