A very happy 4th of July from the Northwoods! Today has been full of patriotic music, healthy competition, goofy body paint, and very enthusiastic chanting. We started the morning with a reflection on what Independence Day means to us here at North Star. As a community centered around inclusivity, accountability, and kindness we want to celebrate our country in a way that is befitting of our North Star values. As we discussed prior to breakfast, our preamble states “in order to form a more perfect union,” but that takes constant work. The celebration takes on different meaning at camp as we also celebrate the 4th of July with campers and staff who come from other countries, and sharing in that process of cultural exchange is a unique part of our holiday.
The energy on the 4th of July is always fantastic. Breakfast comes with sparklers, whipped cream and a lot of music - Born in the USA, Party in the USA, Chicken Fried, and more. The boys come in their red, white and blue outfits and they are ready to dance. After breakfast we spent the morning on the water, beginning with joining in for the Spider Lake Boat Parade and concluding with an Organized Free period. The afternoon was our Green-White Marathon, which is one of our most anticipated and exciting events of the summer. It is a relay race that includes nearly every event in camp. It starts with a running race and includes fun-bugging, swimming, canoeing, climbing, archery, riflery, biking, skipping, tent building, tennis volleying, bed making, basketball shooting, bucket filling, singing, and more, before leading to Boil Water Boil. In this final event, the whole camp gathers around as the two teams compete to build a fire that can boil a tin can full of water over the top first. It was a very close race with the Green team narrowly winning out at Boil Water Boil to win the Marathon.
For our evening program, counselors and campers played a game called Space Invaders where one counselor from every cabin was asked to pretend to be an alien and hide around camp’s property. The other counselor stayed with their cabin group to find the hiding aliens. As an alien, they could only make sounds, but did not speak or understand English. When the boys found and chased down each alien, they had to find a way to communicate with them and do a silly task in order to be released to find the other aliens. The counselors had just as great of a time as the campers, and this game got the campers running around camp once more before the final exciting event of the evening.
And finally, the right way to end the 4th of July is with fireworks! We all gathered on the tennis courts and watched a fantastic show out over the athletic fields.
Happy 4th of July!
