There wasn’t a muggle in sight last night at CTT. This was due to the fact, for one night at least, we were transformed into magical, spell casting, quidditch-playing beings who participated in wizarding activities during Harry Potter Night.
All of the campers and counselors were sorted out into the four houses of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. They were then sent off to different games and competitions that would determine the house winner for the night. There was quidditch in the gym, wizard dueling in the rec hall, Harry Potter trivia at the pavilion and finally, to end the day there was a relay race (which didn’t actually have much of a wizarding theme at all, but seemed like it would be fun).
The most physical of the contests was quidditch. There were hoops attached to various high places around the gym and the goal was to throw various yellow balls through the hoop. A counselor guarded each hoop and the trick was to time your throw so the counselor couldn’t smack it down. Ethan Ebinger seemed to master this, because I know he scored around a dozen times in my hoop.
The knowledge these kids have of the world of Harry Potter is staggering. With almost no counselor help, the campers from each house were able to answer each of Aram’s questions. Aram, who is a hardcore Potter fan himself, had to give it up to the kids- they knew their stuff. They named each of the unforgivable curses, all of the Weasley brothers, the name of Hermione’s cat, knew the make of the flying car and tons of other minor details in the stories. I could only imagine if they were able to focus this same energy on clean-up time…
In the end, the house of Ravenclaw was named the winner. Even though they were battling the rain, all the houses brought a competitive spirit and showed excellent sportsmanship. It was a big night, but two campers deserve special mention for their devotion to the Potter world. Hayley Sanders and Collin dressed in their wizarding attire. Hayley was a convincing Hermione Granger while Collin, despite having Weasley-esque locks of red hair, donned a fake beard and came as Albus Dumbledore.
This morning, the Froot-Loop face-stuffing competition continued when Reece Dennison set the girl’s record at 40 pieces of cereal. I don’t have the official books in front of me, but I do believe that’s a new high for campers.
The forecast for tonight is pain. Well, for some of us. It is skating night. Those of you who read every day know that I almost sustained some serious injuries in our last go-round at the rink, so I’ll be wearing plenty of padding. It never ceases to amaze me how skilled the campers are. They just show up, put on some skates and zoom around effortlessly the entire night. Others, aka the counselors, usually show up and promptly crash. Several times. Hard.
So, those are the plans for today; pain for counselors, fun for campers and most importantly- cheap food and drink at the roller rink. I’ll be back tomorrow to let you know how it went, even if I’m blogging while buried in ice.