“Is Color War breaking today?” This has been a non-stop question I’ve been getting from campers since Friday. Your children have been so hyped about Color War since the day they got here, but the suspense has been building pretty heavily since Friday. My response today was, “I’m not sure. They don’t tell me everything.” To which a camper in the youngest girls cabin responded, “What do you do here anyway, other than make announcements at breakfast?” If she only knew…
Well, I will tell you what I did today. Today I pretended like everything was normal, like nothing was happening, like there was nothing to stress about or worry about and it didn’t matter one bit that the power went out for 4 hours and interrupted my plan. Nope, I’m a camp director, so I pivot, I juggle and I adjust to make sure that this day (or Color War break) is just as fantastic as every other day (or Color War break)…and it was! Oh it was!!
We had a wonderful day as cabin groups doing fun activities on and off camp. We had a brief rainstorm that knocked out our power this afternoon, but didn’t stop any of our camp activities. When the power came back on just before dinner, I raced to the gym to get into place for the Color War break. Inside the gym, CLUE, our EP, was all set up. The story that the EP staff gave the campers at dinner was that someone on camp had stolen all of the candy from Gus’, and we needed their help to collect the clues and solve the crime (this is our normal plan when we have CLUE as our EP.) In the gym, was this giant black box with big question marks all over it. This is where the perpetrator would be revealed at the end of the night.
Mac and I hid in this box for an hour and forty-five minutes waiting for EP to start. During the instructions from the EP staff about the night, Mac set off a green smoke bomb out of the top of the box. We climbed up the ladders we had hidden inside and came out of the top of the box. A torch in my hand and a smoke bomb in Mac’s, we stood looking out over the gym and the absolute craziness that erupted. To me it was the best break I’ve ever experienced because of the amazing view I had of the faces of the campers and staff - the JOY, the SHOCK and the AWE. It was incredible!
As each camper and staff member’s name was called, I was reminded why Color War is such a wonderful part of camp…belonging. Every camper was welcomed with open arms and grateful hearts onto their team tonight. Every camper has a place on a team and a part to play in the war over the next three days. Every event matters. Every point will count. Every camper will contribute to the end result. Everyone will belong!
We have a busy three and a half days ahead of us full of competition and teamwork, and I really hope that everyone gets some rest. With all the excitement and anticipation of what’s to come, I honestly hope I can sleep! Stay tuned, COLOR WAR 2022 has just begun!
Favorite Details of the Day
- Reflect at the Rock: Today Razaria Denae, our yoga instructor, talked to us about making mistakes and learning from them. She reminded us about the importance of forgiving ourselves and learning to forgive ourselves.
- Meals: Breakfast was french toast sticks, scrambled eggs, sausage links and a fruit bar. For lunch we had turkey and cheese ciabatta sandwiches, potato chips, pasta salad and a salad bar. Dinner was my favorite - greek chicken, roasted vegetables, hummus and pita bread and salad bar.
- Weather: We woke up to a beautiful sunny morning on Old Forge. The clouds started to roll in after lunch and we had a fast and furious rainshower that was about 20 minutes. About 30 minutes after the rain stopped, camp lost power. It was so strange because the storm had already cleared, but we were stuck with no power, no internet, no phones until dinner tonight. It definitely put a kink in our plans for the day, but we are camp people so we roll with the punches!
- EP: Tonight’s EP was supposed to be CLUE…
About Melissa Fitzgerald
