2-Week Opening Day!

Today begins a whirlwind of fun with our 2-Week campers!

When the gates opened this morning, there were already eager boys waiting to drive up the mountain and start their summer adventures in the mountains of North Carolina. From there it was an exciting time spent 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. The energy was contagious, and before lunch even started there were already games on the field, dodgeball and basketball in the gym, chess on the porch, and more.

Even though we have many boys return, 2-Week is also a session length that is ideal for brand new campers to check out Falling Creek for the first time. We had plenty of boys who were wide eyed and excited after arriving on camp property today, eager to try new things and meet new friends. The activity schedule of this session is similar to June and Main Camp, with six daily activity periods, and the opportunity to go on out-of-camp trips. Over the next two weeks, boys will enjoy a wide variety of activities, and generally use 2-Week as the foundation for a longer session in the future. We have boys coming to Falling Creek for their first summer ever, as well as boys who will be returning for another summer of adventure. Regardless of how many summers they have been with us, these next two weeks will be memorable for all.

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 played exciting games on the fields, courts, and under the dining hall in the evening. Finally, we wound down by enjoying an opening Campfire together. This week’s theme is “unselfishness,” which was reflected in the skits and stories during Campfire. 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 here at boys 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 two exciting weeks at camp. Friday, August 6th 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!