North Star Camp for Boys







Saturday, July 30, 2022

College Days Kickoff


Today was the first day of the Senior Village’s College Days. College Days is a three-day event that sees all of our seniors divided into 4 teams for a self-organized competition that involves a wide variety of activities across the camp spectrum. The seniors work together to select their schedules and structure their teams. The festivities kicked off last night following the Friday Night Service and the first responsibility of the teams is to pick their college. The teams are Pittsburg State University, Cankdeska Cikana Community College, Texas A&M Corpus Christi and Pepperdine University.

Today’s busy slate included arm wrestling, soccer, mascots and cheers, softball, karaoke, sailing races and basketball, while work has started on the judged plaques and preparations are in order for Monday’s cook-off. Over the the next few days there will be trivia competitions and football games, debates and swimming races, archery and riflery, chess and waterskiing, climbing and biking, canoeing and firebuilding, and much, much more.

College Days is a wonderful representation of North Star’s philosophy on competition. As you can see from the array of activities, this contest has represented skills across the board at camp since 1998. And even though the boys will play their hearts out, they will continue to laugh together and treat each other as friends throughout.

While the Seniors are busy in College Days, the Juniors and Intermediates are hard at play as well, starting their latest set of activities today. Cabin J-6 left this morning on their camping trip and tomorrow J-3 and I-4 will head to the backcountry as well. And the weather couldn’t have been more perfect, as the afternoon warmed up to a sunny 80-degrees.

Last night’s Friday Night Service was all about gratitude. We took time to be grateful for having our basic needs met at camp, where we can count on great food, wonderful shelter, and the support that we need. We also took time to reflect on the differences between what we want and what we need, and how much of our time we spend thinking about each category. Wherever our campers go, we hope that they won’t take anything for granted.

Today’s Grace:
“Children have never been very good at listening to their elders, but they have never failed to imitate them.”
- James Baldwin