Welcome and welcome back to our second session of girls camp!! Today we welcomed 24 new campers and about 63 returning campers to Asto Wamah today. The rain stayed away while the parents came down camp road with their excited campers. Counselor's happily greeted their campers and gave them a little bit of time to get settled and then it was time to say good bye to family and let the Asto Wamah fun begin. Once most of the campers arrived counselors began orchestrating ice breakers like Where the Wind Blows, a game where one camper stands in the middle of a circle while everyone else us standing at a spot in the circle. The girl in the middle will say something about herself (favorite sports, number of siblings, favorite animal, etc), and if someone shares in that interest she will leave her spot and hope to find a new one, one camper will end up in the middle and then it is her turn to share something about herself. Counselors will also go over rules, expectations, and go on a tour with the campers to either teach to remind them the Wamah Way.
After rules and icebreakers, the bell rang around three o'clock, time for everyone to meet around the council ring and listen up to Nancy. We introduced all of the staff to the campers, Nancy gave her expectations for camp, and then Catherine (the water front director) went over water safety rules. That brought us to swimming classifications for first years or campers who haven't been to camp for a few years. Campers did their best swim strokes so that Catherine could see which swimming level the camper will be in.
For dinner, we had the traditional first night of camp meal - hot dogs, tater tots, and delicious brownies for dessert. The campers ate everyone piece they put on their plate.
That brings us to evening program. Any minute now the bell will ring for evening program and all the campers will make their way to the A-field in their tied shoes. Then Drew, our sports director, will go over the rules for... MEDICAL WARS. We always play this Wamah-version of dodge ball on the first night. The main difference is that after a camper gets out, she will sit exactly where she was hit and yell to the medic to come and save her. The medic, protected by two guards, will run up and revive the camper who got out. It is such a fun game!
Medical wars is the perfect game to get the campers running around and hopefully a little tired out before bedtime. The first night sleeping in any new place is always a little difficult but we hope that the campers will be able to sleep well on this nice, cool night because we have a fun, full day ahead of us tomorrow!
That's all for now! Please check in throughout the week to get more updates from Camp Asto Wamah
~ The Birch Blogger