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Assistant Camp Director Brianna Moynihan recaps the last week of interest groups during Session A.

I cannot believe it’s last week of Session A for Camp Miniwanca Summer 2024! We welcomed over 240 campers to Miniwanca during these three weeks. It has been a session of new friendships, taking on challenges by choice, and enjoying all the natural beauty Miniwanca has to offer.

Over the last three weeks, campers have had the opportunity to take on many high adventure activities: high ropes, archery, sailing, woodshop, paddle sports, rock climbing, low challenge course, and more.

One of our most popular interest groups during Session A was sailing. We have three wonderful leaders with years of sailing experience both at camp and on their collegiate sailing teams. They have brought such passion to the Miniwanca sailing program!

Around 30 campers signed up for sailing this session and were seen voyaging around Stony Lake during on our Hartley boats. We had 10 campers take on the challenge to become skippers! Becoming a skipper allows them to take out a sailboat independently during sailing time. The test involves a written portion, identifying wind direction, rigging a boat, tying all the knots, righting a capsized boat, and taking a friend out for a sail.

High ropes, archery and woodshop have also been very popular during Session A. In Girls Camp, one interest group built a bench from scratch, and each camper carved their name onto the bench to finalize their work. We are still deciding where this bench will live at camp, but we are excited to add their testament to teamwork to our site. In Boys Camp, the woodshop has been very popular during interest groups and free time. Campers can be seen building ramps, birdhouses, shoe racks and more. B-Bay has been ringing with the sound of hammers and saws!

The final news from the high adventure world at Camp Miniwanca: our Polar Bears! Many staff members have taken on the challenge to become “Iron Polar Bears,” which means plunging into Lake Michigan or Stony Lake every single day this summer! There are still several leaders in the running to receive this prestigious award. On the camper side, a morning dip is as popular as ever, and we were so proud to acknowledge Polar Bears at Closing Fire.

Tomorrow is a well-earned rest day for our staff, and then we are ready to sail into Session B on Sunday!