Today was a very exciting day in the Northwoods for our boys! We are into our second week of the session, and today was our second Cruiser Day. This Cruiser Day, our Junior Village counselors planned a tournament dubbed “Dynasty Days.” The village was split into four teams, the Romans, the Spartans, the Trojans, and the Mongols, each complete with their own cheers.
The day started off strong with donuts, fruit, and cereal. Dan delivered on the requests for Boston Cream Donuts and they were a hit. Directly after breakfast, our juniors jumped into their competition with an all-village arm-wrestling tournament. Softball, Newcombe, and nine-square followed before the village jumped into their “Academic Hour.” We like to encourage development and success in a variety of activities at camp, so chess, trivia, and essay writing (with such prompts as “Is Da Baby real?”) were weighted as heavily as the athletic events.
The Junior Village could not have lined up a more beautiful day for their Cruiser Day, and the afternoon sun made getting in the lake for water sports a treat. Eight campers competed in log-rolling, with the Mongols coming out on top. 24 campers and eight advisors from each team tried their hand at inner-tube racing, which involves them sitting backwards in an inner-tube and furiously splashing to get to the end of the lane.
The final water event was water polo, which our juniors have seen the senior kids play and wanted to try their hand at. Each game was a success with great passes, key saves by the goalies, and good sportsmanship all around.
The day ended with pizza and the final event: jumping over pizza boxes stacked like hurdles. Final results were in before dessert, determining the order for the Junior Village ice cream treat! 24 points separated first from last, making it a very close race. Mongols came in fourth, Romans, Spartans, and the Trojans took home gold with an impressive 109 points!
The Intermediate and Senior Villages also had jam-packed days with activities like water games, slip-and-slides, oreo-ball making, climbing, sailing, paddle-boarding, canoeing, and tubing. We look forward to getting back into the swing of things with our programmed activities tomorrow!
Yesterday’s Grace:
“I learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it. The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear. “
- Nelson Mandela
