Today was one of the most anticipated and spirited days of the summer: United Nations Day! We have been building up to today for the last week by announcing captains, drafting teams, writing cheers and participating in Field Games and the UN Day Summit. UN Day is a day of friendly competition where the camp is split into four teams, represented by countries from the General Assembly of the United Nations. This year’s four nations were Cyprus, Russia, Ukraine, and Canada. We woke up a half hour early this morning so we could have extra time competing in fun and exciting activities. In order to show their team’s spirit, a majority of the campers started the day getting their bodies painted with colors from their country’s flag. Highlights included quite a few maple leafs from Canada, grape vines for Cyprus, “Crimea River” for Ukraine - a pun of the Justin Timberlake song, and Russia painting “Russia” on Boomer, one of the camp dogs.
The day was split into four event “series” and every camper was assigned by their captains and advisor to at least three events. The day started with some high energy favorites during First Series including flag football (juniors), softball (ridge/villa), a stand up paddleboard relay, and line soccer at the Council Ring. While Second Series included team sports like speedball, kickball and basketball, it also had some more niche activities such as climbing, archery and riflery. It’s a tradition at lunch on UN Day to have tacos and all of the campers are eagerly anticipating what place their team is in at the midway point of the day. At lunch, only 28 points separated first and last place: Cyprus was in 1st place, followed closely behind by Ukraine, and then Canada was in third with Russia bringing up the rear.
Before the Third Series, all All ALL staff competed in a game of speedball to determine which team would eat first at dinner. Understandably, the campers were quite invested in the results too. Russia ended up winning the speedball tournament, so their team was able to eat first later that evening. Third Series kicked off with running relays on the athletic fields and then perhaps the most intense ten minutes of the day: Tug-Of-War. Campers and counselors alike got loud cheering on their teammates during the frenzy of the competition. Third Series continued with some camp classics including soccer, dodgeball, steal the bacon, gaga and a canoe relay.
With such beautiful weather all day (80s and sunny), it was only fitting that our Fourth Series took place at Swim Point for all of our water events. The Fourth Series events included a medley relay, freestyle relay, individual 25m and 75m races, and a 10 person inner tube relay race. Each team was given an inner tube and had to kick, paddle and flail themselves to the other end of the dock and then roll off the tube so the next person could jump in. It is always very entertaining to watch and this year’s inner tube relay did not disappoint!
UN Day dinner is one of the best meals of the summer: a smorgasbord of food from around the world including spaghetti and meatballs, egg rolls, deviled eggs, mozzarella sticks, onion rings and chocolate milk.
The night ended with an extended closing ceremony featuring multiple village cheers, a Big 10 fake and multiple major league sports score reports before finally announcing our UN Day final results. Each team did one final group cheer as a team. Cyprus’s closing cheer was to the tune of “Imagine” by John Lennon. It was a perfect end to UN Day, a nod back to our Friday Night Service from two nights prior where we discussed why we participate in UN Day: to better ourselves as friends, cabin mates, global citizens and the North Star community.
UN Day Results (even though it just doesn’t matter):
Cyprus - 236
Ukraine - 220
Russia - 211
Canada - 207
Morning Grace:
