Today we welcomed our new mini session campers to Rockbrook. These girls arrive a week after the first session campers, joining them for the remainder of the session. Since our mini sessions are a great way to sample camp life, many of these campers are either new to Rockbrook or are younger girls (or both). As they grow older and return a number of years, it’s most common to attend one the full sessions that last longer (though we certainly don’t require that).
After everyone arrived, checked in with the nurses and office folks, and got settled into the cabins, the entire camp assembled on the grassy hill in the heart of camp. We learned songs, got to meet all the directors (Sarah and Jeff, Charlotte, Mandy, Sofie and Catherine), and took several group photos. We tried to get a shot of every state’s and country’s campers, as well as a whole camp photo. Check out the RBC Photo Gallery to see those.
Lunch was another of Rick’s comfort food meals. He had a “breakfast for lunch” spread for us, with his homemade biscuits (the mound of cut butter he used to make them was amazing), scrambled eggs, bacon, veggie sausage, fresh fruit and yogurt… a good, familiar first meal for our mini session campers.
After lunch, the new campers launched right into their “swimming demonstrations” at the lake. All the lifeguards evaluated everyone’s swimming ability and assigned them a buddy tag. This process also gets the girls familiar with the lake rules and gives them a closer look at the water slide. Tours of the camp and cabin meetings took up the remainder of the rest hour.
The late afternoon event was a surprise carnival at the gym. Several of the counselors decorated with posters, streamers and balloons in a theme they called “Outer Space.” There were planets, aliens, stars and strange looking creatures all about. We also had an inflatable obstacle course and a zero-gravity velcro wall to bounce around on. Face painting, games (like the “Saturn’s Rings Toss”), music, dancing and cotton candy (space dust) added to the fun. Another brief shower got things a little muddy outside, but that just added to the thrill of it all. This was a great event with lots of action to keep the girls busy, and a fun way to introduce our new campers to the zany side of Rockbrook. Tomorrow all of the camp activities will be back in full swing.
