Day Twenty Four: 6/23

Tuesday's chapel program was on stangers and so our theme revolved around masks. Hank read the poem "We Wear the Mask" by Paul Lawrence Dunbar - he is so good at being dramatic! We then talked about how we are all strangers when we come to camp and how we sometimes wear masks, for good or for bad reasons. We talked about how God sees through our masks and we can take them off for him. We then went down to the Pavilion and made masks out of paper plates, feathers, paint, popsicle sticks, and glue. After making the masks, the kids created skits using their masks! These masks were very impressive - the kids were so creative.

That afternoon we went to the Tracy Lakes park to do some community service and play. The kids each picked up a garbage bag of trash while we talked about what it means to give back to the community. They were strangely amused by trash pick up - they made it into a competition! After that, the kids got to play at the park. This was a really cool park... it had a lake with a designated swimming area with a dock, a playground, picnic benches, a grass clearing, and more. It was so nice and the kids had a lot of fun.

That night we had our teambuilding scavenger hunt. We haven't done this with any of the camps yet, so it was a new activity for this year. We based it off the scavenger hunts we've done in the past and really tried to emphasize groupwork skills. These kids are still young in so many ways and are having trouble with using kind works and working together. The scavenger hunt was family group based and they got points for finishing first for the whole hunt but also got positive and negative points based on behavior. They got a clue which led them to their first activity. After finding the counselor at that clue, they completed the activity and got the clue for the next spot to find. There were six spots with counselors, so six games. It included the number game, charades, "butt spell", KaBoom, making a camp commercial, and the over under water game. The kids had a lot of fun and really worked well together. I saw a lot of high fives and constructive criticism instead of snapping at each other. The Princess Protection Program finished first but narrowly lost to the 13th Years, who had so many positive points that it pushed them into the lead. They get first in line at Taco Bar for their mad skills.

Pictured Above:

1) Princess Protection Program playing KaBoom

2) Aynsley's Mask

3) Johnny Tsunami's masks