Evening Program & Attitude
It’s hard to believe that today is our final full day of camp! This morning before breakfast, our second group of cabins will return from their Cabin Overnights around property. Then we’ll all jump into our final activities! For those cabins who already did their overnights on Tuesday, the Evening Program last night was a mix of fun games in their Cabin Lines! You might think that the day starts winding down after dinner, but actually, that’s just when Evening Program begins! You can read about several different kinds of fun Evening Program examples here in this blog series.
Robinia and Betula, our two oldest groups, headed to the courts to play rounds of multi-ball and dodgeball. Most people know how to play dodgeball, but multi-ball is an exciting camp favorite that is similar to dodgeball, but without any teams. There are balls scattered around the courts, and you can only take 3 steps with a ball in your hands. If you hit someone with a ball, they have to freeze and sit down where they are. You can only stand up again and be back “in” when the person who got you out is hit, and they sit down. The goal is to get as many people out as possible before getting out yourself. Since it’s almost impossible for one person to get all the other players out, the game can essentially be played for as long as you want!
Meanwhile, our Sorrel and Tsuga cabins played Sharks & Minnows, as well as Yoshi. If you’ve never played Yoshi before, this is a game where you try to get all your players to the other side’s safe zone, without getting your flag belt pulled by the other team! If you do, a teammate has to run over to save you. The goal is to be the first team to get all their players to the other side! After ending a busy day with these high energy games, it was a welcome change of pace to move into a quieter time of Evening Embers together as cabin groups, whether in the cabin or out in an overnight shelter.
The Evening Embers theme last night was “Respect,” and the question for the evening was “How is respect earned or lost?” Campers and their counselors discussed how respect is the ability to recognize and appreciate the rights, beliefs, practices, and differences of other people. It’s about more than just tolerating or accepting someone - respecting someone means that you value that person for their contributions to society, your community, or the group, even if they are different from you. The boys were also able to discuss self-respect.
In our FCC Code, living with a Servant’s Heart means treating everyone with respect and following the Golden Rule. During this week, campers have been able to practice respect by living together as a group and forming new friendships with their cabin mates.
Today’s Evening Embers theme is “Attitude”, which will help us shape a fantastic final day! Attitude is a manner of thinking, feeling, or acting, whether positive or negative.
Positive Attitude is one of the four parts of the FCC Code, which means living with enthusiasm, being fun to be around, focusing on the positives, and being thankful for God’s blessings. Thankfully with all the fun things we have planned for today, it shouldn’t be hard to have a good attitude all day!
With this being the final full day, campers and counselors may also be able to reflect on how their attitude towards themselves has changed throughout the session and the summer. Maybe during their time at camp they’ve done things they didn’t realize they were capable of doing, or enjoyed something new they didn’t know if they would like. Some of our counselors have been at camp for 10-12 weeks at this point, and we’ve certainly been proud to see all the growth in their attitudes and perceptions of themselves. Tonight’s Evening Embers question will be, “Has your time at camp changed your attitude towards yourself and what you are capable of doing?” We hope it will inspire some great conversations and reflections on a fun week.
But first - here’s to a terrific Thursday at camp!