First Day of Activities Awakening Our Senses
Monday here at Session 4 was very pleasant. While a lot of Texas has been getting soaked, it’s been overcast, dry, and cool here at Huawni. We would love some rain, but we’re happy to just get the cool weather!
Activities have been jump started today as Campers were getting into the swing of Camp. When asked, “What was the favorite part of your day?”, here are the answers I received from a handful of our Campers.
- Dinner (homemade pasta)
- Critter
- Critter!
- Trolley
- Volleyball
Tonight our Campers enjoyed a game of Huawni Capture the Flag. Counselors have again gone all out with crazily-clad costumes (a big tradition here). Afterwards everyone cleaned up and we headed to the Riviera (the Pool) for our first Sing Song of Session 4! It’s been a full day!
Awakening Our Children’s Senses
I was introduced by a dear friend to my new favorite podcast— the Rich Roll Podcast. This podcasts covers a lot of topics, including ultra endurance athletics, cycling, running, healthy eating, and outdoor living. I was intrigued this week as Rich interviewed his training coach Chris Hauth, an endurance athlete in his own right. Chris wrote a monologue entitled Meaning, which really describes the health that comes from being immersed in nature. Why do I mention this? Because it has everything to do with you sending your child to sleepaway camp these next two weeks. As our Campers arrived yesterday, they lost a few everyday things— namely access to a TV, cell phones, and computer screens, and a climate controlled environment known as air conditioning. We are learning more and more of the dangers of too much screen time. Consequently, technology at home was replaced with a few more things- namely face to face interaction, a paper and a pen, silence and time to reflect, and the night time chirping of crickets and singing of frogs. Campers are slowing detoxing from technology, and soon they will be fully taking in the benefits of being unplugged engaged with people they’ll soon get to know…really well. Enjoy the podcast— what a great reminder of the gift of sleepaway camp!
The Blue Goose Award
This year we introduced a new award for Huawni Staff— the Blue Goose Award. It’s origin and meaning are anything but new. Back in the late 70’s, we dug what is now the Critter Pond. We needed anchors to hold down the Critter ties, so the old Blue Goose bus frame seemed like a great thing to bury and be used as the anchor. The Blue Goose bus was used back in the day by Daddy Earl to haul kids around on truck rides, Wild Woman Hunts, and it was even used a few times for some homemade movie scenes. The Blue Goose award goes to one men’s and one women’s staffer each session who is anchored in loving the kids (LTK). This last session James Walker won it on our Men’s Staff. Tonight, I was reminded of why James (and other Huawni Staffers like James) make an impact, even in subtle ways. As I was walking on the Front Yard, I saw James with a gaggle of boy campers just hanging out at the picnic table playing cards. James was giving his full attention and time to these campers. He was giving his all. He, like many of our other Huawni Counselors, was being an anchor to our Session 4 campers…and it’s just the first day!
CampInTouch Picture Update
Thank you parents for being so patient with our picture uploads. Just to update everyone, we’ve had very slow internet this summer, so daily between 5pm and 7pm we drive to Nacogdoches to access high-speed Internet and upload hundreds of pictures. I hope you are enjoying the pictures from that last 24 hours here at Camp. If you have any concerns or feedback about pictures, we would love to hear from you! Call our main line at 936-254-3223 anytime if you’d like to give us feedback on picture uploading. We are here to serve you and we want to keep you updated on a regular basis of what’s going on at Camp.
For your first-time sleepaway camp parents, how was the first full day away from your kiddos?
