Wacky Wednesday!
Every day at boys camp is full of silly and exciting moments, but especially yesterday for Wacky Wednesday! When we woke up and gathered at Morning Watch to start the day, it was funny to see cabins coming down to sit on their benches, decked out in their silliest attire. The first boy I saw from far away had on a huge hat shaped like a taco, and as I got closer, I saw an array of wild patterns and loud colors. The counselors were also getting into the theme, with Scuba in a gold sparkly shirt and matching tights, CJ wearing his jeans under his swim trunks, Will sitting on his bench backwards, and lots of mis-matched socks.
Marisa and Yates were also in the spirit, with Marisa wearing a tutu, birthday hat, and fake mustache. Yates had on the “Georgia Southern Dad” shirt on that some staff gifted him several years ago - as a proud Appalachian State alum, that’s a pretty wacky outfit choice for him! There were boys wearing flower leis, goggles, crazy shirts, and loud patterns - but sometimes wearing silly things is just normal at camp! Nurse Bre said that for some people, she couldn’t tell if it was a “Wacky Wednesday” outfit or just part of their daily camp style choices!
Ben led our Morning Watch, reading the book “The Little Brute Family” by Russell Hoban aloud. If you haven’t read it before, this book is about a family of brutes who don’t have any happiness in their lives. They eat sticks and stones for breakfast, and are full of grumpiness and nastiness all day. One day though, the baby brute finds a little nice feeling in the meadow, and brings it home. They feel so lovely, that they let the little nice feeling stay, and their whole outlook on life changes. Ben talked about how this is like the “positive attitude” part of our Falling Creek Code. Each day we can choose to find a “little nice feeling” and bring it with us, spreading positivity to others.
Since it was Wacky Wednesday, instead of running by the library and across the bridge to breakfast, Ben led all the campers in the opposite direction around the lake. They ran around counterclockwise and laughed at how silly it was to get to breakfast that way. We enjoyed french toast sticks with sausage, pears, yogurt, and granola for breakfast, and headed off to Morning Assembly.
Morning Assembly is always a wacky time with singing and skits, but today’s skit was especially silly! The counselors hosted “sledge-o-matic”, where they smashed various objects with a huge wooden “sledgehammer”, much to the delight of the boys. It’s messy, funny, and loud - all things that little boys seem to love! Clint dressed in a trash bag with clear protective glasses for extra dramatic effect, and smashed things like an apple, a carton of milk, and some mustard. Finally, while the boys chanted “sledge-o-matic!” and clapped, he smashed a huge watermelon! The pieces went flying, and the boys shrieked with delight.
From there, it was another bustling day at boys camp! We enjoyed our morning activities and fueled up before the afternoon with a lunch of warm grilled cheese, fresh watermelon slices, salad, and fried okra, with ice cream sandwiches for dessert. Fried okra is a favorite side dish here in the south, so the boys that had never tried it before were in for a treat! Afterwards, we took a break for Rest Hour, and had an exciting second half of the day with our afternoon activities.
After dinner, our Evening Program was Field Games! Just like the classic Field Days at school, we had fun relays set up for boys to compete in. Each cabin worked together, rotating through stations within their Lines and gaining points for each of their teams. Relays included classics like dizzy bat or tic tac toe, a sponge relay (where boys tried to get a sponge saturated with water and run back with it under their chin), and a tin can relay (where boys tried to carry water over their head in a tin can with a couple holes punched in it).
Speaking of exciting Evening Programs, see the “story” highlights on our Instagram and Facebook to watch the announcement of Tuesday night’s Evening Program winners - the Gold Team won Capture the Flag, and everyone erupted with cheers when it was announced! The high energy of the group this session has been great.
No matter who wins our Evening Programs, the campers love having the chance to compete, challenge themselves, and work together as a team. These small competitions teach sportsmanship, improve teamwork, build camaraderie, but most of all they’re fun. As we begin our Thursday today, it’s hard to believe that this is the final day for this summer camp session! We’ll be getting in as much excitement and activity as we can!