Where You Belong

Today we had our first cabin choice day for Session C! This is the day when instead of being scheduled for activities, cabins get to choose which activities they want to do for the day. This may sound easy enough to the non-camp person, but this is actually a very strategic process for cabins and for our leadership. Cabins choosing where they go is a great lesson in cooperation and compromise for all of the campers involved. Sometimes the cabin can’t agree on what they ALL want to do, so the counselors teach them about compromise and selflessness. These are hard lessons for some, but valuable teaching opportunities for all.

While we offer all of our traditional camp activities, there are different activities offered on cabin choice like Parkour, Zumba, Tae-Kwon-Do, Fishing, Card Games, Pool Volleyball, Crazy Creek painting, disc golf, making pizza in the outdoor pizza oven, fire building and more. While it’s awesome to have new activities and new challenges available for our cabins, it’s the memories made and laughter shared that make these days so memorable.

I had the joy of teaching two periods of Zumba today (to 10 cabins) and had the most amazing time with your kids! After each period, every cabin came up to thank me for the class and sang their “cabin thank-you song.” I love this camp tradition! I love that our counselors are practicing appreciation and gratitude with our campers each day. I love that as a cabin group, these campers are singing, dancing, chanting and walking away laughing together. A cabin song seems insignificant, but that song is a big part of making campers feel like they belong! And they do…Highlander is exactly where they belong!

Favorite Details of the Day

• Reflect: Victoria talked about finding her purpose at reflect. If you look for it, camp gives you so many gifts and lessons that can stick with you for a lifetime. Maybe it gave you friends that you can’t imagine living without, a new home you can always come back to, or maybe camp gave you a purpose and a path in your life. When you leave Highlander, you won’t just leave with new camp shirts or a super cool crazy creek. You will be leaving with the gift of friends, family, and a lifetime of memories. So what will you do with your gifts?
• Meals: This morning we had waffles, sausage links, scrambled eggs, and fresh fruit for breakfast. Baked ziti was served for lunch with a side of broccoli and carrots, breadsticks, and green salads. Our day ended with chicken fajitas with grilled veggies, black beans, rice, sour cream, guacamole, salsa, and chips and queso. Hot and fresh churros were served for dessert, yum!
• Weather: Camp woke up to a beautiful morning on the mountain. The sun was shining and brought warmth to our morning of activities. The clouds crept in during rest hour and then the rain fell for 4th and 5th period, but that didn’t stop the fun at camp! The sun came back out in perfect time for tonight’s evening program.
• EP: Tonight’s evening program was Clue! Somebody stole the disco ball from the dining hall, and without the disco ball, there’s no dessert! Bryan almost refused dessert tonight, but Graham convinced him to let the cabins solve the mystery and return the disco ball! Cabins put their heads together to solve mysteries across the mountain and catch the criminal. Campers were given secret tasks to accomplish at different locations throughout camp in exchange for a clue that could help them reveal the identity of the disco ball thief. Cabin 27 worked together and discovered that Sam Church was the one who committed the crime. This was so much fun!