Yesterday (Thursday) marked the beginning of the last week of activities for first session. There have been many trips in and out this week as we get closer to the end of the summer. We also have been busy in the run-in to United Nations Day. U.N. Day is a tradition since camp's very first summer, where the whole camp is drafted into four nations. This year's teams are Ireland, Iceland, Jamaica and India. The teams will participate in many camp events, ranging from athletics like softball or soccer as well as adventure activities like climbing, archery and riflery. There are also relay races and tug-of-war (for campers and staff) as well as a staff speedball game that decides eating order for dinner.U.N. Day is one of the favorite days of many of our campers because it is an opportunity to be competitive in our unique and safe environment. While a desire to compete and give your best effort is important, so is sportsmanship and being a good friend to your teammates and opponents. At the end of U.N. Day, the boys chant "it just doesn't matter." The campers realize it isn't the final scores of the day that are important, but the satisfaction of giving their all and the fun of doing so with their friends that makes U.N. Day special.
Tonight's Friday Night Service will be about the importance of being a Global Citizen. We will hear from our international staff members and campers about their home countries, and read, speak and sing about the importance of embracing the differences between people from all over the world. We are lucky have campers and staff from over a dozen countries here this summer, and we are working to ensure that everyone leaves having learned from camp the importance of being a global citizen.
For the first three project days of the week we have been treated to a special offering, courtesy of Alumnus John Knopf. John is a professional photographer working out of Las Vegas, but this summer he has an gallery open near Minneapolis. John's work has been featured in National Geographic and USA Today.John reached out to Andy about the possibility of coming to camp for a few days to share his experience with our campers. John has run a digital photography activity each of the three project periods for the first half of the week. We are really lucky that John chose to share his expertise with our campers for a few days. If you are interested in checking out some of John's work, you can go to his website or Instagram page.
Next week is the last week of first session. It will be a busy week with a lot to look forward to for our campers. We will have the last few days of activity instruction of the session, a Cruiser Day, and some special programs and days. On Wednesday night we will have Espionage, which is a great game played late at night and allows the campers to sneak around camp to accomplish objectives (with counselors tagging along, of course). On Thursday we will have PEELS day (sleep backwards) which gives everyone in camp an opportunity to sleep in and is filled with organized free periods. On Thursday evening we will all be treated to the first and only showing of the North Star musical Freaky Friday. The cast and crew have been hard at work all session preparing the show for the rest of camp. On Friday, we will welcome parents of the 8-weekers and a few other visitors for our Friday night service before the first session campers leave on Saturday morning. 
