We were treated to beautiful and much appreciated sunshine this morning and the mood was cheerful on the way to breakfast. Our professional photographer visited camp today so the cafeteria was a sea of blue Oz shirts ready for their cabin group pictures later in the day. As a reminder to you all, I combine the pictures I take during the week, the professional photos, as well as nurse’s pictures and put them into one online Flickr photo album for your viewing and downloading pleasure. Look for that to be ready early next week when you can relive the Camp Oz magic with your campers!
The lovely weather put all of the activity options back on the table and we took full advantage throughout the morning. We saw some new menu choices of s’mores and apple crisp during outdoor cooking and we had our first groups start rock climbing. Campers learned their safety climbing commands, snugged up their harnesses, tightened their helmets and eagerly got right to climbing. Some kids got to the top so fast that I swear we have some campers disguised as monkeys, or is it monkeys disguised as campers?
We dined on a classic Taco Tuesday lunch and continued to master the new food composting system Camp St. Croix instituted to support their local farming and sustainability efforts. A brand-new activity for some groups is visiting the camp farm to green up their thumbs, and the weeds barely stand a chance when our kids come charging through. We’re all winners from their tenacious efforts because we have been treated to fresh-picked lettuce in the delicious salad bar during lunch and dinner!
The swim beach was back in operation and our swimmers flocked to enjoy the somewhat chilly water. Swim tests and buddy checks helped keep us safe and certainly provided an excellent photo opportunity too. Whether the campers swam or simply enjoyed the sandy beach, it is hard to beat relaxing on the water during a nice summer day.
We had a couple more cabins get their horse visits in, and we continued to have good luck with weather conditions allowing some rides around the paddock. For other cabins the animal of the afternoon was the worm, both in crafting artful versions and digging for live ones to win longest worm competitions. It might have just started as an excuse to play in the mud but digging for worms became very serious business very quickly.
We rearranged the schedule to make sure that we still got to play everyone’s favorite Predator and Prey all-camp game. A combination of tag and a scavenger hunt all mixed together with an ecological food chain theme, “P n’ P” is hard to explain but a blast to experience. There’s running, finding, hunting, singing, and surviving with basically the entire area of the camp to do it in. We really love the evening games because it gives a chance for all of our campers to participate together and get to know kids outside of their cabin groups. Camp Oz is about building relationships and you never know if your new best friend will be the person you just “ate” as an apex predator.
Can you believe that we are already halfway through Camp Oz? It is flying by but there are still so many amazing things to come for each and every camper. We want you to get your campers back eventually but we aren’t done with them just yet!
Erik
Camp Oz Co-Director