Welcome Main Campers!
We’ve been waiting to say this for a long time, but Main Camp is finally here! Yesterday morning we welcomed 318 campers from 27 states and 6 countries to the mountain. In this session, we have many boys who have been campers for years and are returning to what feels like their second home. We’re also excited to welcome the many new campers who are coming to Falling Creek for their first time this session! Regardless of how many summers they have been with us, these next four weeks will be memorable for all.
While boys of all ages come to Main Camp, this session has our oldest and most seasoned campers - in fact, all of Betula Line is made up of high schoolers! It was fun to see the older boys helping out the younger ones during Opening Day, with many offering to help the counselors show new boys to their cabins or find different spots around camp. By the end of this session, even the youngest, first-time campers will be old pros around camp!
The joy from the campers was contagious as they jumped out of the cars, hugged and fist-bumped friends, began catching up from the past year, and starting meeting new cabinmates. As soon as they got out at the Gym, campers were guided to their cabins, and the fun began. It was an exciting whirlwind of moving into bunks, greeting new friends, and reconnecting with old ones. There were designated “play areas” around camp all morning so boys could jump into games with staff and fellow campers after taking their things to the cabins. The counselors helped each boy settle in as they arrived, so it was a seamless transition into activities right away.
After you all started heading back home yesterday, the action began with no hesitation. Around 11:30, a bell rang for the boys to have a quick cabin meeting and officially meet each other. We then gathered as a camp community at Morning Watch for our welcome meeting. Lunch yesterday was a hearty spread of ham, mashed potatoes, green beans, rolls, and apple turnovers. With a full salad bar and rice & bean station at every lunch and dinner, no one’s going hungry at camp!
After lunch, the boys signed up for their daily activities. Everyone chooses 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, which take place Monday through Friday. 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 every day that take more than one activity period (like sailing, fly fishing, horseback 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 rotated through a series of stations with their Lines to better orient them to camp. This included a camp tour, swim check, trip sign-up how-to, health check, and a cabin photo. Between each of these rotations, there was plenty of time for games and getting to know each other. Evening Program last night was fun relay races in our Green and Gold teams!
One of the highlights of every Opening Day is ending with Campfire. After dinner and Evening Program we headed to Campfire to finish the busy day together. Everyone remains silent after crossing Bain Bridge and sitting with their cabin, quietly enjoying the crackling of the fire and the croaking of bullfrogs along the banks of the lake. Gathering around the fire to share songs, laugh at skits, and reflect on our first day together is the perfect way to end the night. As you read this today, we’ll be starting our first full day of Main Camp activities - the fun is just getting started!
Going forward, you can expect a blog from us every morning, telling a story about the previous day’s events. If you’ve been reading the June Camp blogs already this summer, you know that the daily blogs won’t necessarily be a recap of the full day, but will instead be a snapshot or brief story of camp life. They might be about a certain adventure trip, an activity highlight, a story that relates to our FCC Code, or a special event at camp - no matter what the blog is about for the day, we hope the words and images give you a small window into what happens here at Falling Creek.
For more details about keeping up with what’s going on at camp, please see the email that Paige, our Communications Director, sent out last night. It explains camper mail, the upcoming “parent notes,” and online photo details. We can’t wait to share all the excitement and fun that is to come during these next four weeks - thank you for sharing your sons with us for the 2022 Main Camp session!