Opening Day of Junior Camp!
We’ve been waiting all summer for this whirlwind week of fun, and today Junior Camp Opening Day is finally here! When the wake-up bell rang this morning, it was already shaping up to be a great day at Falling Creek. When the gates opened, there were eager boys waiting to drive up the mountain and start their week of adventures. From there, it was the exciting bustle of moving into cabins, greeting new friends, and plugging into the games around camp. Counselors were helping move trunks into bunks and directing enthusiastic campers towards their cabins.
The energy was contagious, and before lunch even started there were already games on the field, hockey on the courts, basketball in the gym, and warrior ball at the Dining Hall. Most of the boys this session are coming to Falling Creek for their first summer ever! I asked many of them what they were excited about most, and several were quick to say, “everything!”
Boys were greeted as they came down the hill to the Dining Hall, some carrying backpacking packs as big as them, already prepared for exploring. Even though we have a few boys returning, Junior Camp has a session length that is ideal for brand new campers to check out Falling Creek for the first time. Since boys move around as a cabin to try out all the activities in a different format than our other sessions, it is a great “sampler plate” of what camp has to offer. 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.
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 activities began with no hesitation. Before our traditional Sunday lunch of fried chicken, mashed potatoes, green beans, warm rolls, and brownies (a favorite for both campers and staff), the boys had a quick cabin meeting to officially meet each other, and then gathered as a camp community at the Morning Watch area. We quickly described the week ahead, explained the FCC community resources available to the boys, and reviewed the emergency procedures.
After lunch, the boys followed a rotation of activities that included fun games, checked in with the medical team, smiled for a cabin photo, learned the process of getting a life jacket to enjoy free swim each day, and visited the Dining Hall to learn the various procedures and options. The boys then jumped right into enjoying the first period of the 17 activities they look forward to participating in over the session. These daily activity periods include all our camp classics, like horseback, basketball, paddling, blacksmithing, archery, riflery, woodshop, football, and more!
After dinner, the fun wasn’t over yet - We jumped into “Evening Program” to play one final game as Lines: the Sorrel cabins played multi-ball on the tennis courts, Tsuga played Yoshi Ball and Dragon Tail on the turf field, and Betula played Taco Cat on the landsports field. To top off the end of a crazy fun Opening Day, the boys ran to the Dining Hall to enjoy a cookie before bed. Afterwards, the boys headed back to their cabins for their bedtime routine and Evening Embers. This is a time to talk as a cabin and check in with each other about how the day went, stories they want to share, or what they are most excited for tomorrow. It was a great first day, and it will only get better from here!
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 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 6 exciting days at camp. Friday, August 13th 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!