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

It’s 10:30 p.m. and I hear some staff gathered near me. They sound like they’re having such a good time, I feel I ought to join them. Turns out, they were really enjoying recounting the day and how much fun it had been. Counselors have been coming to me during the day to share how much they like their cabin. There is a real sense of enjoying being with each other.

The first night, there were intermittent rain showers all evening. This did not making fires to cook S’mores very easy. I visited several cabins and saw a real spirit of wanting to see things through and get the fire built right. There was also an understanding that a few drops of rain weren’t going to drive us back indoors.

And there has been a tremendous amount of giving back to the community. I saw today how Bears cabin stepped up and did another cabin’s chore in addition to their task of cleaning all the pots and dishes for 160 people. They all seemed to grow a inch after that.

Cabins also stepped up and each did good work writing up a cabin contract. I have already heard reference to these when there is inappropriate behavior: “remember guys, we talked about this when we made the contract.” We also had a little workshop today about personal space and how having good boundaries means we’ll all get along better. As a group is forming, behavior is never going to be 100% perfect and this provides many teachable moments.

And the old-fashioned running around fun? Tonight’s all camp game was Kingdoms, which involves bandannas, strategy and a lot of charging around from hilltop to hilltop. The weather was sunny and perfect and I could not be happier about how the first days of camp are going.

There is a photo of each cabin having dinner on the first night that are now posted on the F&W website under “For Camp Families” tab in the left-hand column and then Current Summer Photos. (When using your login, please note the username is singular, not plural.)

I look forward to keeping you all inspired and informed.

Welcome families:

We can’t wait to announce your arrival to Timberlake. Please park diagonally and tightly so that we can fit as many cars as possible in our limited parking spaces at Timberlake. See you soon! We ‘ll hand you the following information when you arrive:

Welcome to Timberlake!

We’re glad you’re here and hope you’re ready for an enthusiastic start to the summer! Below you’ll find the steps you will need to complete this afternoon, beginning as of 1 p.m.:

1. Health Check - Please visit the infirmary to check-in your camper. (There is a form and health letter for parents and a lice check for campers.) Jane and Wendie, our nurses, will be available to receive medications, answer questions, etc.

***Note*** Before leaving camp, all necessary medical records/forms must be completed. (Staff at the infirmary can tell you if there is anything missing.) Copies can be made at the nurse’s office. The Main Office is available for faxing medical documents as needed.

2.  Move-In - Your camper’s counselor will show your camper down to his cabin. Counselors are happy to assist in moving items down to cabins. Campers may want to unpack and arrange their bunk now or wait until later.  Unpacking for them may be tempting, but try to resist and leave that moment for the camper.

3. Knife Safety - Once in your cabin, get your basic knife safety check from your counselor.

——Steps above need to be completed before moving on to below ——–

4. Swim Tests - All campers need to complete a swim test. Parents are welcome to watch but we ask to please not crowd the docks. If we experience inclement weather we shall halt the tests and restart when it has passed

5. Meet & Greet - For parents at 3 p.m. in Ken’s Lodge (across from the Trading Post). Campers will settle in the cabin and start activities. This is a great time to say your goodbyes.

6. Barn Chores - 4.00 p.m.  (We ask that all parents say their final goodbyes by this bell)

**Note*** Lunch will not be provided to campers or parents today. We ask that you please make other arrangements. The first camp meal will be dinner.

We got in character today for our “Mock Day” - a dress rehearsal for a typical day at camp, complete with songs (”Paradise”!), swim lessons (first thing in the morning, so we know what if feels like!), learning to share at the lunch table, and even staying in character during rest hour. The “campers” successfully built new benches in meeting circle and herded up an escaped cow and goat. The experience gave teachers a chance to teach and counselors got to walk a few steps in a campers shoes and see what that’s like. A brilliant day being finished off with a Council Fire. Thanks for all the hard work of staff and particularly our new Program Director Jon Schoder.

Hello Timberlake Families!

My name is Paul Eley and I’m the Senior Lodge Head for this summer at Timberlake. I’m really excited to work with you and your campers and want to take this chance to introduce myself. First, I want you to know that I am always available should you have any questions, concerns, hopes, dreams or anything else that you would like to share, because I’d like to hear them.

Last year was my first year at TL, working as a Big Lodge counselor and un-official trips leader guru guy. I really fell in love with the strength of this community and the enthusiasm of the campers, not to mention the fantastic food and beautiful location. So, returning here for a second year was an easy decision.

I have been working with children and teens since I was a teen myself, mostly as a babysitter, but also as a coach and mentor. In college I worked in an afterschool program at the elementary school and helped manage the high-schoolers that worked there too. After college, I began working at an Environmental Education center in Tennessee and discovered a passion for teaching in the outdoors. I moved to Vermont in early 2009 and have been working with school groups of all ages since then, exploring the natural wonders around us and working to create strong, empathic, supportive communities through team-building initiatives and group games.

We have a strong staff in Senior Lodge this year, with several returners and two new counselors who were also campers here. I know that we’ll be able to provide an unforgettable experience for your camper, and the counselors in Senior Lodge will empower your son to assume the leadership roles that we know they’re capable of.

I will be your main contact person here if you ever have any questions or concerns. I can be reached by phone at the TL Office (aka “Bat Cave”) at (802)422-2316 or by email at seniorlodge.tl@gmail.com. Together we can make this summer an incredible one for your camper, full of excitement, adventure, skills mastery, community and growth.

I look forward to an awesome and rewarding summer with your campers!

Sincerely,
Paul Eley
Senior Lodge Head