Opening Day Of Main Camp!
Today we finally kicked off Main Camp 2019! With four weeks of camp ahead of us, there are plenty of adventures, activities, and memories to pack in. At the same time though, we know how fast it will seem to go by. When there is a whole month of camp to enjoy, boys are able to settle in more, growing deeper friendships, learning more in their activities, and challenging themselves further on longer trips. There are a lot of traditions unique to this session that we get to look forward to as well, including the Ironman, our Honor Council, the 4th of July party, Five Year Dinner, and the chance for our Journeymen to reach the rare Keeper of the Flame status. We’ll write more about each of those traditions as they come, but today was all about the excitement of reuniting with old friends and the anticipation of all the fun that is to come.
Main Camp Opening Day is finally here!
Campers and families came up the old gravel road leading to the heart of camp, eager to start their summer. For some, the camp road is the last leg of a long journey here, with campers arriving from more than 25 different states and 10 different countries this session, including Kenya, Jordan, Singapore, England, and Ecuador. They were greeted by Nathan and Frank, who had the very important role of telling campers their cabins for the session. Next, our own “Trunk Caddies” came to take boys’ trunks out of their cars and get them set up to be transferred down to the cabins. This year, Frank outfitted the whole trunk crew in matching white coveralls, which not only kept their white FCC polos clean, but also made them feel professional in their new matching uniforms! After getting checked in, cars were parked and families made their way down to the Dining Hall to be greeted by Yates. Staff were on hand to help with directions to cabins, man the camp store, and take photos of the excitement. If you’re reading along in anticipation of attending later session, and haven’t had the chance to experience an Opening Day at Falling Creek for yourself, this video gives a good look at what to expect: https://youtu.be/S3sjimelmVc
All smiles on Opening Day of Main Camp 2019
Can’t forget to hug mom goodbye!
After you all started heading back home today, the activities began with no hesitation. Before our traditional Sunday lunch of fried chicken (a favorite for both campers and staff), the boys had a quick cabin meeting to officially meet each other, created their own cabin rules, and then gathered as a camp community at Morning Watch for our welcome meeting. During the welcome meeting, Marisa and Yates officially kick off the session, and Kyle goes over the emergency plan as well as all other pertinent information for a safe and fun summer.
Everyone gathered for the first welcome meeting as a camp community
After fried chicken lunch, the boys got to move as a tribe through some activity rotations and take a camp tour. The rotations included getting their swim check out of the way, taking cabin photos, performing a health check, learning the Dining Hall procedures, and learning about upcoming trips they can go on! The boys were also able to go ahead and sign up for their six daily activities, choosing the programs that sounded the most fun to them. Having this freedom of choice is what makes the camp experience so rewarding, and gives boys that independence they crave away from home.
This afternoon we took cabin photos - first a serious one…
…then a silly one!
For dinner, we had spaghetti and meatballs, with garlic bread, roasted broccoli, a stocked salad bar, and sherbert for dessert. This was followed by Evening Program, which was a “Welcome to Camp Scavenger Hunt!” The boys had to run all around camp with their cabin mates, exploring the property and performing funny tasks. These included things like finding three creeks, play a hole of disc golf, open and close 25 camp doors, rolling down the grassy knoll, finding five different types of leaves, building a human pyramid, creating an original cabin song, singing Sweet Caroline off the front porch, or leap-frogging the length of the lower dam. The cabin with the most items checked off their list at the end won!
Getting to know cabin-mates and making new friends!
To wind down after the busy day, the whole camp gathered for Campfire. Campfire is a quiet and reflective time that we share as a community, and is a cherished tradition to sing songs and enjoy funny but meaningful skits. This Campfire was also special because we were able to introduce our newest Journeyman, Will S., A camper can become a Journeyman if he has reached Warrior (the highest of the five levels) in at least three different activities. He must also display that he lives by the four parts of the Falling Creek Code, and choose a mentor to help him through his “journey,” which will happen at some point toward the end of the session. If the Journeyman completes the final tests during his journey, then he will have the honor of being a “Keeper of the Flame.” So far, we only have had only three Keepers of the Flame. One of these three, James M., is back at camp this summer serving on the Kitchen Crew team known as DASH. These men in DASH are all rising freshmen in college. James also happens to be the mentor that Will chose for his journey. As part of his Keeper of the Flame responsibilities, James is the one who lights the fire each night that we gather for Campfire. There were three other Journeymen present at campfire, Harrison L., Rodrigo E., and Pete C. The latter two will be attempting their journeys again at the end of this summer, with the hope of becoming Keepers of the Flame themselves.
Will S. is back for his fourth summer at Falling Creek, and is from Madison, Mississippi. His three Warrior ranks are in Disc Golf, Music, and Nature. During Campfire, his mentor, James M., read this description of him to the whole community: William originates from two German words; willeo, which means will and determination. The second word being helm, meaning protection and helmet. Put together these words are Willehelm, and it means resident protector. Friendship is his wonderful gift. He is daring and vivacious, genuine, venturesome, and difficult. He is somebody who battles to guard his standards and cherishes the dangers and difficulties. William is somebody extremely dynamic; he jumps at the chance to practice with persistence.
Finally, we also had 17 members of the Honor Council present tonight at Campfire. The Honor Council is a peer elected group of campers that represents the camp community. After being voted in by fellow campers, they are held to a high standard and have the responsibility of meeting with leadership staff and attend the weekly staff meeting to be the campers’ voice. Each year new members are voted in as some age out of camp and don’t return. These campers have all shown that they live by the Falling Creek Code. After campfire, the boys headed back to their cabins for their bedtime routine and Evening Embers. This is a time to talk as a cabin and check in with each other about how the day went, stories they want to share, or what they are most excited for tomorrow. As you can see, it was a busy and exciting first day, and it will only get better from here!
Let the fun and games begin!
If you want to keep up with what’s going on at camp in a more visual way, our summer photo system within your CampInTouch account provides a fantastic way for you and your family, friends, and guests to have a window into your camper’s summer experience. Our intention is not to try to be comprehensive and capture a photo of every camper and counselor every day, but give you a broad idea of what is going on at camp. CampMinder, our technology partner, helps us to offer an intuitive interface that we hope you’ll enjoy! We will post news and photos by lunch each day reflecting on the previous day.
When you access the photo system within CampInTouch, you’ll immediately notice the organization of photo albums. Trips are posted separately and by individual adventure. You’ll also see a season selector at the top of the screen, which gives you easy access to great camp memories from years past! Selecting a photo gives you a much larger view of that image, and from there, you can swipe or use the arrow keys on your keyboard to navigate through the entire album.
Downloading, sharing, saving favorites, and purchasing special photos or gifts is also very easy to do. Use the gray and white button (next to the yellow shopping cart button) for a menu of options including downloading of the photo to your computer. Downloads are free, so do not add photos you want to download for free to your shopping cart. Special prints and photo gifts are available for purchase through CampMinder. Use the shopping cart for those items. The “star” icon in the upper left corner of the photo is a quick way to select favorites to save for later viewing, downloading, or ordering. Don’t hesitate to reach out if you have any questions or issues with the photo system features.
This summer we are also excited to remind you about Waldo, an optional photo delivery service where you can get all the photos of your camper delivered straight to your phone! Waldo is separate from your CampMinder account. It uses facial recognition to match your camper’s face to photos in our album, and then sends links to the photos to you via text messages. Parents, be sure to check your emails for more detail, but we hope that this can save you time and make it easier to see your son’s adventures.
We also encourage you to check out our news being posted daily on Yates’ personal Facebook page (yates.pharr), the Yates’ Yak blog on CampMinder, Falling Creek Camp’s facebook page, our Instagram site (@fallingcreek), and at times on the Falling Creek Website.
We hope that you all had safe travels today after we saw you at camp. We feel very fortunate that you chose to share your son with us for three exciting weeks at camp. Friday, June 21st will be here quicker than the boys want it to be and we are ready to make the most of their time with us!
-Annie Pharr
Meeting counselors this morning
Finding our cabins on Opening Day