5 Year Dinner & Friendship Campfire

We start every Sunday by sleeping in an extra hour, cleaning our cabins and trunks for inspection, and putting on our white shirts to gather at Church.

After lunch, we enjoyed our weekly Sunday Sundaes, followed by an extended Rest Hour.

The photo below shows all the free-choice activities the boys could choose from during the afternoon, which was split into first and second blocks.

For dinner, all the boys who have been at camp for 5 summers or longer were invited to the 5-year Dinner, a celebratory occasion for campers who have been returning for at least 5 summers.

The boys were treated to a steak dinner and enjoyed looking at photos of themselves through the years that were hanging throughout the gym.

This year, all of camp was invited to join for the second half of dinner, where Yates shared the old camp movie. It was the silent movie that used to be shown in the early days of camp, narrated by the camp director as it played. Yates spoke about things in the film and answered a lot of questions about camp and it’s history. It was a fun night of reminiscing on past summers and looking forward to all the future ones.

To end the night, we gathered for Friendship Campfire, a celebration of the brotherhood and friendship found at camp. During this campfire, everyone leaves their bench seats and gathers close around the campfire ring in a huge circle, symbolizing the community we create here at camp.

In the Falling Creek Code, we talk about making friendship a fine art, and having integrity in our relationships. We reflected on the session so far, discussed what meaningful friendships are, how to nurture existing friendships, and the equal importance of making new ones.