IB Newsletters

To return to the notion of our temporarily smaller camp, I think that this little window gives them more opportunity and freedom to cross in and out of all these places and spaces.  I think that one of the great benefits of camp is all the different kinds of community we build, and the various ways campers get to connect with folks across camp.

Tomorrow, we will be back to our whole community again, and will head into the last week of camp. So much still ahead, and yet it is likely to speed by.  Bittersweet, always. 

Gratefully yours, 

Clarissa

Summer just keeps rolling on, and our new campers have been here for five full days now.  New favorite songs, new activities, a few new staff, new energy all around.  And so many new names!  I am working hard to learn all the new names and am also grateful for the 15 or so campers who are here full season, as I truly do have solid command of their names.

I managed to sneak in a medium size distance swim with our nurse and our sensible health person yesterday afternoon (if you have been following my updates this summer, you know how I love a distance swim) and on our way back in to the IB waterfront we were greeted by two rowboats and about 16 Senior Lodge campers who were off and running on their distance swim goals.  Most were doing “double Snobars”. A “Snobar” is our initial distance swim.  It’s a spit of land near our waterfront, and campers do that distance, then double that, then on to greater distances.  If your camper is a swimmer, ask them about the distance swims we do here! I will tell you that the once a camper has done a double Snobar, next up is a swim to Tamarack Farm, and today, I had stopped at the waterfront there to talk to a colleague and again, saw a gaggle of IB campers just turning around to head back to IB, having done a swim to TF.

Surprise hit afternoon activity of the season has been, wait for it, pothole filling!  Camp roads are notoriously full of potholes, and Kip Culman, our Program Director, dreamt up an activity of gravel acquiring and then pothole filling.  Who knew it would be such a success? In spite of her terrific efforts and those of all the campers who signed up to do this, the potholes seem to return again and again (or new ones appear?)  So, any camper who wants to participate in this kind of camp improvement plan will likely get a chance.

The beginning of the session brings new names for activity rotation groups, and I am once again wildly impressed by camper humor and creativity.  A few of the clever names: The Abstract Nuns; Inglish Iguanas; Silent Snails; the Exquisette (sic) Spaghetti Butts and Sesame Seeds.  Finally, the word on the street from the staff about this new crop of campers is that their chore game is A+.  I’ve been told that staff have had to stop campers from doing chores so they could go do their activities, and also that staff have walked away from chores to attend to other things, returned assuming theywould still need to help/supervise, and have found the chores successfully completed.

Looking forward to two more weeks with these great kids,

Clarissa

I admit that I am writing this end of Session 1 newsletter two days into Session 2.  I say this not to expose my slight delinquency, but rather because it is hard not to make some comparisons (early though it is, in session 2). I have been wanting to open this newsletter with thoughts about Silent Meeting, one of our core practices and ways that we connect as a community. I see Silent meeting as a gauge of the health of our community as a whole.  Silent meeting in the first few days of the session is often very, well….  Silent…  At our last few days of meeting, in Session 1, it was so far from silent as to be almost laughable at times (we had a full day special celebration a few days before the end of camp, which included balloons. Somehow, a few balloons made it up to the meeting circle, and ended up popping during meeting.  Not silent!). 

Always, we are aware of the birds, the wind, bugs and other small creatures. As the end of the session approaches, though, campers become ever more comfortable speaking in meeting and sharing their thoughts and meeting becomes shaped by campers’ (and staff’s too) messages. Some are profound, some are humorous, some are impossible to hear or understand, and many are about camp, our community, and how much it has meant to people. So as the session moves on, and the “sound” of meeting changes, camper voices take up more space, which is as it should be. The gist of it for campers is, as we approach closing day, “I am going to miss this place so much.”  Seeing how meeting shifts is one of the joys I have had in this new to me role as director.  I feel that I connected with many campers in various ways, over the course the session, but meeting allows me a window into the camp experiences of others who I may not have talked to as much.

Another way we gathered as a whole community towards the end of the first session was our Garden Afternoon.  We met in the Apple Orchard, and staff offered a variety of activities (flower wreaths, games, etc) and then there was an array of harvesting efforts.  Campers and staff snacked on

 berries and peas, picked flowers, wandered around enjoying music played by their peers, and hopefully enjoyed the glorious views we have from theorchard.  Food we harvested that day made it into our final evening Banquet the next night. We ate kim chi made from our own Napa cabbage, scallions, garlic, and bok choi; there were pickles, fresh bread, and gorgeously plated charcuterie boards (because, as we know, these are all the rage at the moment, though I am sure few outside of F&W plate them up so well on oval plastic dishes.)

Getting to know your children and seeing the joy they experience at camp has been the ultimate highlight of this job, for me.  Thank you for sending them, and I look forward to seeing many of them next summer.

Peace,

Clarissa

Camp is wild; in the best possible ways.  Senior Lodgers are back from their trips and settling into their apprenticeships.  Big Lodgers are out on trips right now and we look forward to having them return today.  And finally, our First Lodgers are going out on a two night overnight (base camping trip with day hiking and swimming) up in the Ninevah area.

Senior Lodge Apprenticeships are a key part of the experience our older campers have.  It is a chance to dive deeply into one activity area, learning hard skills in that area while also developing some leadership capacity.  (Two campers asked me what they needed to do to prepare to be staff here in the future.  That was a fun conversation to have, and I certainly talked with them about the apprenticeship being one place where they can acquire skills that will help them should they want to return as staff).  I just walked through the kitchen where five campers are working as apprentices.  I asked them what they liked about it, and they said they like knowing what we are having for lunch in advance, but also, more seriously, they feel like they are developing skills and learning from our head cook (who is producing amazing food, by all accounts.  I have not heard one camper complaint this whole season).

The Barns and Gardens apprentices moved meat birds to our pastures a few days ago, and we will watch them grow for the next few weeks and then, well, you know, they are meat birds.  I don’t need to tell you what happens, but it’s a great conversation we have with the community as we look at where our food comes from.  Those campers are also pulling things from the garden and learning about fermenting; so along with the poultry we will eat, there should be some excellent pickled products on the table.

The canoeists are planning a field trip up to Lake Ninevah to practice canoe skills on another lake, change of scenery is always helpful.  And from my office I can see the rock climbing apprentices scaling the chimney on the back side of the lodge.  In Work Projects, our new Kybo project is well underway, supported by the Senior Lodge apprentices there, but also campers from other lodges.  We are working on a plan to make sure all campers have some sort of involvement in that project, so everyone walks away from the summer with a sense of ownership and accomplishment there.

I’m going to wrap this up now, as I am off to drive a TL trip out, dropping them at the traihead where an IB trip is finishing their hike.  I look forward todriving with the TL campers, and hearing how their summer is, and then getting to welcome our hikers back and hearing how their adventure was.

Peace,

Clarissa