A busy two weeks had gone by, and to see the camp this morning, you would have thought we were over for the summer! Staff enjoyed a breakfast buffet with Kids 4 Peace, an interfaith organization that’s using our facilities for their program, but otherwise there were no MV campers to be found. That sure changed as the day went by though!
As the day went on, 9 villages returned to camp from a variety of trips! The 3 three week pioneer villages, Mahoosuc, Lincoln, and Canaan, hiked back in this morning from their one night hiking trips, just in time to enjoy hot dog lunches. The other trailblazer trips returned throughout the day, from a variety of activities and places. I personally had the chance to pick up Carter Dome, a boy’s trail blazer village that had hiked for three days, from Merrowvista to an area called Castle in the Cloud’s nearby; on the car ride back, I had the chance to hear about their trip and, for better or worse, the colors their feet had turned after a day of hiking. The other trail blazer boy’s village, Sentinel, hiked back into camp later in the afternoon, shouting “Power! Poise! And Focus!, a chant from a popular Interest Group, Tweak Town.
The girls villages, Liberty and Lafayette returned later on from their canoe trips, fresh off the water (and even having had the chance to stop for ice cream on the way back!) Finally, the 4 Week Trailblazers, Little Haystack and Madison, returned from the Kinsman mountains, eager to tell us all about their hikes and, in Little Haystack’s case, their muddy mishaps.
Leading up to dinner, we had one Interest Group block where I had the chance to help out with Dungeons and Dragons. After that it was time for a delicious dinner of chicken stew and biscuits. Coming from a real Georgia born, biscuit loving Southerner, the dinner was spot on. And the cookies for dessert? Delicious.
All this lead up to our Night’s Doing: Evening Festival! A chance to celebrate our past 2-3 weeks as a community, this was only the second time we had ever had evening festival, but it went great. Kids could be seen playing Kubb, a lawn game involving large wooden blocks and throwing sticks, a photo booth in New Hampshire Lodge, a beautiful community art project in the E-Lo, Ultimate Frisbee on the A-field, a relaxing spot in the Gazillion and to cap it all off, dancing in the Bahn! Everyone could be seen smiling, talking, dancing and just having a blast being back together again. Kids 4 Peace concluded the evening with a wonderful evening reflection,giving campers a chance to end the day on a more introspective note.
Things are winding up here at Merrowvista with only a few more days left in the summer, but there’s still so much more to do. I know I’m excited to get the 4 Fold Tournament started tomorrow; after all I’m in charge of it!
Your Community Coordinator,
Daniel Hope