North Star Camp for Boys







Tuesday, June 29, 2010

Glen's Game


Evening program tonight is a camper favorite... Glen's Game! This game sees our staff set up four different spots that campers need to get to by the end of the game. These spots are unknown to the campers at the start of the game and once they find out what these spots are, they need to avoid counselors as they try to get there. If successful the camper gets a mark on their hand and hopefully, by the end of the game they have four different marks representing the four different spots.

However, as campers try to get to these areas, there are counselors waiting to get them. Each camper has a flag tucked in their pants and counselors chase them in an attempt to get their flag. Campers who get their flags taken away must report to jail and wait for a jail break in order to re-enter the game.

Glen's Game has become a key North Star activity and when it gets put on the calendar, campers inevitably get excited. Even campers new to North Star know about Glen's Game. One of the really neat things about Glen's Game, though, is that it shows that every staff member and camper can make a lasting impact at North Star. About nine years ago Leb was looking for an idea for an evening program and one of our first time counselors, Glen Miller suggested a game he had played elsewhere. Now "Glen's Game" has become a regular.

This is one of the great things about camp... maybe its an idea for a special program and before you know it, it becomes a fixture on the camp calendar... or maybe its a cheer or song that a few campers come up with and it becomes a regular part of village cheers in the lodge. Campers and counselors, new and old, come up with the ideas that become the key parts of camp. Camps are places of tradition and we often thing that "this is the way its always been" or "that program has been around forever", but it takes individuals to come up with those things that become traditions and each day provides opportunities to create new traditions.