What a beautiful start to the Summer of 2023! It’s a picture perfect day at camp, where things are looking great. Smooth bus rides full of happy campers ended with a chorus of excited hollering and hugs when the kids disembarked. We gathered around the flagpole to announce the cabins and the boys celebrated with their new cabinmates. For what we believe to be only the second time in North Star’s 79 summers, we have 4 cabins in our oldest age group (completed 9th grade). These cabins are known as Pine, Manor, McCabin and Mooseleg. They led the summer off with camp spirit by wearing onesie costumes, though the 80-degree day had them shedding their characters. The boys have gone to their cabins to get unpacked and move in, and our amazing staff have started to get to know their campers as they help them settle in.
Over the course of the next few days, we’ll continue to orient our campers to our routines and expectations, as well as to the people and place itself. The boys will learn or relearn about our North Star culture and values: our expectations about how we treat each other, our philosophy on competition, and the importance of doing the right thing for the right reasons. We are lucky to have an incredible, experienced group of counselors this year who are passionate about the character of North Star. I know that your boys are going to love this group.
We’ve worked to reorganize our schedule this summer, from opening day forward, to help create more opportunity for time spent as a whole cabin, as well freeing up some additional time throughout the day. We’re excited for the changes, that include starting our day by gathering around the flagpole for announcements before breakfast. Before we start our regular programming, the boys will finish packing and our new campers will receive a tour of camp. By the time they go to sleep tonight, they'll have played games with their cabins and met some of the other guys in their age group as well.
Dinner this evening will be burgers, fries and jello, plus the ever present salad bar and Sun Butter and jelly. There will be vegetarian burgers available for those that prefer, and Gluten free options for those that need it. And brownies for dessert! Immediately following dinner, the campers will choose their first week's activities.
Tonight’s evening activities will be followed by the candlelight ceremonies, where each cabin will have a meeting led by their counselors. They will share their goals and expectations for the summer, while continuing to get to know one another. This will be the first of many cabin discussions that are an important part of the team-building goals that we have for each cabin group, and helps develop the strong sense of community that we strive for at camp. Our expectation is that every boy goes to bed tonight knowing that they have at least one counselor that they are already comfortable enough with to wake him up if they need something in the middle of the night and that they have made one new friend that they can play with in the morning.
Tomorrow the kids will have a busy day as our amazing medical team checks in the boys. The campers will take a swim test, and we’ll find time to play several games of dodgeball. Evening program tomorrow will be our first game of All-Camp Capture the Flag. Then each cabin will work together to create a Cabin Charter, which is a set of expectations and values to live by. Our wilderness camping trips will begin on Wednesday, when our oldest boys return to Canada this year where they will spend 10 days in the Ontario wilderness in Quetico Provincial Park. Wednesday evening will be the staff show, where our very talented group will be on display.
FOLLOW CAMP ONLINE
Download Campanion! If you haven’t yet, make sure to download the Campanion App to receive updates from camp, photos directly to your phone, and facial recognition. You can also use Campanion to write to your son and so much more!
You can also follow along with the summer of 2023 on our website at www.NorthStarCamp.com/blog. We will also be posting updates on Facebook at www.facebook.com/northstarcampforboys, on Twitter at www.twitter.com/northstarcamp , and on Instagram @northstarcamp.
We post pictures online on a regular basis, and you can access those directly from your Campanion App or your CampInTouch page. To access your CampInTouch page, go to www.northstarcamp.com and click "login" in the upper right hand corner. From there you can click on "Photos" to see those smiling faces. If you'd like to set up guest accounts for friends or family you can do that from your landing page by clicking on "Guest Accounts."
While we’ll try to capture the kids' smiling faces, no news is good news. We work hard to ensure that every camper has all of the support that they need to succeed at camp. While not every moment at camp is perfect, camp on the whole will be an incredible growth experience for each boy and a lot of fun at the same time.
Thank you for trusting us with your boys!
