Author: Glenn Smith

Two things happened yesterday that showed me something new about camp. I think I already knew this thing, but now I get it, you know?

The first thing happened at the basketball court. The instructor, Ethan, made a deal with Keenan Jamison: make three baskets in a row, and I’ll buy you a soda. Soda is an excellent incentive here at Camp Tall Timbers: we counselors use it in desperate situations to get campers to clean the cabin, or if everybody’s super rowdy at night, we might say “First person in pajamas, teeth brushed, quietly reading gets a soda tomorrow”. It works like a charm. But this time, with Ethan and Keenan up at basketball, there was something else going on. Keenan really wanted that soda, but he also really wanted to make those shots. It meant something to him. It took half an hour, but he did it. The victory was worth more than the soda, I know that much for sure.

The other thing that happened was with Jami Siegal and climbing instructor Jackson up at the rock wall. It was only a few hours after Keenan made those shots. Jami was desperate to get up the wall: it’s a status thing, but also a personal growth thing. And she didn’t just want to get up the wall. She wanted to get up the hard side. And Jackson, excellent counselor that he was, resolved to wait with her as long as it took. Jami would make it up the wall, whether it took all class and all that Free Swim and all the next Free Swim too. She didn’t make it up yesterday. But this morning Jackson came over and patted her on the back and asked if she was ready to give it another go.  Jami will make it to the top of that wall.

So here’s what I’m figuring out. Being a camp counselor, or an instructor, or a teacher, is a lot about shutting up and waiting for the kids to discover their strength. I knew it already, like I said. I know that when I teach Challenge elements, it works best if I keep quiet, even though I know what they’re trying won’t work. If I let them fail, they learn something and try a better plan. It’s hard to keep quiet. It was hard for Jackson to give up his free swim to stand at the wall and coach Jami. It was hard for Ethan not to just tell Keenan, “Listen buddy, two in a row is pretty good, let’s go get that soda.” Working for something makes it that much better.

Other Tall Timbers Happenings

–                     Writing Class came up with a group story that is totally going to make everybody famous

–                     In Archery, Sasha Coates-Park hit a bullseye five times

–                     Emily Smith made it to the top of the wall twice

–                     Sebastian Fischbach won jailbreak twice in tennis

You know that awesome feeling you get when you wake up the morning after a really intense day, knowing it went well, knowing you worked and played your hardest, and knowing that it’s over? That’s how I feel right now, and that’s how camp generally feels on a Sunday morning.

Saturdays are kind of a big deal here. Counselors who are leading Saturdays (so, this past week, me and Arnaud and Euan) spend the whole preceding week planning hours and hours of activities along a specific theme. This time it was Fantasy Day, and it was awesome.

It began with Breakout, which is where we three counselors in charge introduced the day with a bang. The story: the human king was dying, and the elves, dwarves, giants and goblins were competing to win control of the realm. There may have been a pretend swordfight. We broke everybody into four teams according to these four fantastic species, and then the fun began. In the morning, groups switched off in games of Jousting and Goblin Gold Hunt. In Jousting, one camper steered a paddleboard on the lake while another camper, standing on the board, tried to knock the jouster from the opposing team off their board using a pool noodle. It was awesome.

In the afternoon, we tried a little something the wizarding world calls Quidditch. Mounted on brand new Nimbus 3000 CTTs, fresh off the boat from Diagon Alley (okay, fine, bright orange plastic sticks), campers tried to get the quaffle into hula hoops suspended from soccer goals while the Seekers from the two teams ran around camp looking for the Snitch (Euan wearing all yellow). The hilarity was so real. The afternoon also contained rousing games of Catapult the Castle, where teams threw wet sponges over the Wall Ball wall and tried to soak the opposing team, as well as an art project: decorating a scepter for your team’s King or Queen. After dinner, the four teams shed their team colors and all joined together in a social. There was music and dancing and soft pretzels, so all in all I’d call it a rousing success.

Saturday activities are good fun to plan, and super stressful to execute, and the kids have so much fun. The Red Team (the Giants) came up with their own cheer. The Green Elves made signs in the art shack and “tagged” camp, effectively tagging elven territory. The Blue Team won, mostly because Brady Osterman is a beast at Quidditch, but ultimately winning isn’t what matters. The whole camp got to spend the day in a fantasy world, and that’s pretty awesome.

Other Tall Timbers Happenings 

–       Wet Your Feet Weekers had a great time on the zip line

–       Mikey Lundy stood up on the tube in Tubing

–       Conor Roberton completed his first dive off the diving board

–       Emma Katzker and Jamie Stern won gagaball

–       Nick Galanis learned to serve in tennis

–       The Chilly Chileans won the quarterfinal futsal game

–       The Dominant Dutch are advancing to the semifinals in futsal

–       Ryan ‘Buns’ Bernstein won jail in Tennis

–       Robert Bell flipped over on his tube, stayed on and righted himself… again!

–       Horseback riders learned to ride bareback for the first time

–       Adam Slafsky got two bullseyes in archery

You guys, it’s mid-second-session, and I feel like I’ve written a lot about a lot of things at camp. I’ve talked about various activities we do, various evening activities, trips, camp skills and friendships. I’d like to take this time to tell you how super cool it is that we get to hang out with your kids for a few weeks. I mean, your kids are excellent people. It’s loads of fun. I want to tell you a little something about how cool your kids are.

Your kids are so cool that they start games of kickball all of their own accord. They’re so cool that during their free time they go up to the rec hall to play gagaball, and they follow the rules in their own accord. Mel Jenkins is so cool that in Creative Writing class, she wrote a beautiful piece about learning to be nice. Freddi Rappaport is so cool that in Gymnastics on the hottest day so far this summer, she was still super excited about improving her round-off. John Barnes is so cool that during rest hour he has choreographed an entire dance for his cabin, which they perform frequently and with great skill, flash-mob style, most afternoons. The CIT2s are so cool because they’ve been helping out at night, getting the little ones to bed.

Your kids are engaged in a deeply competitive ping-pong tournament. They’re playing futsal like pros, when I’m pretty sure some of them had never heard of futsal this time two weeks ago. Your kids are so cool that they teach each other new techniques for holding on to the tube during tubing; they take turns jumping off the diving board; they help each other out during Cabin Clean-Up to make sure their cabin is the cleanest. Your kids build rafts and make rockets and climb higher than they thought they could on the rock wall. Your kids are teaching me new card games and new dance moves. And I think all of that’s super cool.

So thank you. From myself and all of the staff here at Camp Tall Timbers, thanks for the chance to get to know all of your funny, talented, creative, spunky kids. It’s truly an awesome gift.

It really is amazing how quickly you fall into the camp routine. Part of it is definitely that everything is so well run here, but I think there’s something else going on, too. It’s Clinic Day again: right now campers are trotting past the office to the pool or the horse barn or the soccer field. Everybody knows where they’re going. Everybody has the equipment they need: closed-toed shoes, towel, sun screen, long pants. But Camp Tall Timbers’ well-oiledyness really struck me yesterday, during the pool party/cookout/baseball game extravaganza.

The pool party wasn’t planned. It’s an activity that happens here when it’s too hot to do anything else, and boy howdy was it too hot yesterday. I was teaching gymnastics, or I was supposed to be: as soon as I saw the campers hoofing up to the veranda where we practice, I knew there would be no cartwheeling or hand-standing that day. It was just too hot. We tried some lower-energy yoga, but that too proved too much for the heat. I knew that anyone who had soccer or football that period would be sitting in the shade, guzzling water and practicing breathing techniques. The pool party was the only solution, and it was a fabulous one. We brought out the loudspeaker and got a game of water polo started, and suddenly the heat was a bonus to the fun. It was amazing how well coordinated it all was. I knew where I needed to be to make the afternoon safe and fun, and everyone else did, and we all worked as a coordinated team without having to talk it out.

In a matter of weeks, all of us here at Camp Tall Timbers, from campers to counselors to admin to kitchen staff, have become a community. That’s not a small thing, especially in a world that can feel so big. I totally lost out of the ping pong tournament in the first round to Mason Corby, who I had never really talked to much before, but now I know a fair amount about who he is. Just like that, we have something to talk about. I’d never had much to do with Teddy Geis before, since he’s not in any of my classes, but we sat together on the bus ride home from bowling, and now I know that he loves military history, and that’s he’s so creative and full of ideas for camp. When you get to know people like this, it makes the whole community function smoothly. So yeah, part of why this place works so well is that there’s a system. But another part is all the incredible, diverse people who make it what it is.

It was one of those humid July nights at summer camp. I was exhausted from a long day of teaching Golf and Challenge, playing cards, running around, and planning the events for next Saturday’s Fantasy Day. When the evening activity, CIT2 Hunt, finished up with a cheer and a pool party, I decided right then and there that I would be one of the counselors “supervising”: in other words, I would not be getting in the water. Yeah, it was hot, and yeah, I knew the pool would feel great. But I was tired, so…Of course, it was only a matter of minutes before I was cannon-balling off the diving board, clothes and all. My campers swarmed around me, delighted that I was having fun with them. I always knew I would jump in, because that’s the kind of person I am.

For counselors, camp allows us to play around, to explore the parts of our personalities that are childish and inquisitive, imaginative and goofy. For kids, summer is a time to discover parts of themselves they might not otherwise. Am I the type of person who rushes down to the pool and jumps in A.S.A.P.? Do I need to be cajoled by my friends? Do I think of myself as artsy when in fact a secret basketball star lurks beneath the surface? Am I braver than I think?

I’ve seen it happen over and over this summer. Last session it was Nathan Allentoff, who had to be convinced to try Horses. At first he wouldn’t even touch the horse, and by the end of the three weeks, he was riding around like a pro. I mean, Nathan may never ride a horse again in his life, but the experience of learning to love something that terrified him will stick with him forever. I see it with Alice and Zoey, two campers from China who struggle with language proficiency and cultural differences, but who put themselves out there every day, trying new things, joining in and experiencing something totally different. Maybe they’ll never go mountain biking after this, but they’ll never forget the feeling of soaring down that hill for the first time, not sure if they were in control or the bike was, but grinning and laughing nonetheless.

At camp, we all get the chance to develop ourselves in new directions, which makes us stronger as people. When we come across a challenge, instead of giving up, we buckle down and get started, knowing we’ll figure it out some time. It’s an experience we never forget.

Other Tall Timbers Happenings

–       Katherine Barnes won gagaball

–       Dylan Kearney and Ella Zhu made it to the top of the rock wall for the first time

–       Actors in the play will be off book today

–       Conor Roberton won singles and Mafalda Pingting won jailbreak in tennis

–       Alec Geis was the futsol MVP

–       Cabins H and 7 won Cabin Clean Up and the trip to Packs for ice cream

–       Cabin F learned the butterfly stroke in swimming

–       Happy birthday to counselors Lynn and Theresa, and cook Levi

–       Conor Roberton won Cabin 1’s tetherball tournament

–       There were 8 people at Dippies this morning

If you’re a regular reader of this blog, you may remember that yesterday I wrote about the juniors’ campfire, complete with ridiculous skits and creative nature portraits. Last night the juniors and seniors switched: seniors stayed on camp and played Capture the Flag, and juniors took a bus into Winchester to go bowling.

It was a roaring success. There was the predictable chaos of trying to get thirty kids into bowling shoes and in the right lane, and the confusion of having thirty kids mobbing the snack bar waving five dollar bills, and the whoops of glee when everybody discovered the jukebox. For one night, that bowling alley was our playground and our paradise.

I was bowling with the Wet Your Feet Weekers, and they were not at all the timid little ones I had been expecting. They were fierce in the lanes, whipping their ball down the alley, jokingly making fun of one another’s misses and supporting one another’s victories. (I may have come in third after two nine-year-olds. It’s not a big deal.) We played a few turns each, hiked on over to the snack bar for popcorn and slushies and headed back, and discovered to our (okay, my) glee that in the lane next to us were none other than my favorite kitchen staff. The rivalry got real. It was four nine-year-olds versus five full-grown Central European chefs. Just kidding. We all got along great, and the nine-year-olds totally won.

Other highlights of the night included all of the Cabin 3 boys dancing to Cotton Eyed Joe, my own personal dance party when John Barnes selected the Black Eyed Peas’ “The Time of My Life (Dirty Bit)” on the jukebox, and the conversation I had with Teddy Geis on the bus ride home about European military history.

We pulled into camp pretty late, at about ten. We stumbled off the bus, happy and exhausted and ready for bed. “Crazy-walk to the cabin!” I yelled, and my four Wet Your Feet Weekers ambled/cavorted/ran in hilarious manners back to Cabin A. They were snoring away in no time.

Other Tall Timbers Happenings 

–       The Red Bulls beat the Orange Crush at flag football

–       Counselor Arhan came in last at bowling

–       Wet Your Feet Weeker Jessie Rothenberg won bowling

–       Meghan Dougherty and Alex Knox got to the top of the climbing wall for the first time

Remember how I have this constant obsession with how much awesome is constantly going on in this place? It’s happening again. I’m just so impressed with the way everything comes together in a big pile of awesome. Last night something new happened: we split up along junior/senior lines, and the seniors went bowling, and the juniors went down to the lake for a campfire. Tonight, the groups will switch: the little ones will be out of camp, bowling their hearts out, and the seniors will be at the lake.

I was a little nervous about having a campfire with just the younger kids, but honestly it was my favorite campfire so far. All the kids were at the same level. We did nature portraits, which meant splitting into groups and making portraits of your favorite counselor using sticks, stones and other things from nature. The creativity was exceptional. I was personally a fan of the 3D, sitting-up sculpture of Demarco, but my co-judge felt that the use of just logs was tired, and we ultimately awarded the prize (getting S’mores first) to Nathaniel’s group. With a rocky head and seaweed hair and goatee, the sculpture was a startlingly accurate rendition of everyone’s favorite Dippies lifeguard.

We then moved into skits, in the same groups. We began with the bad news: your group has been stranded on a deserted island, and you have to use this one prop (a Sharpie, flipflops, a ping pong paddle etc) to escape. (By the way, side note: Mark Clark, admin extraordinaire, just dropped an intact snake skin on my keyboard and told me to write about it, and I am nothing if not responsive to my supervisors, sooo…) The skits went really well. Arhan’s group won, which was predictable (he IS the drama counselor after all), but they deserved it. Their flip flops were magical and turned into a boat. It was epic.

I’ll let you know how bowling goes tonight, but I’m sure it will be awesome.

Other Camp Tall Timbers Happenings 

–       In swimming, Mayson Smith performed an epic bellyflop

–       Yolanda Fan made it to the top of the wall for the first time

–       Silky Spain won in futsal; Freddi Rappoport was the MVP

–       Sebastian Fischbach and Henry Golub won knockout in basketball

It’s that time again: fresh-faced and eager Wet Your Feet Weekers are arriving for the week, ready to try new things and push themselves into a new era of their childhood. I’ve been getting ready for them for a few days. I moved from my cabin, full of talkative and experienced tweenagers, into a brand new clean Cabin A. I put sheets on the beds and made sure each camper had a blanket. Camp Tall Timbers is moving over and making room for new friends, and the excitement is palpable.

I love Wet Your Feet Week, and I love that right now it coincides with our CIT2s, our oldest campers, getting their feet wet into the world of being a counselor. For the next few days, CIT2s will be shadowing counselors, observing how they teach their classes and interact with campers, and the ins and outs of their daily schedule. For CIT2s, this session is a last hurrah of sorts. It’s their last year as campers, their last chance to take a new class, to make new and wonderful camp memories, but it’s also their chance to prove to the camp that they are responsible, kind, spontaneous and all the other things that make a good camp counselor. Maybe it’s just me, but Wet Your Feet Week and CIT2 shadowing have a lot in common. It’s all about entering a new phase of your relationship to camp. For the youngsters, it’s about becoming part of a camp family; for the CITs, it’s about taking ownership of that family.

I’m so ready. After this I’m going to go teach writing, and then I’m going to move the last of my stuff into my new cabin, and then I’m going to meet my new campers. I know their names, and I know which bunk they’ll be in, but I’m so excited to get to know them for real.

Other Tall Timbers Happenings

–       Ping Pong Tournament sign-ups are closing

–       Mel Jenkins got a bullseye in archery

–       The Yellow Team won Saturday’s Oregon Trail Day activity

You guys, I’m in a gushy mood. I’m so fond of camp that there’s not much space in my head for blog-style reporting on the daily happenings of this place. I feel like a camper: in the beginning, I was anxious about making friends and finding my crowd, but of course it happened without incident, and now I belong here, and it fills my heart with summertime happiness.

Yesterday was a trip day. Seniors went white-water rafting and juniors went to Cacapon State Park. It was a blast. The weather was just perfect, and everyone found something to do for their energy level and interest. Freddi Rappoport buried herself in the sand, and Taryn and Carly Dalton and Charlotte Bell and Emily Smith splashed around in the water, and then counselor Demarco started up a game of football that got so real that an off-duty lifeguard came over and reffed, and John Barnes showed off his volleyball skills, and a bunch of Cabin 4 boys played soccer in the sand, and everyone cooled off with ice cream sandwiches from the snack bar. At dinner time, we packed up our sports equipment and headed to our barbeque: breaking from their usual cabin groups, everybody sat together and savored Mark and Glenn’s famous hamburgers and hotdogs. Watermelon juice dribbled like rain as we grinned over our sweet dessert. We played tag games til dusk, and sang songs on the bus ride home, and then we collapsed into our beds, exhausted and sandy and, in my case, in love with summer.

And now everybody’s in Clinics. Experts in soccer, swimming, horseback riding, writing and martial arts are here to share their skills in intensive sessions. It’s another day, which means there’s something different, something exciting, something fun. I can’t wait to hear what my campers got up to in their sessions.

So your faithful blogger has been at camp for a while now, but it’s just hitting me how much goes on here. There is literally always something excellent happening. During free swim alone, your options could be yoga/pilates, a ping-pong competition, futsal, flag football, swimming or a poetry workshop. And that’s only the organized activities: there are always lots of little games popping up all over the place. Two nights ago was Murder Mystery Night, in which the dramatically staged death of a beloved cook led the whole camp to solve the mystery of whodunnit. Today, older campers are going white-water rafting, and younger campers will be spending the day at Cacapon State Park, swimming and running around and having a cook-out. There is never a dull moment.

That includes last night, which was Cabin Activity Night. As counselors, we spent breakfast frantically clamoring for the best spots around camp for our nights, but we all knew that no matter where we were, our cabin’s collective personality would make the night special. My cabin got the rec hall, but it was so nice out that we mostly hung out on the porch. We played improv games with much hilarity, but the highlight of the night was a game of Freeze Dance. Freeze Dance, of course, is a game where you dance like no one’s watching, and when the music is paused, you have to freeze, and the person who is too invested in the song to stop is out for the game.

Cabin F, the youngest girls in camp, were on the gym mats having a spa night. I saw them parade out from their makeup session, most having abandoned traditional mascara-lip gloss-blush-eyeliner for exotic face painting in riotous designs. The tent boys had the gym, and we heard them playing loud sports all evening, laughing and whooping the whole time.

It’s amazing how in only a few days, each cabin or tent group has developed its own distinct personalities, inside jokes, and little group slangs. I guess when so much is going on, it just happens naturally.

Other Tall Timbers Happenings

–       The Zeta Psi Sluggers won their Boys League game

–       Charlotte Bell and Emily Walke did great in riflery

–       In Canoeing, Freddi Rappoport and Taryn Dalton flipped their canoe and caught a fish in it

–       The Dominant Dutch beat the Portugal Predators in futsal

–       Sebastian Fischbach and Emily Smith were the MVPs in futsal

–       Jerry Golub and Ryan ‘Buns’ Bernstein won the warmup competition in tennis

–       Shane Butler won knockout in archery

–       In Gymnastics, Freddi Rappoport and Mayson Smith tied in the cartwheel competition, and Jamie Stern had the best roundoff

–       In soccer, Sebastian Fischbach scored a goal with a bicycle kick

–       Leonard Pasquier kicked a 40-yard field goal in football

–       Mel Jenkins and Sammie Cooper completed the tension traverse in Challenge Course

My first flash friendship came later than most: I was sixteen, on exchange in Germany, singing in a local rock band in my town. I was part of the group, but something in me resisted: I knew I was leaving in a few months, so why should I let myself come to love these people I spent so much time with? It was better to remain cold, I thought, than to risk the pain of leaving them. But then, somehow, I couldn’t hold back anymore, and I found myself becoming friends with them. Even in the most lighthearted moments, there was a bittersweet undertone, because I always knew that it would end.

That’s the magic and the tragedy of summer camp friendships.

You can see campers negotiating their competing desires right now: on one hand, everybody wants to be a part of a little group, to have close camp friends with whom you spend all your time, whom you can go to with your camp dramas. And on the other hand, even the little ones know just how short three weeks is. At our opening campfire, we sang the Tall Timbers song: “Friends, friends, friends, we will always be, whether in fair or in dark stormy weather Tall Timbers will keep us together…” And on so many faces I saw hints of doubt. Will we really always be friends? When September rolls around, and my life is full of other friends and other dramas, will I really miss you? And if I do, will that pain be too much to bear?

So this is in defense of flash friendships. Because although there is that tragic knowledge of their coming end, there is also the vulnerability that comes with only having so long to have every conversation you want to have, to share every secret, to have every kind of fun as soon as possible. And although they are brief, this poignancy makes summer friendships stay with us. We fall in love with summer camp not just because we love playing soccer and doing ridiculous skits, but because we know that those flash friendships will be waiting for us next summer.

Which brings us to the last poignancy of flash friendships at summer camp: they do last. Across time, across distance, across years, summer friends are real friends. Just faster, deeper and more earnest.

Other Tall Timbers Happenings

–       B2 Challenge completed a human knot in under two minutes

–       In soccer, Carl Lasker, Cole Christensen and counselor Kayla won, and Carl was the MPV

–       Sebastian Fischbach, Henry Golub and Aidan Brodnitz hit bullseyes in archery

–       Spencer Leibow was the first person to conquer all the sides of the climbing wall

–       Katherine Barnes won field hockey gagaball

–       The Ivory Toast beat the Dominant Dutch in futsal 4-1, with Jamie Stern scoring 2 goals

–       Charlotte Bell learned to dive, and Taryn Dalton won the biggest splash competition in swimming

–       Adam Fiergang made 17 out of 18 shots in basketball

–       In tubing, Aaron Mendelsohn flipped upside down, travelled underwater and righted himself without falling off the tube

Every session of camp has a completely different energy. Vibe, maybe, if you woke up feeling the 60’s this morning. Even with a good handful of returning campers, Second Session is shaping up to be exciting, ridiculous and fun in its own wonderful way. I could tell right away that Session 2 was going to be phenomenal when all the campers were totally down to move the very first evening activity inside for the rain. It went off without a hitch: campers flew from activity to activity, completing tasks and learning which things they might like to do more often during their time at camp. Interested in improv? Quick! Act out a skit using this rocket as something other than a rocket. Want to try canoeing? Better show how to put on a lifejacket. In an Activity Fair bingo, campers raced to complete all the required activities before time ran out. Even in the rain, it was a blast.

The next morning was time for scheduling. Everybody gathered in the dining hall, blank schedules in hand. This was not a timed activity, but the energy was just as intense. Plus, scheduling takes much more mental capacity than the Activity Fair. There’s a strategy to building your perfect day at camp. It goes a little something like this:

You have to start with Drama, Horses and Tennis. These are limited in spacing and in timing, and if you’re going to be in the play you have to have lots of spaces open for rehearsals and prop-making. If you happen to have scheduled yourself for mountain biking during one of the play’s rehearsal period, you’re out, my friend. So once you’ve reserved your spot in the play, or in the coveted Intermediate Tennis class, or on Speckleback out at the barn, you can move on to other activities.

Your next thought process is about geography. You probably want to take tubing, and you probably want to take field hockey, but you probably don’t want to take Tubing right before field hockey because they’re very far apart and you don’t want to get to field hockey dripping in lake water. So maybe you decide to go for riflery and then tubing, and do field hockey and rock climbing in the afternoon.

Everyone has their own goals for their schedule. Some head straight to the Arts and Crafts table, and fill most of their spaces with writing, arts and other creative pursuits. Others’ schedules are mostly full already by the time they leave team sports scheduling table. Scheduling is so intense when you’re doing it that you can forget that it’s all about what comes next, because after scheduling comes the real fun: actually doing all the awesome things you signed up for. Let the games begin!

Other Tall Timbers Happenings

–      Alice Zhao won jailbreak in tennis

–      Sam Coleman made his first half-court shot in basketball

–      Eric Seigle won museum in drama

–      Jami Siegal and Emily Smith hit the target in riflery

–      Futsal World Cup teams have been made and the first game will occur today at free swim

–      Emily Walke and Zoe Zhang won Red Light Green Light in Horses

–      Writer in Residence Cristin Terrill is back for second session free swim and clinic writing workshops

A storm of wind and rain may have hit Camp Tall Timbers late last night, but today another storm is brewing: the Drama class is furiously preparing for the opening night of their play, Zombeo and Juliet. The cast met for a secretive meeting after breakfast, and the final dress rehearsal will take place during free swim. My camper, Sydney Sachs, will be starring as Juliet, and she’s taking the stress with remarkable calm and good humor. Tonight’s the big night, and the show must go on even if some people don’t really know their lines that well. I am not personally associated with the play in any way, and so from my comfortable distance I have no doubt that it will go off without a hitch.

I have no doubt that the play will be excellent because the play is a metaphor for Camp Tall Timbers as a whole, and I never doubt that Tall Timbers will be excellent. Sometimes you’re an hour before an evening activity, stressed about how it will go off, not sure if you broke the cabins up into groups in just the right way, and then it goes perfectly, and you’re left feeling proud and elated and just happy that the kids had a good time. The camp play and camp itself are like jumping off a diving board: you’re standing there looking down at the water, wondering if you’re going to belly flop into what looks like nothing less than arctic-temperature waters, and then you steel yourself and jump and it’s the most refreshing feeling in the world.

The camp play and camp itself and jumping off a diving board are remarkably like spending a day at Hershey Park, as we all did yesterday. Sometimes you have to hold someone’s hand as the roller coaster inches up the massive incline. Sometimes that hand is the most reassuring thing in the world, and it holds you over until you round the top and come hurtling down the other side, and you realize that you’re just fine. You realize that you are capable of so much more than you imagined.

Other Tall Timbers Happenings

–       Ella Perkins and Makin Sowell hit bullseyes in archery

–       Orange Crush beat the Red Bulls in flag football

–       In Girl Power Hour, Jen Heiman, Grace Brown and Anna Hutzler won Mafia

–       Katherine Barnes, Hayley Sanders and Grace Brown tied in Sleeping Lions

–       The Yellow Spotted Hippopotami beat the Purple Nurples in flag football, and will advance to the Superbowl

–       Sydney LaPorte scored her first touchdown

–       Buns (Ryan Bernstein) hit a golf ball to the very top of the hill

High ropes courses are a fixture of summer camp life. The allure is unmistakable: suspended from the trees by ropes and wires, participants traverse great distances at great heights, facing fears and coming out with the knowledge that they did something they didn’t know they could. Elements like the zip line and the vine walk are high intensity and high reward, and most campers sign up for Challenge class with these in mind. But this is an ode to the less appreciated low ropes elements, where summer camp skills are made and perfected.

Like most people, I decided to become certified in Challenge course instruction because I wanted to climb around in trees, and facilitate kids’ learning about themselves while climbing around in trees. But as I learned more about Challenge course, I began to realize that the high ropes elements are merely the reward for working so hard on the low ropes course. In high ropes, campers work individually, but low ropes engages cooperative problem solving. One of my favorite elements is the Spider Web. The element is a complicated system of ropes creating various sized holes, and the objective is for the group to pass every member of the team through a hole, using each one only once, without touching the ropes at all.

When first presented with the challenge, most groups jump into activity right away, insisting that they can pass the larger members through lower, bigger holes and then, they say, “just toss the smaller people through the smaller, higher holes.” At this point I stop the action and ask a few safety questions. Campers then realize how unsafe their original plan was, and they begin to really think about things. It’s a kind of math, really: who can we send through who can support us from the other side? How do we make sure we leave enough big holes for the end? How will the last person get over without any help at all? As an instructor, this part is my favorite. The more I can step back and let the group discover their own collective strategy, the better it is.

When the group begins, one person at a time crawls or wheelbarrows or is lifted through the ropes. The team is focused and quiet and committed to the task at hand. As an instructor, my job is to be where the action is, making sure every move is safe, encouraging a rethink when necessary. Afterwards, when the whole group is through, I let them revel in the satisfaction of completing the difficult task, and then I help them decompress. Did you feel like the group listened to you? How do you think your group communicated during the challenge? What did you think was the highlight for your group as a whole?

Challenge course is incredibly fun, and for the most part, campers don’t even know that they’re learning valuable life skills like communication, sharing responsibility, trust, and creative problem solving. Yeah, the zip line is a fabulous reward, but the challenges themselves are a gift as well.

Other Tall Timbers Happenings

–       Jami Siegal made it to the top of the rock wall for the first time

–       Ethan Harrison was the only brave soul at Dippies this morning

–       In Flag Football, the Red Bulls and Orange Crush will face off in the last game before the playoffs

–       Ziggy and Ignacio will battle for the title of Ping Pong Champion

I’ve been noticing something these past few days. I don’t know if it’s because something has shifted recently, or if it’s just that I’ve only now become aware of it, but there’s no doubt about it: Camp Tall Timbers campers are getting used to being without technology.

Back at the beginning of the session, I was legitimately concerned that a few of my campers would actually combust without their phones for three weeks. There was much drama over not being able to listen to music while falling asleep, and fear of missing out on snap stories, and I thought to myself, if these kids can’t go a few days without snapchat, how will they connect with one another the way you’re supposed to at summer camp? My fears were entirely unfounded, and did nothing but make me feel like a geezer. In fact, all of us here have adjusted to life without technology, and I think it’s doing things for us that we didn’t expect.

With the exception of writing this blog post, I’ve been almost entirely without technology for about three weeks now, and it’s surprisingly easy. I have no idea what’s going on in current events, or in my favorite TV shows, or on Facebook. I feel more grounded, like my real life is more real because it’s not tempered by a virtual existence. And I see a difference in the campers, too. Everyone loves the half hour or hour at night before it’s time to be in cabins getting ready for bed: they stand around and chat, or play ping pong or cards or tether ball. They’re just being with one another, and talking to people they might never get to know otherwise.

It’s the perfect antidote to a school year that’s a different kind of hectic. Most kids spend the rest of the year rushing about, working so hard, so stressed about tests and extracurriculars and everything else that there’s so little time to just be. Here, time moves differently. Life at Camp Tall Timbers is so jam-packed full of activities that each day speeds by in a blur of memories, and at no point ever do I find myself wishing I was watching Game of Thrones instead. Even though we’re busy here, there is time to just be with one another, to have long conversations about things that don’t matter and things that matter more than we could possibly admit. Here, we can spend five minutes watching a caterpillar inch up a maple tree. We have time to deeply discuss the differences between the birdsongs we hear in the morning and at night. We have time to soak each other with water guns and plot out a hilarious revenge. There will be no pictures of us soaking wet and grinning; no Facebook status will ever share that we spent half an hour last night searching out all the constellations we knew and inventing the ones we didn’t. These memories belong solely to us. And that, I think, is the whole point of summer.

One of the awesome things about Camp Tall Timbers is that there’s something for everybody. Whether you’re a soccer star, a wannabe famous guitarist, a budding artist, a mountainboarding aficionado or all of the above, you can do what makes you happy here. But some activities are across-the-board favorites, and at the top of that list is tubing.

Tubing happens down at the lake, which is a downhill hike reminding all those who pass there that they will have to trek back up in a matter of hours. But it’s worth it, because when you get down to the bottom, when you’ve strapped into your life jacket, you get this little burst of joy at witnessing what you’re about to do. You, brave tuber, will hold on for deal life to a big floating tube, tied to a twenty-foot rope, tied to a sleek and very cool jetski. You know, even before you try it, that you might at some point end up flying face-first into the lake, and that’s okay with you, because of one delicious word: Adventure.

Now, being a tubing instructor is a little different from being a tubing participant. While another counselor drives the jet ski, I sit backwards on it, releasing the rope, pulling it in strategically and trying not to laugh at the terrified, delighted faces of the campers we tow. For younger campers, Arnaud, the driver, goes in polite circles, eliciting laughter and glee from the little ones. Older campers, or more experienced tubers, get figure eights that send them bouncing across their own wake, white-knuckled and undoubtedly having more fun because of it. (I get medium-terrified by these figure eights as well. Just the other day I lost my balance on a bump and flew off, making the entire class laugh uproariously at my expense. What can I say? Anything for the campers.)

But seriously, tubing is the best. I have these two kids, Reese and Grace, who are about nine years old and are best friends from home. They’re tubing professionals. Whereas most other campers their age ask for slow circles, Reese and Grace go all out, all the time. Their smiling faces are epic, and so are their tumbles. And then there’s Shayna, who has established a complicated system she uses to communicate with me: faster! No, slower! Okay, faster again. Many of the older boys vastly overestimate their own abilities and go flying five or six times each trip.

When the class is over, Arnaud and I have the onorous task of making everyone actually leave the lake. “Just one more time!” they all beg, and no one likes to the the person who drags campers away from one of their favorite activities. But we always trek back up the hill, and we always say, Don’t worry, you’ll have plenty of time to tube another day.

Other Tall Timbers Happenings

–       Yoga is going on at the gym during free swims

–       Donovan Nordstrom, Tristan Coates-Park, Ben Perkins, Thomas Boals and Caden Hershberg all hit cans in riflery

–       Musical movie skit rehearsals are starting, led by CIT2s

–       Adam Dunham learned math at breakfast

–       Sydney Sachs and Adriana Machuca were on point in drama rehearsal

–       Backdrop painting for the play is coming together with much teamwork from all

–       Max Penn and Spencer Leibow’s group won Clue Night

Well folks, we are now solidly in the middle of Session 1, and you can feel the shift. Campers know where they’re supposed to be, friend groups are pretty much established and the settled routine allows for everyone to push themselves a little harder to make camp even greater. All this means that last night’s evening activity, Atlantic City Night, was quite possibly the greatest thing to ever happen on the East Coast in the past decade.

Evening Activities are planned and executed by counselors, but not all of us are involved in all activities. So although I know how much effort goes into every night’s event, I wasn’t sure what to expect out of Atlantic City Night. It went a little something like this: In the gym, there were different stations for Blackjack, Texas Hold’em and Roulette. There was also a fortune teller, arm wrestling and other activities. Each camper received 1,000 (fake) dollars to spend as they wanted, either on games or lemonade or tarot readings. If you got up to $3,000, you were a part of the elite High Roller’s Club, which met in the Art Shack. The primary incentive to enter the High Roller’s Club was the better drinks: in the Art Shack, rumor told, they drank ginger ale.

I was stationed at the roulette table, and boy did I have a great view. I got to learn a lot about our campers. Most of the younger campers bet in $10 or $20 increments, and flitted back and forth between activity tables. A few of the younger boys seemed tethered to the roulette table: no sooner had they lost $150 in a single game but they were back, certain that this round they would win it all back. Across the room, at the Texas Hold’em station, kids would hang back, learning the rules before sidling cautiously up to the table, certain that this was their game.

And then there was the “wedding chapel” in the rec hall. For some, this little ceremony was a chance to hold hands with their camp crush. For others (cough, Jen Heiman, cough) it was an opportunity to marry five people in as many minutes and accumulate as many plastic smiley-face rings as humanly possible.

When the evening activity was over, campers flooded out of the gym, comparing how much money they’d ended up with. Everyone was all smiles and laughter. That’s the mark of a good evening activity. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to go plan tomorrow night’s campfire.

Other Tall Timbers Happenings

–       The Wet Your Feet Week campers did a great job in golf

–       Sydney Sachs learned her first two chords in guitar

–       The Red Bulls and the Purple Nurples face off in flag football during first free swim today

Every morning at Camp Tall Timbers, as the sun creeps through the trees and the birds chirp cheerily, the wake-up bell begins our day. This eight o’clock bell is followed by another bell at 8:20, marking breakfast time. Personally, I use those twenty minutes to look out the window and contemplate the world before getting up to corral my campers into wakefulness. 8:00 to 8:20 is a quiet time in my cabin: we mostly do our own thing, dressing and washing and passing one another with bleary smiles, but while we putter about, other Tall Timbers staff and campers have bounced out of bed and are heading towards the pool for Dippies.

Ah, Dippies: the quasi-secret society of early risers who choose to go for a frigid swim before breakfast. It is difficult to explain my perception of Dippies: while words cannot describe the extent to which I do not want to jump in the pool that early, I also suspect that the regular attendees of Dippies sessions experience some sort of cultish glee in their activity. When, at morning announcements, the Dippies lifeguard announces the brave souls who were there, I watch these campers exchange proud glances. In these moments, I wonder if it would be worth exchanging my few moments of contemplation for that little burst of Dippies pride. And if I managed to drag myself to Dippies, would my campers follow suit? Would we become, through the power of leadership, a community of proud Dippies instead of sheepish Sleepies?

This is, of course a question about more than just an early-morning swim. I’m talking about leadership, and making the choice to do something different. Even as our Dippies risk the cold for that surge of adrenaline each morning, a new batch of young, nervous Wet Your Feet Weekers have begun their week at camp. These are campers who aren’t quite ready to leap into a full session, but who want to experience Tall Timbers nonetheless. I’ve had Wet Your Feet Weekers in my tubing classes: they jump gamely onto the tube and hold on as we zoom away on the jet ski. They are forging a brand new path for themselves. They’re choosing the scarier, more rewarding path. And that’s what makes them, and the Dippies, true Camp Tall Timbers greats.

Other Tall Timbers Happenings

–       This week’s Cleanest Cabin Award (and the reward trip to Pack’s for ice cream) went to Cabins H and 5

–       Tie dye is beginning in the Art Shack

–       Grace Brown got a rally of 51 in tennis

–       Danielle Tundo and Adam Dunham hit the bullseye in riflery

–       Ignatio Marco flipped the tube over in tubing, but held on anyway

–       Ella Perkins skated around the roller rink in 18 seconds flat

–       Lori Belt got almost all the way around the challenge course route

My mom always told me that the kitchen is the heart of the home, and that seems to hold true for Camp Tall Timbers too. The dining hall is where we sit down with our cabin, fill our bellies and talk about our experiences of the last few hours. It’s where we connect, where we laugh and, in some cases, compete with great fervor for who has the biggest potato chip (it gets pretty serious, you guys. People get intense about potato chip sizes up in here.)

Another fantastic thing about the CTT dining hall is that it comes with its own reading material. By which I mean, since time immemorial, campers get together with their tents or cabins and the end of each session to create plaques that symbolize their experience at camp. One from 1976 reads “The Multicolored Chlorinated Dippies of Tents 1-7”. Another more recent one says, in simple block lettering with no decoration, “We Aren’t Creative Enough For This Plaque.” Plaques commemorate inside jokes and celebrate the biggest victories of the session. (My own campers have already come up with several ideas for our plaque. One hilarious night in our cabin, my co-counselor Kayla blurted out “A is for Excellent,” which saying immediately became the funniest thing ever and a must for our plaque. Another option is “YGG, You Go Girl”, signature phrase of beloved counselor Tonilee. I anticipate a lively and good-natured argument about which option will be the basis for our plaque when time rolls around to make it.)

Okay, one more great CTT dining hall tradition. This one is the Freeze Game. You see, even camp is not without its little responsibilities: after every meal, somebody has to clean up the table. And because this chore is so onorous, there is a special game we play to even out the work. When somebody calls out “FREEZE!” everybody has to pause in whatever they’re doing, whether it’s pouring lemonade or taking a big sticky bite of a PBJ. The caller must then get somebody to trip up, to move, and the first person to do so must wipe off the table after announcements. Creative “Freeze” callers pile things on campers’ heads to see what falls off, or call out the word when someone is away from the table getting a refill. But invariably, the loser of the Freeze game isn’t too put out, because that person gets to be the caller for the next meal’s game. All’s fair in camp and clean up, right?

Other Tall Timbers Happenings

–       Wet Your Feet Weekers Leah Lawson and Donovan Nordstrom did a great job in tubing

–       Rocketry launched their first rockets and it was awesome

–       Cooper Horn went mountainboarding for the first time

–       The Red Bulls lost to the Yellow Polka-dotted Hippopotami in flag football

–       Ping pong tournament players now have 48 hours to complete their next match-up

–       CIT 2s did a great job with the music at last night’s campfire

Yesterday was a Saturday, which means the usual class schedule went out the window in favor of a whirlwind day of challenges, cheers and fun. These much-anticipated all-day Saturday events always have a theme, and yesterday’s was College Day. Games included Freshman 15 (a no-hands pudding eating contest), Going to Class (which was actually Name That Tune) and water polo, which was only marginally related to college but was still a highlight of the day. Saturdays take a lot of planning, and it couldn’t be done without our CITs.

CITs (Counselors in Training) are the actual greatest. Our oldest campers, they spend the majority of their day doing normal activities, playing sports, making memories and doing the whole camp thing. But they also have some responsibility for the functioning of camp. They spend one period each day assisting counselors in teaching various activities, and they help get the littlest campers ready for bed at night. In this way they learn what being a camp counselor is all about, even as they get to enjoy the best of what Tall Timbers has to offer. CITs are usually having a ton of fun anyway, but part of being a CIT is modeling for the younger campers: good sportsmanship, positivity, good humor and high energy.

I’ll be the first to admit it: I love our CITs. They’re Tall Timbers pros: they know all the songs and all the traditions, they love helping out, and best of all, they’re not afraid to make fools of themselves. Okay, that sounds a little weird, but being super open about your weirdness is kind of a camp requirement. CITs get that, and they’re awesome. Whether it’s going above and beyond with their skits, spending their free time coming up with original poetry to share at Saturday Service or coming up with lots of ideas for ridiculous ways to make Theme Days even more fun, CITs take campering to a whole new level. So today I’m making a shout-out to our wonderful, wacky, creative, energetic CITs.

Other Tall Timbers Happenings 

– Jami Siegal learned to dive at the pool

– Devon Cantor made a halfcourt shot in basketball

– Reece Dennison rode bareback for the first time

– Michelle Pollowitz won three games of knockout in archery

– Corinne Polk-Trauman kicked a great last-minute field goal to win at flag football

– Danielle Tundo learned three chords on the guitar

– Hikers caught three crawfish and a salamander (and let them go)

CTT Alum and now best-selling YA novelist Cristin Terrill has been our writer-in-residence this week, and ends her time with us with a contribution to our blog!

After being a camper and counselor at Tall Timbers for ten years and then being away for ten more, I’m back at camp. Most of the faces are different, the familiar faces have few more gray hairs, and everything’s gotten a new coat of paint (or five) since the last time I was here, but in the essentials Tall Timbers is exactly the same: a fun and supportive environment for kids to grow within themselves and form lifelong bonds with others.

Tall Timbers is in my blood, which means it’s also crept into my work. In my first novel for young adults, the teenage protagonist is loosely based on one of the girls I counseled here, and when she and another character are forced to go on the run, they find shelter in a cabin in the Blue Ridge Mountains of West Virginia. This was my tribute to Tall Timbers because it was my refuge as a teen. But my copyeditor insisted I change this. John Denver, she said, had lied to me. There were no Blue Ridge Mountains in West Virginia, she claimed. It was one of the few things I put my foot down about, and the reference remains, right there on page 248.

Getting to come back here (as a grown-up with a private cabin who can go to bed whenever she wants, no less) has been a wonderful and meaningful experience for me. I didn’t discover my love of writing until I was well into my twenties, so I’ve had a ton of fun working with kids who are already way ahead of me. At each free-swim this week, I’ve taught a writing workshop focusing on a different genre — from short stories to poetry to playwriting — and I’m continually surprised by the imagination and skill of the dedicated band of writers who have given up their pool time to come create with me. Creativity is a muscle you have to continually work if you don’t want it to atrophy, as it does for most of us as we grow up and are overwhelmed with more pressing concerns, but my hope is that teaching and encouraging kids to flex their creativity when they’re still young will keep their minds as effortlessly open and vibrant and uninhibited as they are now.

As one of my campers wrote during our poetry workshop:

My roots

Vary and spread

One day I will be able to

Reach the highest stars and clouds.

 

I’m getting these kids’ autographs now, ‘cause I know they’re going to be worth something someday soon.

It’s a big day here at Camp Tall Timbers. After lunch, the older campers will head off to go white-water rafting, and the younger ones will go to Cacapon State Park for a day of swimming, games and sun. And this morning, too, is no ordinary day. It’s an A Day on our three-day activity schedule, meaning that boys and girls separate into groups for Girl Power Hour and Boys Leagues. These are a great time for campers to bond with kids of other age groups who they might not have any classes with.

Here’s what I’m gathering about Power Hour and Boys Leagues: it’s a lot like being a Purple Nurple. Wait, that probably makes no sense if you’re not a Tall Timbers camper. The Purple Nurples are one of our flag football teams, and what I mean is, whether you play flag football during free swim or get super into Color War, what you’re actually doing is figuring out what you stand for, why you push so hard, and what it means to be a part of something.

Last night, my camper Anna Hutzler hurried into dinner a few minutes late after her flag football game, red-faced and sweating. She sat down beside me and wiped her face. “Did you win?” I asked.

“No!” she said with a massive grin. She went on to explain that they had been up the whole game, and had lost to the Yellow Polka-Dotted Hippopotami 21-20 in the final moments, and her coach was great, and the other team’s coach was hilarious. The play-by-play continued for quite some time, and Anna’s smile never faded. You see, as insanely fun flag football is, it’s also accompanied by the simple and wonderful sensation of being a Purple Nurple. Or a member of the Blue Team during Color War. Or a Tent Boy. I don’t know. Maybe the flag football league is just a fun way to spend during free swim. Or maybe it’s something more.

Other Camp Tall Timbers Happenings

– Jen Heiman nearly beat the instructor in tennis, and Sydney LaPorte won her first game of Jail

– Sydney Sachs and Hayley Sanders made it to the top of the rock wall

– Grace Brown and Reese Rosenbloom vied for first place in the morning treading water contest, and Alex Brown won the afternoon one

– Orange Crush beat the Red Bulls in flag football

– Ella Perkins hit the can off the stump in archery

– Adriana Machuca and Lori Belt made it to the top of the wall for the first time

– Ethan Weinstein has already memorized his lines for the play

Summer camp has a funny way of pushing all of us outside our comfort zone in the kindest, safest way. Yesterday I got a chance to see in person just how supportive campers can be when their peers, and even their counselors, try something new.

When I got my schedule, I was concerned to see that I had been given a period of softball. I had never played softball in my life, and had only the faintest memories of hitting a baseball or two in middle school gym class. I was certainly not qualified to teach others. “Relax,” said my co-counselor. “I’m sure you’ll do just fine.” In that moment, I was reminded how our campers go out on a limb every day, try something new and discover to their surprise that they’re capable of so much more than they could have dreamed. If they could do it, so could I.

At the beginning of the period, I stood back shyly as the softball instructor led the class, flexing my lefty glove and watching Ella, Emily and Michelle hurl fastballs at one another with grins on their faces. Finally I worked up the courage to join them, and they welcomed me into their warm-up. I even caught a few in my mitt! As we moved from warm-ups into scenarios and various drills, I noticed that the CIT 2 boys in the class were kindly allowing me the time to run after balls I missed. They would diss one another in good humor, but they knew what it was like to be new at something, and they let me fumble in peace.

By the end of the period, I was sweaty and dirty, and even though I wasn’t nearly as good as the campers, I felt like I was a part of the class, and the team, and the sport. That night I lay in my bunk, listening to the quiet sounds of my campers shifting around preparing for sleep, and I knew that so many of them were thinking back on new things they’d done that day.  No wonder everybody sleeps so well at camp: when you play hard, you gotta sleep hard too.

Other Camp Tall Timbers Happenings

–       Ethan tried gymnastics for the first time, and did a great job

–       Adriana went tubing and fell in the lake

–       Shayna was the first person this year to climb the harder belay side of the rock wall

–       Emily won the treading-water contest

–       In tennis, Isaiah won the title of King of the Court

–       Flag football will begin today

–       In a Camp Tall Timbers first, we will soon be hosting all-day clinics for campers to focus on one skill intensively. There will be soccer, martial arts, horses and swimming, and CTT alum and published YA author Cristin Terrill will lead a writing workshop!

It’s a beautiful day up at Camp Tall Timbers. It’s our second full day of camp, which means our campers are finally settling in to the routine. Excitement was high at breakfast as campers compared schedules: one has improv and then riflery. Another has soccer and then challenge course. Whether they’re improving their skills in a sport, dousing themselves in glitter in the Art Shack or rehearsing for the much-anticipated camp play (Zombeo and Juliet: I’ve read the script, and let me tell you, it’s going to be too fantastic for words), everyone is diving into camp fun.

My name is Sydney, and I’m going to be your fearless blogger, reporting from the front lines of the ridiculous magic that is a summer at camp. I’m a brand new counselor here, which means that everything is new for me too. I get to tell you about the traditions, the songs, the activities and the people, with fresh eyes. Today I’ll be telling you about a certain Camp Tall Timbers tradition known as the Camp Hug. It’s the best kind of tradition: a little cheesy, and a lot over-done, but perfect for those exact reasons. It’s performed at the opening campfire, which we just had last night.

There are three main characters in our drama: the narrator, and the two inexperienced huggers who must be coaxed into performing a loving, comical hug. The first few times, the huggers bump into one another ungracefully, and perform their confusion quite well. The narrator offers instructions. “Try tilting your heads to the side. Don’t just keep your arms at your sides, wrap them around each other.” Following these instructions, the two huggers grasp one another and don’t let go. “No no no,” says the narrator. “Try this. This time, give each other two pats on the back and then let go.” In front of all the assembled campers and counselors, the two huggers give this a go, and perform a successful hug. They even ask permission first.

“Now you try,” calls the narrator, and the whole camp gets up, asks permission to hug, and hugs their neighbors with huge grins on their faces. I don’t know how it works, but this one simple skit turns Camp Tall Timbers campers into a family.

Maybe that has something to do with how excited everybody was at breakfast this morning. Were they remembering the hug from the night before? Even though they had classes with kids they might not have met yet, I think the campers knew that everyone they would be meeting today would be part of the same extended hug, and therefore, part of their new summer family.

Our world today could be described as fast-paced, troubled in part, technologically advanced, socially-challenged and competitive to name a few, so it may be difficult to find relevance in a traditional, outdoor, no technology allowed, happy-clappy summer camp for our growing children. How is it that these seemingly opposed environments are so much more relevant and valuable in a child’s life today, than ever before?

These generations will inevitably inherit the economic, social and environmental challenges that past and current generations have created. Therefore, the skills these children will need to master will be the art of critical thinking and problem solving as they tackle the challenges they face into adulthood. Developing these skills within the constraints of their everyday lives becomes increasingly hard as they work on dictated curriculums at school and have less opportunity for creative expression and spontaneity.

The true camp experience engages children in activities in which they are the planners, the implementers and the evaluators. The decisions they make as individuals and as part of a larger community have a direct impact upon themselves and others. These children are required to seek answers, try new things and experience new emotions. Children learn that it is ok to feel uncomfortable sometimes, working through excitement and anxiety, the result is an ‘I CAN’ attitude. These are the people we need our children to be to progress and have a positive impact in the wider world.

At camp, children are exposed to the best in human characteristics. Counselors are carefully selected to be the best role models for our children at a critical time in their growth and development. Children are highly influenced by these remarkable role models whose impact upon a child’s thinking, behaviour and attitude can be amazingly touching. The children see firsthand what it is to inspire, motivate, connect and relate. This is powerful and positive exposure outside the realms of school and parent, often viewed by the child as critical. The impact is long lasting success and achievement.

If we refer back to where we started, how is the camp experience at all relevant in the fast-paced lives of our future generations? The camp experience allows the freedom to be creative and explore that begins to shape and mold these critical thinking skills that will prepare the next generation to rise to the challenges that lie ahead and be heard!

Children need camp now more than ever!

“They say the happiest place on earth is Disneyland. They’re wrong. It’s camp.” – Taken from Summer Camp Confessions.

All of us busy families feel that enormous competition for our children’s time throughout the school year and summer vacation as we juggle day trips, beach trips, play dates, swim meets, sports practice, work, household management; the list is endless and the schedule is manic! It would be a good idea to hop off that runaway train occasionally and re-evaluate some of those habitual decisions we make for our children’s time. The summer school vacation is one of the most treasured and precious moments in our children’s lives that they never get back. With this knowledge it would be good to consider the value of the camp experience.

“Driving in to the camp road on the first day feels like you’re dreaming.” – Taken from Camp Life Confessions.

There is something truly magical about summer camps. Whilst at camp children are away from the social structures of home and school, enabling them to be who they really are. At camp children see a world of possibilities not open to them in everyday life. By investing in the summer camp experience we are investing in the growth of a young person and there can be no better opportunity.

So let’s cut to the chase: what can the summer camp experience give your child that they are not already getting in their busy lives? The camp environment is unique in that it creates a space where children learn to live together, they must respect and look after one another. During these developmental years where growth and change is profound, the children can make choices.

Children learn to take self control and make decisions within a controlled and safe environment. Whilst the decision may only be what to eat, what to wear, whether to play soccer or swim, these are the important first steps towards independence and active learning. Your child will feel empowered and responsible. Our children spend so much of their time being told what to do, how to behave, or where to be, and little if no time is allowed for them to just be themselves. We cannot always allow our children the freedom to flourish, even if we know we should. It is our job to help our children to thrive without us, and camp helps these skills to develop in the best possible environment.

There are endless opportunities for children to learn powerful lessons within a community. They interact face to face in meaningful situations around the camp fire, whilst sharing in collaboration on an activity, all powerful and profound opportunities.

“Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn.” – Benjamin Franklin

Children have fun like never before and become masters of their own decisions. We must not disregard these experiences as frivolous. Play is a work, a context in which they can be creative and explore. A child who has truly experienced fun in their youth makes for a healthy adult and all the better for making the decisions without Mom and Dad.

“Play is often talked about as if it were a relief from serious learning. But for children play is serious learning. Play is really the work of childhood.” – Fred Rogers

So stop and think again about your hectic schedule for the summer vacation, have you allowed time for your child to just take time out from prescriptive activities and continuous schedules inflicted upon them by external factors. Make that change and let your child to explore the wonderful world of camp and all it has to offer them. Give them the chance to embrace opportunities that cannot be replicated elsewhere. Let’s give our children fond memories lasting a lifetime and develop skills that will enable them to tackle the wider world into the future.

When you are in school or at a job, two weeks can go on for what feels like years, but when you get to camp, two weeks goes by in what feels like a millisecond. The days feel long and filled with activities but before you know it, it’s all over just like that. In a short period of time, we’re back at school and all we can really do is look back.

So when I sit in my classes occasionally taking notes and staring at the clock, I will look back and remember Oliver Walke telling me every free swim that he was going to go play Frisbee golf and every lunch hearing about how he got an unbelievably good score that I am jealous of. I will remember at Granny’s Candy, how Aidan Trinity ran around every building at camp to get his balloon to base. There’s no forgetting, no matter how much I try, Meier Parr doing the truffle shuffle in Dance Thru the Decades. I won’t forget how Claire Schmitt, Tasha Pressler, and Sasha Coates-Park picked up a guitar and played it like Hendrix after just a couple of lessons, just like how I won’t forget learning to say otter in Spanish (nutria) thanks to Pablo Heredia, Kelt Van Meurs, Juan Diego Granai, and Juan Miguel Fernandez. Nobody can forget Greg Sheyn’s pigeon impression nor can they forget Will Tannebaum’s incredible ability to play baseball. Whether it is Reid Madison being spectacular at literally everything he does or Simon Rosenthal twerking, there’s no forgetting Third Session 2013.

And that’s what makes your time at CTT so special. While climbing the wall or scoring a goal is always enjoyable, and winning a skit night is a prize no award can ever replicate, it’s the memories you make here, the friends you have and hold on to, and the stories you can tell for years to come that give that lasting impression that makes camp home. Whether it is your first year in cabin 3 when your biggest accomplishment is getting an announcement or when you are a counselor and your biggest accomplishment is remembering to make an announcement, it is the people you encounter and grow with and the memories that you keep and tell stories about for years to come that make this little camp in High View, West Virginia just so great. After ten immensely incredible years here, I can safely say that there is no better place to spend a majority of your life than Camp Tall Timbers.

So with this final blog entry of Third Session 2013 I say farewell. For the past three years, I have been able to basically write about my life and time here at CTT, which has been made exponentially better with everything your kids have done. I love the comments daily about what you are thinking, and hearing from your children that you like the blog, it means a lot. Once again, thanks, goodbye, and be prepared for some stories and smiles and a countdown with less than 364 days to CTT 2014. We’re all waiting with anticipation. Wohelo.

When you give CTT a mission, they follow through: just ask Granny.

Last night, Granny gave everyone the task of saving her candy from the evil Willy Wonka and his Oompa Loompas. Completing daunting tasks such as grabbing a balloon with your teeth from the bottom of the pool, competing in intense charades, climbing the rock wall, using a golf club as a pool cue and sinking the golf ball in the hole, or shooting the bad candy at archery, all the campers worked to bring Granny’s Candies back to the base. On their way though, they had to outrun and outsmart some pretty talented (if I do say so myself) Oompa Loompas who wanted to eat all the candy. Despite the Oompa Loompas’ valiant attempts, CTT successfully saved Granny’s Candies and stopped the vicious Oompa Loompas from taking over the candy world.

In other camp news, at riflery, Oliver Walke, Adam Lampal, Ewan Hemmis, Jerome Williams, Pablo Heredia, Juan Diego Granai, Juan Miguel Fernandez, and Kelt Van Meurs shot cans. Reid Madison won the driving contest at golf and Will Tannebaum won the home run derby.

Today begins our big finale to camp. With the ping-pong tournament and futsal tournament ending today and Boys Leagues having their playoffs, we are hitting our last strides. The challenge course classes are ziplining and arts and crafts are tye-dying their hearts out. Tonight, our younger campers have their closing campfire complete with songs, s’mores, and stories and our older campers go bowling. Let’s hope I get a strike!

Who knew we had so much talent here at CTT? Between animal noises, singing, guitar playing, and dancing, last night’s talent show was truly a treat.

Kicked off by a duet by Gherry and Camille, we knew the talent show would really entertain us all. Will Tannebaum demonstrated his yo-yo prowess, even doing a trick between his legs. Reid Madison and Jared Lampal rapped and sang Kanye West’s “Heartless.” Doing a song for Gherry and Camille, Crawford Hemmis played “Here Comes the Bride” on guitar before performing an encore of the Mario theme song. Autumn Mallon did a spot-on goose noise and Greg Sheyn did a spectacular pigeon impression. Justin Dryer sang both parts to “A Whole New World” and, with Shelby Buyalos, Oliver Schwartz, Meier Parr, did a great improv skit. Girls Tents, led by Flore Grange, sang “Frere Jacques”. Julia Cozard sang all the states in alphabetical order and Hailey Mostow sang part of “Just the Way You Are.” Livia Lampal and Jordyn Woodling danced to “Oops I Did it Again”. The winners of the evening were Aaron Rosenthal, Aidan Trinity, Oliver Walke, Scott Sakura, Simon Rosenthal, and Noah Gross who did a hilarious dance routine resulting in them winning the coveted free trip to Pack’s.

Camp really has some sharp shooters this year. Yesterday, Michael Godek, Corbin Mauck, Noah Gross, Simon Rosenthal, Scott Sakura, Kyle Foster, and Max Shugerman shot cans in riflery. In archery, Jenna Ross, Harry Kaplan, and Cole Williams shot bullseyes and Cole also won a game of knockout. In Frisbee Golf, Aaron Rosenthal got a -1 and Oliver Walke tied the CTT record with a -4. Harry Kaplan won the home run derby. Pol Casamada won the biking time trial and Dylan Schloer ziplined for the first time. Kelt Van Meurs, Juan Diego Granai, and Juan Miguel Fernandez climbed the wall and Cole Williams and Reid Madison won the golf-driving contest.

Tonight is Granny’s Candy where the campers break up into teams and go to different candy factories around camp to defeat Willy Wonka and his evil oompa-loompas and save Granny’s Candy Factories. I can’t wait!

While we love every second of our time here at CTT, out-of-camp trips are always a special treat. Last night, we went skating at the Winchester Skating and Family Fun Center and the theme was twins. Aaron and Simon Rosenthal utilized their familial ties to be even more twinny than before by wearing the same clothes. Anja Schempf and Janalyn Thurber dressed identically, and while they are not technically twins, Reid Madison and Jared Lampal decided to take their brotherhood to the next level and become twins as well.

After a week of camp, it is great to see how many campers are doing so well. Jared Lampal won a game of jail. Ethan Fannon, Jared Lampal, Meier Parr, Tristan Oldham, Sam Greenberg, Pol Casamada, Kyle Foster, Adam Lampal, Oliver Walke, and Owen Abbey shot cans in riflery. Tasha Pressler, Jill Boylan, Autumn Mallon, and Claire Cozard climbed up the climbing wall. Ethan Fannon, Crawford Hemmis, and all of cabins 1 and 2 ziplined for the first time. Jerome Williams won guitar trivia. Kyle Foster, Scott Sakura, Adam Lampal, Harry Kaplan, and Pablo Heredia drove past the hill in golf and Jerome Williams saved a frog.

Today, Boys Leagues playoffs begin and the CTT Ping-Pong tournament continues with the entire camp competing to see who the true table tennis master is. Our older campers go go-karting today while other campers play Ultimate Frisbee during free swim. Tonight is another special night with our talent show that demonstrates some of the skills and abilities campers have that cannot be shown in normal daily activities. Let’s see who has the best talent!