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Hello everybody!!!! Hope everyone is safe, healthy, and well. It was an awesome 33rd year at CBF. Let’s share some of the great times that we had a camp this year. As the story goes…..
This year not only did we celebrate the thirty-third year of Bright Feathers being around, but it was the start of some new changes. This year we changed our village names to fit more with our theme of feathers at camp. The names of our villages are also connected with nature in that we chose names of birds. Our belief is that we want our campers to grow their wings and fly out into the great big world. They take the knowledge and skills they gained and become great world leaders. We also hope that they can take the core values that they learned and spread them to others to help make the world a better place. Each bird was matched with how we see our campers and the core values that they represent. Canaries (Caring), Blue Jays (Honest ), Owls (Respect), Hawks (Inclusion), LIT (Are still LIT but their mascot is Falcons ( Inclusion), and CIT (Eagles- Responsibility)
Every year we have a theme that runs throughout the week. This year, the theme was The Descendants and the search for the gold feather stone. This wonderful idea came from two of our CIT’s. It started Monday morning when the camp was visited by Belle and the Beast (From the Disney movie Beauty and the Beast). On that fateful morning Maleficent arrived and took the gold feather stone of Bright Feathers and crushed it into 100 gold feathers. Throughout the week different villains, played by some volunteers and YMCA staff, showed up before the meals to put on a short skit and to challenge the campers about the gold feather stone. Finally, on Thursday morning the camp led by the team captains took on the challenges and defeated the Disney villains and with the help of the strength of the Beast they were able to smash the feathers together back into the form of the gold stone.
Along with the theme, Bright Feathers does an all camp colleague that gets hung in the dining hall. This year every camper and volunteer made a clothes pin bird that was attached to two giant bird nests and was hung in the dining hall. At each table, there was a table flag that campers got to decorate and sign and little bird figurines were added to the bases. As per our tradition we had different dinner themes throughout the week. Monday night was dinosaur night, Tuesday was Pot Luck and Wednesday was dress as your favorite entertainer .
Once again, we have achieved our goal of providing that life-changing experience to all of the campers. Besides the typical activities such as swimming, boating, fishing (One of the campers caught a 8 lb. pound bass and it was huge), arts and crafts (It was all very awesome nature themed arts and crafts) , land sports, the challenge course, swamp, horseback riding and of course Mr. Softee. The activities are typically run by the YMCA staff, but volunteers get a chance to shine as well by leading progressive skill activities (basketball, rip the runway, yoga, dance, messy arts, camp games, and boating). Campers sign up for Progressive Skill on Sunday and then the goal for the campers is to get better at that skill as the week goes on. This year we added a choice period for three days. Once again the volunteers shined by running cool activities such as basketball, line dancing, messy arts, rip the run way, wilderness survival, old school camp games such as roof ball, Ga Ga, nine square, volleyball, and flag football..
Each night we had different fun activities. Monday night we played an all camp game of Predator and Prey (It was about elements such as food, water, and minerals). Tuesday night we had campfires with songs, stories, and s’mores. The 13 year old boys and girls went across the lake and had an overnight where they cooked dinner, set up their tents, and had their own fun with their camp fire. Wednesday night we had our annual and incredible talent show put on by our own staff of volunteers and campers. As always it was off the hook. Some of the acts brought thunderous applause and tears because the performances were just incredible.
Tuesday night the CIT’s had a chance to do the zipline that went over the lake at the other camp at night. Thursday night both the LIT’s and CIT’s had an ice cream social at the dining hall.
Due to the weather, the annual LIT/CIT water carnival was moved to Thursday afternoon. Even though the weather was cool and cloudy, the camp came together for the LIT/CIT water Carnival. The teens worked hard all week to design, build, and run various water games. It was so successful that it lasted longer than usual before the camp headed to the all camp swim.
As is the tradition, the camp came together to celebrate the triumphant victory on our special fun day. Thursday night we had a banquet dinner, followed by a celebratory dance with a photo booth. At the camp dance, it was amazing to see all of the campers dancing, playing around, or just hanging out, building those all important relationships. Everybody was signing each other’s shirts, helping each other with putting on glow necklaces or bracelets, or group line dancing. A couple of the CIT’s put on costumes and performed a dance routine that had the whole dance in an uproar. It was fun all around. Seeing big smiles on everybody’s face, loud singing, crazy dancing, and generally a warm fuzzy feeling that I’m sure is not happening back at home was very rewarding. The positivity of the dance was 100 out of 100.
On our last day after we packed and cleaned, we participated in one more choice period, had Mr. Softee, lunch, and then the all important closing activity. It included handing out choice certificates, yearbooks, and the camp slideshow. Then it was time to say goodbye. The amount of tears that flowed from everybody could fill up our lakes. They weren’t just tears of sadness about the end of camp, but the new friends they made, the new memories they created, and all of the attention and love that they received this week that they might not get back at home.
Our volunteers did an amazing job of keeping everyone safe both mentally and physically. They made every child feel like a hero and helped lift up his or her confidence and spirit. The excitement, the energy, the little things that the volunteers provide is way above the job description. To hear them talk about how much the camper has grown from Sunday to Friday and the joy they have when they talk about those campers like they are their own children is incredible. It is amazing to see all of the hard work that was put into camp before the campers arrived by the volunteers. Whether it was to take off work to make meetings, to come to the training sessions, or to take a week off to come volunteer shows you the dedication that they have for camp. We celebrated one of the volunteers for the 22 years that he volunteered at camp. He actually retired last year, but came back to help for two days and at the dance he said that camp is too important to him and that he isn’t retiring but is willing to do part-time next year. This is a gentleman that travels 3 plus hours from New York and is responsible for getting our pizza donations every year for Wednesday dinner. This is the kind of dedication we have at camp. We actually had 2 volunteers from Maryland and one from Texas, besides our Philly and NJ folks.
Another year in the books. Preparation for next year started on the Saturday training before the campers arrived. Year 34 here we come. The planning has already started and the theme will be…. A mystery of some sorts. Happy Trails to you, until we meet again!!!!
We are in the mists of trying to plan the most awesome year of camp that we can for our campers. Parents/guardians please frequently check your email for any information about camp this year. Please contact me if you have any questions roger@ycamp.org. Thank you and we look forward to taking care of your precious children next summer.
Sincerely,
Roger Houghkirk
