General

We are rounding third base here at the point. With only three full days left of first session we are officially in home stretch mode. Let’s go through the Sports Center (Chop Point) Top 10 of the last 10 days.

(Really no particular order, but for the sake of being cool, let’s count down.)

10. Water Night
Tonight the campers got a dose of some high quality H2O. There were water balloons a flying and plenty of water games that got ’em all drenched. So as not to buck tradition, the night concluded with the kids skipping down the water slide till the sun went down.

9. Cliff Jumping
Today I had the opportunity to motor kids out to a point in our river where they can jump off (from a very safe distance) cliffs into the Kennebec. About 4 groups were able to take the leap of faith and get themselves some solid airtime on the camp video. But yeah, spending the whole afternoon driving boats is a tough life. Pretty ok summer job I guess.

8. Southern Night
Cricket Spitin’, Brutus Riding, Grits Eatin’ Madness I tell you.

7. Car Wash
Every session we take a day to work. We are extremely blessed to live in America and not have to worry about where our next meal is coming from or what our water source will be. Even more so, we are extra blessed that we get to spend our summer at a beautiful summer camp in Maine. So we take the day to give back and try to give others who didn’t get dealt as fair of a hand a chance to go to Campo Alegria in Nicaragua. To do this we had three car washes go out into various locals areas. We had no set price, only donations. We raised barely south of $1000 to send to Campo.. It’s amazing what can be raised in 4 hours with prayer and hard work. God is very good and faithful.

6. Boothbay
With lots of kids out on trips, the remaining counselors and campers were able to load up the bus and chug on over to the lovely and quaint Boothbay Harbor. Boothbay is your prototypical Harbor Town that has dozens of little souvenir shops and ice cream parlors. I scarfed down my Pineapple Orange ice-cream in a matter of minutes. It was a lovely way to spend a Sunday afternoon.

5. 4th of July Festivities
We managed to stretch the the 4th of July into a five day celebration (‘MURICA!). On the 4th, we went to the neighboring town of Bath and watched the Bath Heritage Day Parade. On the 7th we again traveled into Bath and let the campers enjoy the annual fair. Lots of fried food was consumed, I’ll leave it at that. And finally, on the 8th, we watched fireworks after the sunset. Turning 4th of July into 3 evening activities. Total Chop Point Move.

4. Cabin Theme Night
We had an enactment of The Parent Trap, a simulation of a European soccer arena, and a journey through Narina just to name a few of the themes that were created during Cabin Theme Night. One of my favorite traditional Chop Point night for sure.

3. White Mountain Hiking
Six Campers and two staff members climbed Mt. Madison in the beautiful White Mountains of New Hampshire. No tents were packed, only hammocks. The weather was warm at the base, but cool at the peak. A fun time was had by all.

2. Capture The Flag / Braveheart
Braveheart night cannot be explained. Only experienced.

1. Memories
Can’t write them all, or even one percent of them in this blog post. But smiles, laughs, and more laughs are seeping through conversations in the dining hall, soccer field, and waterfront. It’s a priceless vibe that I have the blessing to work in. Bummed it’s almost over, but will be sure to keep everyone posted.

Be blessed.

Whew. What a day. Our campers from France just arrived at the lovely hour of 10:57 PM. That officially caps off our hectic yet awesome day of checking in the campers for First Session! The staff couldn’t be more excited to have our session kids. That’s not to say that we did love the locals that we got for Community Week. Memories were definitely made. Evening events such as an impromptu late night dodge ball bonanza, a down to the wire Capture the Flag game, and an honky tonkin’ Southern night made for a jam packed blast of a week. To a degree it’s frustrating that we only get those campers for such a short time. But in the same token it motivates us to give all we got in the little amount of time that we get.

We couldn’t have asked for better weather for the week. The only blemish was a ominous thunder cloud accompanied by a slight drizzle on the very last day. Besides that we got mid 90’s and cloudless skies for three days straight. We have a shortage of sunscreen around camp now, but as long as the campers and staff are using it we have no problem handing it out!

Back for the kickoff day for the best three weeks a kid could have. The lifeguards were down on the dock counting laps for the kids’ swim tests, the sailors were taking campers out, and all around camp there were basketball and ultimate frisbee games going on. In the evening we did Get To Know You Games. The night was a fun icebreaker where we could share embarrassing stories and learn names. We ended in the dining hall with Kettle Corn and refreshments.

Tomorrow we will have the ever entertaining counselor skits. Hopefully the 2+ weeks of preparation during staff week won’t be all for not. Trips for Acadia and the Allagash River are right around the corner. It all happens so fast that we have to be sure to be doing posts! That’s all we got for now. Will have pictures up soon!