Thanks for Another Great Summer!

Junior Campers, thank you for spending this past session with us!

Parents, if you’re reading this blog this morning, you’re likely on your way to pick up your boys from a fun & fast-paced week here on the mountain. While they might be too worn out from all the excitement to give you a detailed recap of the final day, we thought this might help!

Yesterday, the final day had the same excitement as any other morning at camp. We woke up, met at Morning Watch for a quick message from Will Weaver (the Tsuga Linehead), enjoyed a hearty breakfast, and had one more Morning Assembly for skits, songs, and announcements. Boys were able to enjoy two more morning activities around camp with their cabins, a morning free choice time, and an extended rest hour for packing after lunch.

We also had a “Lost and Found Fashion Show” during lunch, where the counselors put on as many of the clothes that are on the side porch Lost & Found area, and modeled them while walking around the Dining Hall like a fashion show! Since the boys enjoy watching and laughing at the counselors trying to model their clothing, we’re usually able to have missing items reunited with the right people! Lots of water bottles, shirts, towels, and jackets were reunited with their owners this way, and hopefully made it straight into the trunks during packing.

After packing up, there was time for the two final activity periods in each cabin’s rotation. In this short week, boys have been able to try 17 different activities around camp! There’s been time for sports, art, water activities, and classic camp activities like horseback riding and climbing. We hope this week has given each boy a glimpse into the Falling Creek experience, and introduced them to fun activities they may not have signed up for or tried on their own.

Finally, after dinner last night we played some field games together, followed by a fun dance party! After some time to run around and get our energy out, we enjoyed the chance to wind down with Campfire, and reflect on a great session. The theme of Campfire helped the boys to reflect on their camp experience, the friendships they made, the activities they tried, and the skills they grew. They realized that they have their own light that they will continue to spread back at home to make the world a better place.

This week we’ve been writing about the different Evening Embers questions and themes that have shaped each day. Today, the final theme of the summer is “compassion.” Although campers and counselors both head home today, we hope this theme will be in the back of their minds as they leave camp and head out to spread their light with others. There were countless examples of compassion shown to others this summer, and we know that the boys and staff will continue showing their compassion and living by the Falling Creek Code when they return home.

We are so grateful that you chose to share your sons with us this session, and thankful for the individual personalities they brought to the camp community this week. We look forward to seeing you this morning as you pick up your boys, and we can’t wait to tell you all about the fun we had.

As Henry Wadsworth Longfellow said, “Great is the art of beginning, but greater is the art of ending.” Behold!