Today was such a beautiful day at Kahdalea and Chosatonga. Indeed, we have been blessed with an incredible first week of glorious sunshine! Highs in the low to mid 80’s and lows in the mid 60’s. It is great when the weather cooperates so well and leaves us to enjoy the first week of building friendships and growing in comfort and skills without hardly a cloud or drizzle. This upcoming week it looks like we have a greater chance of our staple afternoon shower returning. Usually these time themselves perfectly for our rest hour when we are all enjoying a siesta anyway, but at this point and in any case, we are looking forward to the rain and the slightly cooler weather that will usher in with it. We’ve been practicing our tarp building and getting ready for this moment! Not only that, but it’s important for all of us to learn that we can have fun and flourish even when things are challenging – that is a key aspect of our core value: welcome adventure!
Speaking of welcoming adventure: today was our first day of big trips! We have two groups that left on 3 day trips today, and several day trips went out to locations on the French Broad River, Turtleback Falls, and Rock Chickamunga – as well as a first year overnight for our Kahdalea Campers (My brother Adam surprised these campers with a tray of fresh baked cookies just after dinner!). Our tripping schedule, as you may expect, has a long arc over the course of the session so that this week we start with many of our shorter trips and also spend more time focusing in on fundamental skills in each activity. Each week the challenges will grow with the camper’s skills.
I am so proud of our campers for getting out to explore: more than half of our camper population was out! It’s not easy getting used to new things and sometimes as an adult I think I forget what being in such a new environment as a new camp can feel like. It is so important, though, to ponder that and to consider how brave our children are. They are accomplishing so much by slowly overcoming the discomfort of a new place, of homesickness, of a new home, new surroundings and experiences. Steadily they are turning potential fears into dear friends.
Letters are one of the ways we can support our campers in this! Please write and encourage them and cheer them on! I am often asked what to write about. Of course, there is not one thing to say or not to say, but I would recommend the principle that the purpose is not to have them draw their attention home or to miss home, but to increase their positive experience here at camp! Point positively with your questions and ask about their favorite things and people. They will love to share!
Speaking of letters: if you have a child at each camp, you may have noticed that, unusually, you received letters from your camper’s counselors at different times this week for your son and daughter. We do our best to sync outreach to parents between the camps, but this week we mixed it up! With the boy’s cabin overnight schedule, it made the most sense for them to have a short introduction and followed by a full letter whereas the Kahdalea Counselors just wrote one that was a bit fuller to begin with.
God bless! I will look forward to writing again tomorrow!
