Editor’s Note: There are at minimum 99 Things about life at Camp Alleghany for Girls that are NOT changing this summer! That’s why we started our 99 THINGS Blog Series with: Part 1: Activities, Part 2: Downtime!, Part 3: Food., Part 4: Mornings & Evenings, Part 5: Evening Activities., Part 6: Traditions!, and Part 7: Camp Clothes.
Even if we hadn’t all spent the past year cooped up, too often indoors, and connecting with one another via ZOOM and other online formats we all would STILL be excitedly awaiting one of the single most amazing things about our camp — it’s rustic, majestic, inspiring outdoor setting.
Nature is a cathedral at camp, the soaring mountains forming the backdrop, the sky our sunny or star-twinkling ceiling, trees holding us cozily, the grass and clover our carpet, and the whole amazing spectacle of it our home while we’re at camp. “Almost heaven, West Virginia,” indeed!
I’m going all goose-bumpy just thinking about it. And it’s coming up so soon, just a little over a month way until our first Opening Day when our Mother-Daughter pairs join us in camp!
And I’m sure you can guess by now with this blog series about what remains unchanged about camp even during an ongoing (though thankfully decreasing) pandemic that Mother Nature herself will not only be totally accessible to us as she always is every summer, but more than that, she will be needed more than ever before.
Get ready to experience the biggest internal re-set of your life as we ensconce ourselves in the restorative beauty, rhythms, and wholeness of nature.
You can also imagine that eleven things about nature just begins to scratch the surface of all the ways we’ll enjoy our time in nature at camp. But it’s a start. So without further ado…
The Joy of Nature
1. Tune in and listen intently to the awesome sound of Crystal Creek gushing after a rainstorm.
2. Cleanse your inner eye as you take in the view of the Alleghany Mountains while you shower.
3. Cast your gaze far and wide while enjoying the expansive view from Vesper Hill.
4. Be lulled to sleep to the pattering sound of rain on the tent flaps some nights.
5. Dream, wish, hope, believe as you star gaze into the deep cosmos with your tent-mates.
6. Slow down, breathe in, and discover the shifting personality of the morning unfold as the fog rolls off the mountains.
7. Swim in it, listen to it, tickle your toes with it, or just take in the serene beauty of the Greenbrier River gently floating, floating, floating…
8. Discover nature’s own band as the crickets chirp in the night.
9. Enjoy our wildlife friends who call camp home year ’round – deer, rabbits, birds, butterflies, and more!
10. Be reminded of the gentleness at the core of life as the merging colors of the end of day pour forth in the beautiful West Virginia sunsets.
11. Relish that precious short window of time at camp where you essentially live outside, more connected to nature than any other time of the year.
Now doesn’t that sound grand? I. Can’t. Wait! Can you?
— Warmly,
Elizabeth Shreckhise, Director, Camp Alleghany for Girls
*If you want to learn more about the merits of sleepaway summer camp, download my FREE e-book, 3 Reasons to Begin Your Child’s Sleepaway Summer Camp Experience Early. It’s a great resource to share with friends, or if you are a first-time camp family and you wonder what sleepaway camp would be like for your child. We’re open this summer — so come join us!
