The middle week of Term Camp is always my favorite part of the summer. It feels like camp is supposed to, everything is calm, our routines are in place and our campers are beginning to achieve their end-of-term goals both personally and in their activities. We are in our groove!
This Week’s Big Events
Despite this feeling like a calm and settled week at Alleghany, we still had lots going on! Meal hikes, overnights, out-of-camp trips, and fun special events all happened this week!
Starting on Sunday with the Blue/Gray Swim Meet! On the first Sunday of each term, we hold our Blue/Gray Swim Meet where our campers sign up to compete in their chosen stroke for their team. Campers who don’t want to compete have the opportunity to cheer on their fellow teammates or participate in one of our many other special Sunday activities. As with any Blue/Gray Activity, our girls are extra spirited.
On Monday our Leaders-in-Training returned from their Wilderness Trip. They spent 4 days and 3 nights hiking to the top of Spruce Mountain with Experience Learning. Despite facing challenges on their trip they will happily claim the experience as the best one yet this summer! When they returned all of our campers and counselors were so excited to have them back in camp. The Dining Hall is certainly more lively with them back in camp!
Our Senior Campers who take Wild World went on a Caving Trip to Higgenbotham Cave where our Wild World staff lead them on a caving adventure. Caving is one of our most requested out-of-camp trips and all of our campers who went loved the experience!
We can’t forget the 4th of July! Independence Day here at Alleghany is one of the most exciting days of the term. Our campers and counselors dressed up, sang patriotic songs at Assembly, participated in Try Something New in the morning (where campers take two activities they are not signed up for, to try them out), and attended our annual 4th of July Carnival in the afternoon. Carnival began with a Junior Camp parade to our carnival grounds where counselors were waiting at their booths. Some of these booths included a slip and slide, a fortune teller, fairy hair, and a cake walk! After carnival wrapped up, we went to all-camp swim time where we all got in the river to cool down after our fun-filled afternoon. We ended our day with a movie night in the Play Hall, and of course fireworks!
The next day, Alleghany’s LITs traveled out of camp to Ronceverte for their Community Service Day. They met with the Mayor and a few community members, helped clean up and plant in an outdoor space, and heard about plans for the community in which we spend our summers!
Thursday was a special day for Alleghany’s 15-year-old campers. Our 15s had their annual “Day Off” at Blue Bend. They began the day with a trip to Food Lion to get all the snacks and drinks they can eat! Around lunch time, Sam delivered their pizza lunch to them and they spent the day swimming, relaxing, laughing, and bonding.
Friday was an exciting day for our campers as we had Blue and Gray Team meetings, Free Swim, 4-Year celebration, a Midway Lunch Hike, and our LITs visited Camp Twin Creeks. Perhaps the most exciting part of the day was the release of Speak Now, Taylor’s Version (Taylor Swift’s new album). Many of our campers are “Swifties” (Taylor Swift Fans) so in honor of the occasion, we hosted a listening party in our Play Hall at 12 o’clock free time; our campers had a blast hearing her new songs!
The most exciting day of the week was Saturday because after 3 years off, we hosted the much anticipated Camp Greenbrier/Camp Alleghany Dance! This term the Greenbrier boys traveled to Alleghany where they went on a tour, ate dinner and danced with our 12-15-year-old campers. As you can imagine this is a very lively day for our ‘Ghany Girls. I think they are still recovering from the excitement of it all.
How are we Going to Top All of This!?
While it may seem unbelievable, next week holds even more special events and traditions. Even with the looming departure of our First Term Campers, Week Three is filled with memorable moments. We are looking forward to it with anticipation as well as a little sadness as 1st Term seems to be flying by – it’s true time flies when you’re having fun!
