Celebrating Session 3

Our 4th of July Celebration yesterday was a special addition to what is turning out to be a great session for our Session 3 campers. As this session nears it’s end, here are some special things we’re planning for our Session 3 summer campers!

Celebrating One Another

Tonight we will be celebrating the session with the famous, famous, MOST FAMOUS Celebration. Tonight’s Carnival Theme on the front yard will be full of games and a few surprises, including a pie eating contest, bounce houses, and two-step lessons. Like many things at Huawni, we love celebrating each other, and this is usually done with campers spending quality time with the people they love most— their friends!

Tonight will be even more special because of the friendships that have blossomed over the last two weeks at summer camp. Many of you parents will be meeting a new best friend come Saturday, and tonight your son or daughter (or both) will be soaking up the fun, laughter, and conversations with their best new and old buddies. In the camp song Summer, which we’ll sing on Friday night, there’s a line that says, “How faces strange became good friends, and you wonder why it had to end.” Thanks to cell phones, the Interstate, and technology (and no longer relying on collect calling!), Huawni is now just the launching pad for rich, deep, and life-long friendships that continue throughout the year. I hear (and continue to hear) stories of our campers and staff getting together throughout the year as they spend time with their best friends whom they met at Camp. We will try and post as many photos of Celebration as we can so you can see all this on your kiddo’s faces.

Summer Tree

Another very special time for your children will be tomorrow morning, as we all gather beneath the bows of the Summer Tree. The Summer Tree tradition started in the early 1990’s and still continues today. Summer Tree essentially gives space and permission for campers and staff to share how they feel and what is on their hearts. It’s truly amazing to hear the words spoken at Summer Tree, and tomorrow morning we’ll again be amazed. I will do my best to write down some of those comments and share them anonymously with you. I still am due to share with our Session 2 parents some inspiring quotes from Session 2 Summer Tree…camp seems to go in light speed the last few days, so bear with me!

I also wanted to share with you the Summer Tree Poem, which was written by my father and will be read at the beginning of tomorrow’s Summer Tree. Summer Tree is such a great opportunity to teach kids that expressing emotions are okay and healthy. For many campers, this is the first time they’ll be encouraged to do this in an intimate, group setting. We can’t wait!

I was birthed in the days of the Indians
So my summers number more
Than the youthful eyes who gather
’Neath my boughs to share their lore.

I yearn to send my wisdom down
So innocence is spared
But innocence and wisdom
Together found are rare

So I’ll offer just a moment
When truth is uttered here
By those who stand beneath my limbs
And share with others dear.

No false word can be spoken
As time is frozen still
To ’neath here another day
To remember, to embrace until

The hearts are made to laugh again
And say the thoughts they feel
A dream come true, a special time
No other place so real.

My listening limbs do cover
These youthful souls so free
I cradle for time the friendships born
I am the Summer Tree.

Written by Mike Adams

Tribal Competition Final Ceremony

One other very special thing about Friday (in addition to Initiation) is that we will crown our Session 3 2018 Tribal Competition Champion! The prize – a golden pine cone! We’ll do this in a ceremony on Flagpole Hill. This ceremony is really a book end to our initial Tribal Comp Ceremony from last Thursday. Teams will line up on each side of Flagpole Hill, a coach from each team will give one final pep talk, and one flag will be raised as we announce the winner of Tribal Competition. As always, Yeha-Noha by Sacred Spirit will play in the background. Right before the winner is announced, we’ll crank up the Chicago Bulls Theme Song, and then once the champion is announced we’ll hit We Are The Champions by Queen. Session 3 Tribal Comp point totals are extremely close, and will likely be won today in the last day of individual competition as campers compete at archery, OC, bikes, hotshot and swim.

Camp is in full stride and we are savoring the last moments! In the meantime, enjoy some of our pictures from last night’s 4th of July Celebration!

We love the 4th at Huawni!