Blog Editors: Irene (US-MN)

Hi, I’m Irene and I’m the editor of this week’s blog post! I am a first year camper from Colorado, and I like to hike, read, paint, and listen to music.

 First-Years Lead the Day!

Week two of Camp means that first-year campers have started acting as leaders of the day, which is a tough but rewarding job! The breadth of responsibility is wide, and ranges from writing their own unique schedule to singing good night songs to sleepy campers. Here, you can hear about their experiences with the position: 

Theme Dinner/Day - “Flight” to Greece!

Last Friday, our second years led an exhilarating Mamma Mia themed day! First, we had a pool party, which was perfect for the hot summer day. During this time, the second years spent all afternoon redoing the dining room to transform it into an airplane to Greece! The flight was quite long, so they placated us with in-service meals (which was delicious Greek food), music from ABBA, and a screening of Mamma Mia. Thanks, second years!

Fika!

On Tuesday, leaders of the day Alina (Sweden) and Bee (Ecuador) organized a camp fika. In Sweden, fika is a customary social coffee break, where people in all workplaces will take a break, gather, drink good coffee, and eat delicious sweets. Because coffee isn’t commonplace at Camp, we drank tea, water, fruit punch, and lemonade instead. But, Alina and Bee worked hard all afternoon to ensure that campers got the most traditional of Swedish fika pastries (they had to improvise in some areas). They provided campers and counselors with kladdkaka (gooey cake), smakakor (small cookies), and snickerskakor! It was delicious!

 Evening Programs and Instructions! 

 As the second week rolled on, campers got to enjoy a diverse array of evening programs and instructions. Personally, I attended instructions on journaling and frisbee throwing this week. But, some others included edible cookie dough making (yum!), manipulating elections, campaign work, collage, visible mending, and many more!

Evening program is always my favorite part of camp. They are a time when all of the camp gathers to join, think, learn, have fun, and grow stronger as a community. This week, we had evening programs on education, accessibility, cultural appropriation/appreciation, and built environments/identities. 

The education program, led by first year camper Torie (US-CO) discussed school systems across the world, looked at equity within different schools, and invited campers to come up with their own school and to implement policies that were in accordance with their beliefs. The accessibility program discussed the social model of disability, disabling spaces, and asked campers to brainstorm solutions to camp’s own accessibility issues. Campers Alina (Sweden) and Bee (Ecuador) led the evening program on cultural appropriation and appreciation. Campers defined cultural appropriation and appreciation, learned about the history of appropriation within American camps, and participated in a spectrum activity about campers’ own cultures. The counselor-led program on built environments/identities encouraged campers to come up with their own solutions to the Lia Lee ethical issue and simulated a town council after the 1906 San Francisco fire. 

 Birthdays at Camp

Although campers and counselors are far from home at CRS, they still get to enjoy all the festivities and fun of “rising-sun” birthday celebrations! In these past two weeks, we have celebrated the birthdays of Anja (Greenland), Ori (Israel), Mare (counselor, Basque Country), Michaela (counselor, Slovakia), and Lindsey (counselor, US-PA). Camp birthdays consist of delicious cake at the courtesy of our kitchen staff, homemade cards and signs, and the ceremonial birthday chair lifting! The birthday chair tradition is somewhat a scary one, but fun and entertaining nonetheless. The birthday person climbs into the chair and is subsequently lifted into the air by campers the age they are turning! Fun, right? 

 Second Variety Show of CRS 2022

On Wednesday, campers enjoyed both watching and participating in the second variety of CRS 2022! Because we still have a few campers in quarantine, the variety show crew (led by Helmi (Finland), Maha (Morocco), and Lindsey (drama counselor)) combined improvisation, creativity, and resourcefulness to make an outdoor Covid-19-friendly variety show. Thanks guys! The variety show, which was MCed by famous hosts Helmi and Maha, consisted of diverse acts. There were dances, songs, and even tent trivia competitions!

When dark, rainy clouds began to roll in, we all thought it would spell out a cut-short variety show. But, the show must go on! We moved inside to the gym (sadly, quarantined campers could not join) and finished with a lovely act by Veera (Finland). The variety show is definitely one of my favorite parts of camp!

 Covid-19 Quarantines

As more campers tested positive for Covid-19 during our routine testing process, the camp directors began implementing more precautionary policies in response to the higher-risk situation. Changes included eating outside (which is really an improvement), masking, cohorting with tents, and more outdoor-oriented activities. Despite all of these new rules, the mood at Camp remains positive and energized, and everyone is reacting with flexibility and grace!

Because working on improving our accessibility and inclusivity is important to all of us at Camp, counselors and directors co-hosted an evening program where campers discussed and brainstormed ideas that allowed campers in quarantine to better participate and engage with camp activities! Ideas included instructions/evening programs held on Zoom, outdoor beautification, renovations to the HAWC, adding more swings and benches, and many more innovative solutions. We have already created a makeshift mailbox specifically for quarantined campers to receive letters from non-quarantined campers! We miss them greatly, and wish them the easiest of quarantines/recoveries. (Upper left, campers hold up a poster presenting their quarantine accessibility solutions)

On Wednesday, we had our third round of Covid-19 testing. We were all excited to find that there were no positive tests! The measures implemented by the HAWC, staff, and campers paid off well. Even some quarantined campers began returning from their isolation rooms. On Tuesday, we welcomed Marilia (Greece) back, on Wednesday, we welcomed Niki (US-NY) and Anna (Hungary) back, and on Thursday we welcomed Noa (Israel), Karla (), and Sora (US-CA) back! We are all so happy to see their  faces again. 

 Projects Pick Up Speed

During most days at CRS, campers are allotted an hour or two to work on projects. These projects can be anything, but they must be dedicated to help better the camp environment or camper experience. Personally, I find it so cool to watch as collaboration and creativity help make CRS a better and more special place. 

As the second week drew to a close, the many projects at Camp had made significant progress. The main building mural finished gridding out the front wall, and began the arduous process of sketching and painting. Even though it is only in its early stages, it looks great, and we are so excited to see the finished product! But, the main building isn’t our only mural—campers have begun scraping off the old paint at the pool mural and sketching a new design that follows an “under-the-sea theme”! In other areas, campers and counselors collaborated on trail clearing (a very hard, but very valuable project), painting trail signs, and constructing picnic tables. The picnic table crew even finished their first table! It’s cookies-and-cream themed, and is awaiting painting.

 Camper Interviews!