Keep on Keeping on with Cline

Good morning parents, guardians, campers, siblings, and other such readers! It’s Cline, one of your illustrious and beloved counselors, here to relay to you all the goings-on with your wonderful little angel children in the last week. It’s another beautiful morning in the Green River Valley; the sun is (not) shining, the flowers are blooming, the bees are buzzing, the fish are jumping, and your children are off conquering the rugged wilderness… with adult supervision! It’s been a very exciting last week at camp, and I guarantee your little environmental stewards are having so many incredible new experiences. Without further ado, with consideration for your busy schedules and waning patience as the parents of these little balls of energy, let me run through everything you missed.

For starters, as of writing this blog post, its been two whole days since we got back from campout. I can’t speak for the other cabins, who, unfortunately, don’t hold a candle to Big Laurel 2 or Trailing Cedar 2 (my own fearless little battalion), but my kids absolutely loved it. We spent a great deal of time indulging our senses: feeling the strain and stress of our muscles working to carry heavy(ish) backpacks, the rush of cold water on our feet at the Green River after an arduous(ish) hike, and hearing the wonderful sounds of nature, namely the Whippoorwills while we were desperately trying to sleep, and the sound of kids complaining about having to carry two WHOLE BAGS of pita bread in their largely empty packs. Jokes aside, they all did a really incredible job; I witnessed friendships blossom between strangers, teamwork actually making the dream work, and above all I was stunned by their eagerness to learn and improve their trail skills. I wanted absolutely nothing to do with camp stoves as a kid, so I was shocked to find fourteen little pancake chefs lining up to try their hand at cooking every morning. This was a trend I saw repeatedly in just about every activity, even digging sump holes. I’m confident the other counselors, as well as their kids, have hundreds of similar stories, and it’s been such a pleasure to see this newfound camaraderie back at basecamp.

On the topic of jubilance and merriment, as of yesterday we had our very first grand slam celebration of the summer! The kids found all four slaminals in record time, and we’re only one turkey away from a second party. The festivities were joyful; ice cream abound, more toppings than you could ever need or want, all finished off with a sixty-kid conga line that sort of struggled to find its groove, but was nevertheless incredibly endearing in its disorder. In a similar vein, last night’s shindig proved that the kids could, in fact, get their groove on… country style! Those kids were so good at square dancing I swear I was having feverish visions of tumbleweeds and cowboys riding through the desert. They must’ve learned about ten different dances by the end of the evening, so prepare yourselves for an abundance of nucking, bucking, juking, and jiving from your kids upon their return. My kids were rootin’ and tootin’ by the end, and their terrible country accents have continued into breakfast this morning.

Finally, we have our famous day-long Group Learning Projects (GLPs) coming up! As the co-lead of drawing and painting, my kids are hard at work planning the design for our new camp bus; the Trails Bus. By this time tomorrow, a group of dauntless little painters will be making our design a reality, and I’m beyond stoked to see your kids leave such a lasting mark on the camp (at least until the bus breaks down, overheats, or hits too large of a pothole). Beyond bus painting, we have kids braving the treacherous biking trails of Dupont State Forest, visiting the goats of the esteemed Sandburg line at the Carl Sandburg house in Flat Rock (and eating their fudge), making ceramic bee houses, flutes, or fires, and a litany of other equally exciting activities! GLP day was always my absolute favorite as a kid, and I’m so excited to hear about all they get up to.

Anyways, that’s all I have for today. It’s been such an amazing session, and I’m looking forward to what the next two days have in store before we see you all again on pick-up day. Until then, keep on keeping on, and we’ll keep on keeping your kids happy, healthy, entertained, all with minimal bug bites!

Seek the Joy,

Cline McConnell