The counselors have arrived! Last Friday most of the staff and counselors got to Chop Point and met each other for the first time. This year’s group is full of incredible individuals, a pretty good chunk of whom come from Georgia (did you expect anything different?). Everyone has been bonding and getting along great. The whole group has really started getting into the swing of things and are excited for the campers to come!
We have been spending our days scraping and painting, getting the art room and the gym set up and taking inventory of the beloved costume closet. The list included things such as blow up cactus, palm tree made of lights, three sombreros, and a mullet. Kez is back as our camp nurse and went to town the other day to stock up on supplies to keep us safe and sound all summer long. The counselors have also been really getting into planning morning Bible discussion for the cabins. I have heard some great topics being brought up during those hours.
Saturday was swim test day for the staff and everything went well. One of the counselors even swam extra laps! For those of you reading this who have taken the swim test, you know that is pretty much unheard of. The water was a warm 55ºF, which has coincidentally also been the temperature of the air for the last week. Throw in some rain and you’ve got a typical June in Maine.
On Sunday we all got to go to the local church to meet some of the people who have been and will be praying for us all summer. Kez also gave a small talk on her missions in Haiti. When we got back to camp we got to take out the sailboats for the first time! The wind was really going and no one capsized! I won’t talk about what happened on the second day… Yesterday we added windsurfing to the list of waterfront activities the staff is enjoying. Dave told everyone who was going that they would need wetsuits and one brave counselor decided that he would probably be fine. He changed into a wetsuit about 10 minutes later. Did I mention the 55ºF water temperature?
At night we have been hard at work on our skits. Not to toot our own horn, but they are pretty great this year. We have some super creative, funny staff members! One of our girl counselors has improv experience and has been teaching us all the ropes with some interesting games. I think the people across the Bay can hear the laughter, I hope they know that this is only the beginning…