Weekly Update: July 21, 2024

It’s been a great week at camp! We had incredibly successful unit and cabinside overnights and fantastic all days at both Big Spring and High Trails. We had evening programs like the Counselor Hunt and Cabinside Skit Night, all camp programs like Opening Campfire, Warrior vs. Wild, and the Adventure Race and celebrated the weekend with a beach themed dance and ice cream social, had a couple of raucous Counselor hunts, and were able to beat a massive Colorado storm back to our living units last night. Each day brought a deeper sense of place and pace, allowing us all to settle into the session and to become more relaxed and comfortable together…and that happened–not only because we aren’t glued to our phones–but because we like to sing.

Singing. Chanting. Caterwauling. Yelling. Cheering. Laughing….repeat.

Last week, a Big Spring staff member noted, “there aren’t many places in the world where a big group of people with wildly varying levels of singing ability can come together and make music.” It might not be music in the traditional sense of harmony, consistent rhythm or even basic unified starting notes, but it is something rare and unique. When we sing together at camp, it can be the words, “Lean on me…when you’re not strong,” or it can be the shared silliness, “Hey momma rock me (rock me, cauliflower broccoli!),” or it can be a part of the culture, “Why do they ride for the money…Tell em’ why!”

It is the cultural component that makes shared songs, shared lodge chants, the accessibility of a quality “repeat-after-me” song, and the universality of The Hokey Pokey such an important part of camp. We have chants that campers started when they were 11 (“My Bologna…”) and chants that came from other camps (“The Beaver Song”) and songs that kids just like to sing because they know (almost) all of the words (“Phineas and Ferb Theme Song”). There are chants about announcements (“Here we sit…”) and chants about seeing people put cups on tables and forks in cups and dance around the cup on the table with the fork…and 10,000 more.

With each new song or chant, there is an expansion of the community–there are more people who can beat the table rhythm with their hands or cups–and it is an invitation to be part of something that is loud, wild and you never need to know exactly what you are doing. It is a portal into a sense of belonging–and it is an essential part of camp.

This sense of belonging is what helps your campers overcome the first week, missing home moments; the uncertainty of knowing what comes next; the wondering about being able to be a part of something bigger than themselves…a whole lodge full of people can chant, “Oh let’s see Ollie do a dance (thump, thump) do a dance (thump, thump)” or “Space-bun Callie! Space bun Callie!” and a whole group of slightly off-key, off-rhythm singers can sing the chorus of the World’s Most Covered Song (Wagon Wheel) enough that everyone can figure out, “Heeeeeyyyy, momma rock me…(see cruciferous vegetable reference above).”

Of all of the grand take-aways of camp, we don’t expect your camper to come home and teach you all of the words and nuanced delivery of the “We want a cook’s parade” chant (though you undoubtedly deserve one), but we want you to know that they sing that to the cooks at camp and it makes the cooks’ day. We know they aren’t going to sing you happy birthday and make you run around your dining room, but they aren’t going to be able to sing happy birthday to anyone without thinking about following it up with, “You must go, you must go, you must go ‘round the lodge…” It will only be in that moment you are listening to the Talking Heads sing, “This Must Be The Place” and they will say, “OHHHHHH, that’s a song we sing at camp…but WE don’t sing it that way.”

This is a week of “we.” Our campers will be out all week on overnights, two days, all days and–for our CORE and SOLE (rising 10th and rising 9th graders, respectively) campers–on five day service learning trips. They are going to climb 14,000 foot peaks, look through the telescope at the full moon, go canoeing, catch fish, ride horses for miles, and practice their camping skills on (mostly) “lone” vigils. Our Sanborn Junior campers will make the most of their last five days with overnight trips, river all days, rock scrambling at the Bat Caves and plenty of time for horseback riding, bouldering, crafts and “last chance” hikes.

And, whether on horseback or on foot, there will always be someone on these trips and explorations that begins to hum or taps a beat or starts singing quietly…and then one (or more) people will begin to join and suddenly the really hard hike up Mount Huron becomes more bearable because everyone is singing the full “Encanto” soundtrack or the horseback ride feels more authentic because we are mumbling our way through the verses of “The Gambler” until we can shout out the chorus…together.

Like the Hokey-Pokey says, “That’s what it’s all about.”