Archive for July, 2011

“Change is like a locomotive with unlimited fuel, and unlimited distance to travel. But we are the conductors of that locomotive. We decide what direction it moves in”

G.P. - Full Season Senior Lodge Camper

I have no doubt I will recall and repeat this camper’s words many times in my life. I am grateful for his wisdom and appreciate Timberlake for creating the space at Silent Meeting where I could hear it fully.

Today marks the fifth day of camp for this session. Campers in First and Big Lodge have gone through all the major areas - Barns and Gardens, Swim Lessons, Outdoor Living Skills, and Work Projects. Senior Lodge has completed a three-day cycle focused on one activity area and will begin their next cycle.

Trips have been selected and groups are beginning to do team building work on the lower ropes course as part of the preparation for going out on the trail. The weekend will bring some big all-camp games, the first Council Fire, more open waterfront and camper-led activities.

A1 short session campers will going on their overnight camping adventure tonight.

The principle feature of next week will be trips and a shrinking and expanding camp. We may even eat pancakes with ice cream. Who knows?

Once everyone is back from trips, we will be diving into preparing for Fair, harvesting for Food Day, preparing for our final, blow-out Banquet and finishing all the work we began in each program area.

I’ll keep you posted!

We can’t deny it, the weather has been very helpful.  Well, there have been some storms on the radar last night, but all they  meant was we needed to raise our voices for dinner announcements as the rain crashed on the roof.  The evening skies have been stunning.

As I walk around camp, I see campers gathered in the Packard Shed listening to out Work Project’s head low, confident voice run them through an orientation that inspires and informs the group.   Later, I will see campers hammering on siding to our new cabin so it can be finished by this summer.

At circle up, I hear about campers who have passed their knife test, build a wet weather fire or led our goat, Bruce, to a new pasture.

We have had a night of wacky skit’s for our Trips, including fluffy white clouds, high octave singing and shiny silver tights.    Not everyone can get their first choice but we can make sure they get one of their top half  choices.   We’ll now start doing the team-building initiatives for each trip group.

Thanks to everyone who came up for a smooth drop off day.

A storm of calm.   The final days felt like the usual whirlwind of activity, but there was a pervasive sense of ease to it, a sense we had done what we had come to do.

Our Banquet theme was tropical, as was the food: red beans and rice, fried plantains, huge 6″x 6″ ribs, (seitan kebabs for veggies), citrus and berry fruit salad, sherbet and key lime pie.  All of these goodies were home made.

Our ceremonies during the banquet included recognitions for canoeing around the lake, tanning hides to make buckskin moccasins.  swimming the five miles around the lake, carrying canoes to Indian Brook, and much, much more.

Yet, my favorite part of closure was when we began our candlelight ceremony.  Each camper leaves our Upper Lodge with a lit candle and slowly proceeds down to the Meeting Circle where we close with “I am” statements.

That evening, there was a warm summer breeze that rustled the treetops, then blow through our procession.   Every time this happened, campers came together to the one candle that remained lit and quietly and patiently rekindle and continue.   I think it took half a hour to make it the three minute walk to Meeting Circle.  When we gathered in silence we heard many eloquent expressions about the first half, but perhaps none so much as the simple and silent cohesiveness of the group as we made our walk together that night.  Thanks everyone for a great first half!

It feels like I have been out of touch with all of you, even though it has only been a week. At camp, the passage of time seems like a month! So, we put a lot of work into having very well-organized trips and it paid off. This was the smoothest “pack out” and “pack in” during my three years as director at TL, and last night we had a trip skit from every single trip. These skits are a great way to process what happened with the rest of the camp, and ranged from rather freestyle improv to the exceptionally musical Skyrunner’s skit song to the tune of “Born This Way”: “We’re on the right trail baby, we’re the Skyrunners!”

Today, we had a relaxed Sunday which included a good deep cabin clean in preparation for our American Camp Association visit tomorrow. It also included an epic battle between “angels” and “devils” that lasted the afternoon.

Tomorrow the camp has a few regular days before wrapping things up. Excitement is high for this session’s favorite all-camp game after we found a mysterious note at lunch from the “Society of 39,” an all-camp game we play in the evening.

But I can’t blog about that… they are watching!

Our campers had a blast on their July trips. Here is a list of who went where (with cabin names, too). The staffer’s names are in italics. (We are using just first names for the privacy of the campers and hope you can figure out where your child went).

I’m sure each camper will enjoy sharing tales from the trails.

Silverlake Climb (Tue 7/12 - Fri 7/15)
Ben Draper - Asher (Bobcats)
Jon Schubert - Nathaniel  (Otters)
(Dara) - George  (Otters)
Patrick  (Bears)
Nicholas (Tamarack)
Toby (Hawthorn)
Edmund (Tamarack)
Samuel  (Rangers)

Umbagog (Tue 7/12 - Fri 7/15)
Elias Pitegoff Emmett (Bears)
Ben Westlund Eli (Sycamore)
Sam (Bears)
Tobais (Sycamore)
Frey (Sycamore)
Bennett (Sycamore)
Oliver (Sycamore)
Henry (Tamarack)

Little Rock Pond (Wed 7/13 - Sat 7/16)
Zac Scott Isaac (Foxes)
John Triano Alex (Bears)
John Masters Sebastian (Bears)
Kevin (Tamarack)
Milo (Tamarack)
Oskar (Tamarack)
Raffi  (Tamarack)

Skyrunners (Tue 7/12 - Fri 7/15)
Dan LaFontain Quentin (Bobcats)
James Copp Caleb  (Bobcats)
Amariah  (Bobcats)
Ashton  (Catamount)
Adrian  (Foxes)
Sinan (Otters)
Harry  (Otters)
Sage  (Otters)

Ninevah Explorer (Wed 7/13 - Fri 7/15)
John Hoffman Nicholas (Catamount)
Brian D Jack (Catamount)
Sam Sessums James  (Otters)
Gabe (Tamarack)
Liam  (Hawthorn)
Arun (Sycamore)
Finn  (Sycamore)

WP “Stairway to Foxes” (Tue 7/12 - Fri 7/15)
Thad Gibson James  (Foxes)
Ry Beverage Alex  (Bears)
Antonio Jonah  (Catamount)
Cory Clark Andrew  (Bobcats)
George O Aidan (Catamount)
Julian (Foxes)
Jason  (Bobcats)
Jack  (Lumberjacks)
Quinn (Rangers)
Mike  (Rangers)
Rhys  (Catamount)

Mosaic Bench Making (Tue 7/12 - Fri 7/15)
Zach D-T Jacob  (Catamount)
Sam Tolzman Emmett (Otters)
Dan Sher Booker (Bears)
Piet V. Terence  (Bears)
Matt L. Jacob  (Bears)
William  (Hawthorn)
Peter  (Otters)
Lucas (Hawthorn)
Hugh  (Lumberjacks)
Peter  (Rangers)
Christian  (Hawthorn)
Jaheim  (Hawthorn)
Derek  (Rangers)

Logging at Peggy’s (Wed 7/13 - Sat 7/16)
Clara Kazarov Timothy  (Foxes)
Gunther Bain Prez  (Foxes)
Jonathan C. Elliott Thorburg (Foxes)
Elias Stambeck Ryan  (Foxes)
Mac  (Bobcats)
Ethan  (Lumberjacks)
Coleman  (Lumberjacks)
David  (Lumberjacks)

The Whites (Tue 7/12 - Sun 7/17)
Willy Appleby Colin  (Trappers)
Noah Wertherner Matthew  (Rangers)
Isaac  (Trappers)
Max  (Trappers)
Spencer  (Rangers)
Gideon  (Trappers)

Androscoggin (Tue 7/12 - Sat 7/16)
Paul Eley Owen  (Trappers)
Cephas Toniga Max  (Trappers)
Robert Miller Dylan  (Lumberjacks)
Brody  (Lumberjacks)
Cameron  (Trappers)
Ned  (Lumberjacks)
Ben  (Trappers)

ADK Climb (Wed 7/13 - Sat 7/16)
Dylan Sio Jason  (Trappers)
Mike O’Connor Lincoln  (Rangers)
Jack D Charlie  (Trappers)
(Mark Hafer) Patrick  (Lumberjacks)
Sean  (Lumberjacks)
Emerson  (Rangers)
Carson  (Rangers)

Adventure Day was July 6th, when small groups of campers went on day hikes and explored the area. We jumped off rocks into cool pools of water, built a homemade fort in the Art’s M’Field, hiked the ridge, climbed Killington Peak, gardened at Tamarack Farm, and much more.

On Thursday, 16 of our Big Lodge (11-to 12- year old) campers went to a naming ceremony at Flying Cloud where they hiked in and got to see how those campers live and see campers their age be appreciated with names they will carry with them all their lives.

Two days later, we celebrated Interdependence Day (see some photos on F&W’s Facebook Page), which meant singing “Today I feel I can do most anything / 3 Bell time to get out of bed / Ain’t got no iPads 4G phones ’cause I left all that stuff at home,” to the tune of “The Lazy Song” by Bruno Mars. We also ate ice cream and had a bonfire and Square Dance.

Today we were all a bit dozy, but are doing a bit of mid-session cleaning with a Chores Afternoon or “Chafternoon.” This is a great moment to remember that work can be fun and joyful and there was lots of singing and general goofiness. Tonight will be the final evening for our J1 campers, and our Council Fire with skits, fun, recognition of ratings achieved and our bead ceremony.

Between all this, we are doing primitive pottery, working on the sidestroke, learning to belay correctly, tanning hides, making  ice cream with our own milk, and much more.

What I love about TL and the Support Staff is they create programming that is about the “how” as much as the “what” of program. Besides all the fun things we do traditionally on Superhero day, like have colored food to match the theme, Jon Schoder asked all counselors to come to breakfast dressed as a Superhero. However, you couldn’t copy a comic book hero;  you had to become your own hero and recognize what super-abilities you might have.

In the morning, I couldn’t resist stuffing an entire sleeping bag into my sweatshirt to give me an enormous chest and biceps (it became a bit tricky to eat my breakfast!). I then tried to figure out the “why” and answer the “who are you?” question. I wasn’t sure if it was “Larger Than Life Man”, or “Punching Bag Man” (All that polyfill was pretty inviting) but finally settled on “Unrealistic Male Expectation Man.”

Campers got into the fun and they also had a moment to reflect a bit on identity and what their strengths and special talents are. Thanks Jon!

- Tulio

Have you have been on a holiday or similar experience that is so full of activities and interaction that you can’t even imagine how you could sum it up in anything less than a ten page letter - much less a postcard. Trips Night was a big hit with mad skits and 73% of the campers getting their first choice out of eight, 20% getting their second choice, and only 7% getting a third choice.

Tonight was Council Fire with a great first beading ceremony of appreciations such as: “I’d be lost without you.  You’re my best friend.”   Many friends expressed gratitude that their friends had been willing to try Timberlake and other were glad their friends had encouraged them to come.

Tomorrow is a Garden and Arts afternoon and a Superhero Theme Day, ahem, actually “The Avenging Light faces the Darkness from the Alternate Dimension Day.” I know it won’t be an ordinary Sunday! I have so much more to tell, but right now I’m too busy planning the upcoming events to get into details. Please check back in a few days.

Oh yes, and the weather has been delightful.

Tulio