Main Camp is Here!
We’ve been waiting to say this for a long time, but…
it’s finally Main Camp Opening Day! This morning we welcomed 312 campers from 27 states and 7 countries to the mountain. Our first families were here for a bit of early rain, but by mid-morning the sun was out again, and the sunshine continued for the rest of the day!
We’re thrilled to have 50 new campers joining us for their first time ever this session! We also have many boys who have been here for years and are returning to what feels like their second home - over 100 boys are back for at least their 5th summer, and 2 are here for their 10th year! Regardless of how many summers they have been with us, these next three weeks will be memorable for all.
We thought we were excited, but nothing could compare to the joy we saw on our campers’ faces on Opening Day! As soon as they jumped out of their cars and were guided to their cabins, the fun began. It was an exciting whirlwind of moving into cabins, greeting new friends, and reconnecting with old ones. Counselors helped each boy settle in as they arrived, so it was a seamless transition into games and activities right away.
We made brief introduction videos for all of our cabin counselors, which you can watch through this link. We hope these short videos will give you a snapshot of the amazing staff team we have this summer. We’re sure that the campers will love this group as much as we do!
After you all started heading back home today, the action began with no hesitation. Before a hearty lunch of chicken and dumplings, the boys had a quick cabin meeting to officially meet each other, and then gathered as a camp community at Morning Watch for our welcome meeting.
After lunch, the boys signed up for their daily activities. Everyone has 3 morning activities and 3 afternoon activities at camp each day, but they can also choose to leave these behind and sign up for any of our trips out of camp. Adventure trips go paddling, biking, hiking, and climbing in some of the most beautiful places in the Southeast. Campers can also choose special signup activities (like sailing, fly fishing, or blacksmithing). Having this freedom of choice is what makes the camp experience so rewarding, and gives boys that independence they crave away from home!
During the afternoon, everyone also went on a camp tour, got swim checks out of the way, played games around camp, and took cabin photos.
After a big day, we refueled with dinner and wound down by enjoying an opening Campfire together. This session is already off to a great start, and it will be hard to sleep tonight, thinking of all the activities we’ll jump into tomorrow.
These blogs will be posted daily on our website at fallingcreek.com/blog. After tonight’s post, blogs will be posted each morning about the previous day’s adventures (so our next blog will be on Tuesday morning, about all the fun we’ll have Monday). Blogs may be summaries of the day, short stories about a specific event or trip, or even guest-written by our counselors or campers. You can subscribe to our blog if you’d like, and each post will be delivered to your email inbox. We also encourage you to check out our daily posts on our Instagram site (@fallingcreek) and on Falling Creek Camp’s facebook page.
If you want to keep up with what’s going on at camp in a more visual way, our summer photo system within your CampInTouch account provides a great way for you, your family, and your friends to have a window into your son’s summer experience. Our intention is not to try to be comprehensive and capture a photo of every camper and counselor every day, but to give you a general idea of what is going on at camp. CampMinder, our technology partner, helps us to offer an intuitive interface that we hope you’ll enjoy! We will post news and photos by lunch each day reflecting on the previous day.
When you access the photo system within CampInTouch, you’ll notice the organization of photo albums. Trips are posted separately and by individual adventure. You’ll also see a season selector at the top of the screen, which gives you easy access to great camp memories from years past! Selecting a photo gives you a much larger view of that image, and from there, you can swipe or use the arrow keys on your keyboard to navigate through the entire album.
Downloading, sharing, saving favorites, and purchasing special photos or gifts is also very easy. Use the gray and white button (next to the yellow shopping cart button) for a menu of options including downloading the photo to your computer. Downloads are free, so do not add photos you want to download for free to your shopping cart. Special prints and photo gifts are available for purchase through CampMinder, and you would use the shopping cart for those items. The “star” icon in the upper left corner of the photo is a quick way to select favorites to save for later viewing, downloading, or ordering.
We hope that you all had safe travels today after we saw you at camp. We feel very fortunate that you chose to share your son with us for four exciting weeks at camp. Friday, July 23rd will be here quicker than the boys want it to be and we are ready to make the most of their time with us! Let the fun and adventure begin!
