The Sari Diaries- Wednesday 7/13/16

Dear Chippies, Parents, Family and Friends,

I am writing to you tonight full of energy and happiness after a wonderful day here in Chippyland. I am ecstatic to share some of the fun we experienced over the past twenty-four hours. So here it goes…

With first session coming to a close quickly, we are doing our best to get as many regular activity periods in as possible. This morning we ran “A Day” first and third periods because they have met the fewest times during this two week sign-up. I was obviously thrilled because it meant I got to play tennis. When I headed out to the ropes course during third period, I got to see a number of campers happily going down the Tru Blue…such a cool accomplishment! All across camp, campers were eager to participate in their activities and staff were motivated to help them achieve their goals.

This afternoon was the final Tan & White game of the session…Egg Marathon. Egg Marathon is an all-camp relay around the entire camp that involves tons of activities ranging from ping pong blow to basketball and from archery to juice chug. Each camper either participates in an activity or runs from one activity to another. What makes this particular program unique is that each team has a drawstring backpack that contains an egg inside of a tennis ball canister. This backpack travels to every activity with the team. After every couple of activities, there is an Egg Check and if the egg has cracked, the Egg Heads have to run to the office to get a new egg. It might sound funky (Julia F’s word) but it is an amazing relay that is fun for everyone! The event ends with the Chief and Grand Sachems building a fire that has to burn through a rope to break the egg. Everyone did a fantastic job in helping their team succeed and should feel very proud. The Tan egg dropped first today which was exciting…the most impressive part though was watching the White Sachems finish building their fire with both Tans & Whites cheering them on. When their egg dropped, the smiles that crossed their faces were the perfect display of leadership…they expressed how proud they were of their team regardless of the outcome and while they must have felt some inevitable disappointment in losing, I couldn’t tell one bit. A big congratulations to all!

And then something crazy happened…as the Village Directors were about to announce Honor Cabin, Cliff interrupted (as he traditionally does before any big announcement). What followed though was awesome for everyone. He got thrown in the lake by the male staff and sent the entire camp to CATHY’s! The camp has been buzzing and speculating about an all camp Cathy’s this session and today was the big day. We all cheered and couldn’t wait to eat the most delicious ice cream on the planet!

Tonight was the Camper Talent Show! I must say that the talent at #TheRanch2016 is out of control. There were a number of awesome acts including Violet S dancing, Ivy F and Ashley R doing a skit, Sam G singing her famous “Girl’s Party” (with the entire camp singing along) and Lizzie H performing with her Diablo. The night obviously ended with a huge dance party…it was the best!

As this day comes to a close, I would love to share one quick quote with you…Dani G said to Soph-Aloaf today, “How come school goes so slow and camp goes so fast?” I just love that even ten year-olds at camp can recognize how special this place is. Four weeks for some people might seem like a long time to be away from home but around here, time literally flies by. All we can hope for is that everybody appreciates each moment we get to spend here. I honestly think that for the most part that is happening and that is pretty cool!

I am now sitting in the office being entertained by Sami Fabric, Samantha Schwartz, Sara M, Genna W and Julia F- a funny group! I guess that’s all for now but I hope you enjoyed this glimpse into our day! Have a great night.

Happy Camping and Love,
Sari